Alex in Wonderland

i saw this for the first time last night and thought it was fantastic - the best Mazursky movie i've seen (by far). i come here and find it has a 5.0 and most people hate it... strange. must have hit me at the right moment. i've been interested in seeing it for 20 years - glad i didn't until now.

yes, portions are derivative and pretentious, but Sutherland's incredibly likable and the film has a free and easy feel reminding me of a kind of urban easy rider. it's more of a long poem than a standard movie.

the sequence at Mazursky's office is amazing.

It is so blatantly obvious that Mazursky is gently parodying the self righteousness of the hippie movement. When discussing the black uprising movie, it's the black dude who tells him it's a rotten idea. In a more stern observation, his wife is clearly upset and his family life is clearly hitting the skids and he goes on about an acid trip he and his friend took. His wife makes the incredibly accurate observation that he wants her to do what he wants her to do not what she wants to do.

Look I fly a little to the left of the left wing but to blather on about Hollywood being left wing when they want nothing more than to do movies where "things blow up real good" is kind of ridiculous.

The movie is good. It's not great. But it is a keen and well observed characterization of a creative man who is trying to keep his personal and creative life together and vibrant but falls prey to his own self doubts.

Alex in Wonderland (1970)

** (out of 4)

Paul Mazursky's second feature has pretty much been forgotten about. It centers on a film director (Donald Sutherland) who scores a hit with his first film and is now struggling to make a follow-up. He has several people pitching him ideas but the director is wanting to do something personal and a film that has something to say. ALEX IN WONDERLAND is pretty much a hippie version of 8 1/2 and I guess it should come as no shock that the highlight of this picture is a cameo by Federico Fellini who plays himself. I think it's pretty obvious that Mazursky was basing this film around his own life since he had just scored his first hit the previous year and I guess this was his attempt to tell people that he wanted to say something important. Self indulgent is something that films get called whenever they try to be smart or pretend they have something to say. Well, sometimes films do have things to say and they come across as a piece of art. When film's say dumb things they become self indulgent, which is exactly what this film is. There are just so many problems with this thing but the biggest one is that we really don't care about the director, his films or his vision of what his films should be about. Nothing that he says is all that interesting and especially when he constantly asks people if they were on an island what three foods would they want. Is that really your great vision? Sutherland gives a good performance in the lead but he really doesn't have to do very much. He pretty much just hides behind his long hair and talks about race or various movie stars. Ellen Burstyn plays his wife and does a nice job but the role doesn't give her too much to do. Besides the Fellini cameo we get another one with Jeanne Moreau, which is strange to say the least. ALEX IN WONDERLAND starts off somewhat entertaining but the more it tries to say something the more boring it gets.

.....because I have fond memories around it. Yes...it is so very dated. But I remember the tender relationship Sutherland's character had with his family, his wife and two daughters, in this movie. I also remember how entranced I was with Donald Sutherland - the actor. He was so charming. This was the first movie I ever saw with him and the first movie I ever saw in the theater without my parents. It was the first time I was able to go to the movies with friends only, and what a time we had. All five of us silly, giggly, girls....and we couldn't take our eyes off of "THE Donald". So when you watch this movie now on cable or DVD, see NOT a movie of no value, but of a wonderful fantasy vehicle that five little girls took one Saturday afternoon in 1970. What a memory!

Paul Mazursky co-wrote and directed this self-indulgent, though rarely boring, chronicle of an emerging movie director's quest to find a relevant, honest subject for his second picture. With reality and fantasy intermingling (often with a heavy hand), Mazursky is able to try out different filmmaking styles and techniques--some bold and some pretentious. This approach turns the picture into a series of vignettes, not all of which hold together, however there are wonderful individual moments amongst the dross. Donald Sutherland has a magical chance meeting with Jeanne Moreau in front of a book store, and there's an elaborate, surreal scene of war on Hollywood Boulevard (as seen through the jaundiced eye of a movie camera). A prickly bit of overstated authority on the U.S./Mexico border (with Sutherland singled out possibly because of his long hair and beard) is still topical today, however the circus folk and hippie longueurs probably looked embarrassing and dated only a year or so after the movie was released. An excursion to Rome seems included only to get a Federico Fellini cameo in the movie (Mazursky emulates Fellini's "8½" throughout, however the director's bit part is a gambit that fails to pay off). Everyday scenes of family life (house hunting, grocery shopping, etc.) are handled far too lackadaisically, although the depiction of Hollywood, California circa 1970 (wherein the Old Regime has been replaced with the avant garde New Wave) has a pointed preciseness which makes "Alex in Wonderland" an occasionally bracing document of its era. ** from ****