Il mondo di Alex

I'm very fond of films made from the late 1960s through the mid 1970s for their experimental attempts to get beyond genre conventions. I had fully expected "Alex in Wonderland" to be an overlooked psychedelic gem. While the film does have some amazing hallucinatory set-pieces (the most elaborate, a violent war in Hollywood with soldiers firing into a crowd while 2 men in top hats and tails dance on a flaming station wagon to the tune "Hooray for Hollywood"), most of the action is plodding. Donald Sutherland as Alex, goes off on many travels and tangents to entertain ideas for his next directorial effort. None of the episodic scenes build on each other and aside for gloriously lensed shots (by Laszló Kovács) of Sutherland in full hippie regalia walking introspectively in a variety of locations, there is little cumulative insight.

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.

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.

Alex in Wonderland is a great movie. As usual there are users on IMDb who are dissing this movie, telling: ooh, this is the worst D. Sutherland movie, it's so boring, this is not actually a movie (sic!)more short scenes bla bla bla...that's normal. They have a different taste, they've expected something else, who knows....some familiar people were dissing lot of other great directors, you know the ones which were categorized as unconventional, as if movies should been made conventional and well structured including dramaturgish suspense romance and being thrilling also and having "well written screenplayed executived characters"...or: they're knowledge in movies could fill a regular bean halfway....

Alex in Wonderland is a near to life movie. I've found myself in some scenes or better, my thoughts. D. Sutherland is bombing in his role playing really deep. He is a long-haired, bearded, free -soul director, who's trying to find a subject for his next movie...and then a lot of funny & strange things are taking place...(what a plot description)

It's a movie for your brain & eyes, it's colorful and chilling and warm and intimate and surreal and sad...and it also leaves room for your own thoughts.

For all you cine-dudes and D. Sutherland fans give this gem a try. (You can also catch it on TCM)

And don't give this dumb user any importance who was saying "And what's with the "pedofile" scene at the beginning of the movie"...What a jerking doh-doh! In this particularly scene Alex Morrison takes a bath with his child. Which loving father or mother on this holy earth wouldn't take a bath with their own beloved child...If you call that a "pedofile" scene, then there is no hope for you fella, you're just sick & rotten....you're head is empty.

This is definately not for everybody. I found this really interesting and since I started combining forces of cable TV with IMDB I discover really nice films. After all THERE ARE nice, different & interesting american films, even in the seventies!

Anyway, this movie is not for people who like one-dimentional films. This is both serious and funny, both tragic and amusing. Even if its not too slow, it won't appeal to those who like it fast.

Basicly it's about an intelligent director who is starting to lose it a bit. This is depicted in a most realistic way. I dont know what it has in common with Fellini's 8-IN-1, as I havent seen it. Anyway ALEX IN WONDERLAND implies a straight effect of 8-IN-1 on it.

The dialog is the strongest about this one and people on stupid action films or those who dont like a dialog based flick wont find anything in this one.