Alex in Wonderland

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dave s Clearly inspired by Federico Fellini's 8 ½, Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland is an ambitious but deeply flawed movie about artistic ambition. Having completed his first feature film, Alex Morrison (Donald Sutherland) is desperate to find material as a follow-up to the anticipated success of his debut. While the idea isn't anything new, the movie works to a certain degree thanks to the performance of Sutherland who, early in his career, proves that he has some acting chops. Unfortunately, the sound in the movie is atrocious as some of the exterior dialogue is difficult to follow thanks to traffic noise and other factors and many of the interior shots are equally problematic due to echoing in the rooms. Furthermore, many scenes add nothing to the story or the development of the characters, rendering them pointless. As a footnote, it was nice to see cameos by Fellini and Jeanne Moreau, both playing themselves in small roles. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Aldo G Trippy tribute to Federico Fellini by director Paul Mazursky and actor Donald Sutherland. A hippy, husband, dad, and director (Sutherland) navigates through life and career with fantasy scenes added for punctuation. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/05/23 Full Review delysid d man what a hunk o junk Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 09/20/20 Full Review Audience Member Ok at best and sutherland is just grungy to look at with that beard and nasty early 70' haircut. Rated 1/5 Stars •  Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Boy, this is unendingly self indulgent, with scenes that vary from incredibly questionable to total comedic brilliance, but at the end of the day I think it just manages to come out on top. Every time you think this movie goes too far, it manages to flicker a light of self-awareness that undercuts its previous discretions. The movie treats us the same way Alex treats his wife - it lashes out and then apologizes and then makes us laugh and then lashes out again. When it's funny it's outstanding, I laughed out loud as much as I cringed. I almost want to cut another version of this movie with just the satirical bits. When it got sexist, it apologized through pointed commentary via Ellen Burstyn's character. Where it got White Knight about race, it gave us a bunch of lily white school children putting on a play about "we the people of South Africa..." So at the end of the day it largely balanced out for me. Though I will say one place where it is super dated is in its use of completely unnecessary, casual female nudity. Re: the way too over the top beach naive-white-man fantasy scene and Burstyn getting dressed on screen for literally no reason. But that comes with the territory so I guess whatever. Oh and questionable parenting in some scenes but hey, who am I to uh...judge...errrr... though even that was half addressed in the scene where Alex rails against "square parenting," just before both of his kids show up with ho hos and turn the TV on. For a meandering movie about a man who can't make a decision to save his life, Alex in Wonderland strangely comes together. Though maybe in the loosest sense of the word as it ends rather vaguely with Donald Sutherland wandering around his empty house having just sold it (ugh why it was great), implying he does eventually figure something out, enough to make some money to move to a bigger and better home. Shout outs to Fellini hilariously as himself, Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn absolutely nailing it all around, the goddamn amazing wardrobe for Sutherland, and Mazursky casting himself as the creepy Hollywood producer he obviously can't stand (with the great visual parallels between his wardrobe and hair vs Sutherland playing him). Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Audience Member After the success of Bob Carol Ted and Alice ,Director Paul Mazursky and producer Larry Tucker were stumped with what to do next. So why not make a film about making a follow up movie and in the mix pay tribute to the ultimate film about a block Fellini's masterpiece 8 1/2. Donald Sutherland plays Alex Morrison a new director who has a lot of buzz surrounding his first film, while he waits for that film to be seen Alex fret over what to do next. What follows is an interesting dilemma piece crammed full of references to 8 1/2 the most obvious being the casting of Fellini himself who is approached by Alex while he is editing his latest film. Sutherland is great as Alex and Ellen Burstyn is equally fine as his put upon wife. Mazursky has a very funny cameo as an overexcited producer and the film has lots of fun playing the old one for the studio one for yourself system of making films which was rapidly changing with the release of Easy Rider . Its also amusing to think that while Mazursky was making this film Robert Altman was making Brewster McLoud for the very same studio . Which shows again how interesting 70s films really where. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/23/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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