MOVIECLUB #1 - Due Monday 3/30: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

I finally made time to watch this.... 5/10

My general observations:
1) Alice is supposed to be in her mid 30s, but she talks like a 50 year old. Made it really hard to take her seriously.
2) You people aren't allowed to question my disdain for children after this movie. It illustrates my reasons quite well.
3) Jodie Foster was by far the most interesting character in the entire movie.
4) Why is every man in the movie bipolar? And abusive?
5) I get that this is supposed to be a very emotional struggle toward independence for Alice, but she isn't even remotely likable as a character, so by the end I was hoping for her to get fired, dumped, and mess up her kid (more than he is already) ending in a weeping ball of shame.
6) So that opening scene was totally disjointed from the rest of the movie, I honestly thought it was going to have some psychotic plot line after that with her having evil multiple personalities.

glad we got responses ranging the full spectrum.. here's a blurb that might be helpful, Becs:

"In a published interview (AFI Dialogue on Film, April, l975), Martin Scorsese, the director, says that the picture is not about Alice and her career [or her love life], but rather it is concerned with certain real characters living in confusion. For this reason, the picture ends with Alice and [her son] on the verge of a total mutual understanding, a necessary preliminary to their successful coping with the world’s chaos. The success of the mother-son relationship is the whole point of the film, [Kris Kristofferson] being just another guy along the way."

Now, I don't usually like citing what artists have to say about their own work after it has already been consumed by the general public--because, oftentimes, the artists themselves are the most unreliable sources of information when attempting to explicate the art itself. Artists tend to become unrepentant revisionists in light of critical and popular responses to their work. In fact, for that very reason, I'd usually trust an educated critic for insight considering art over the artist him- or herself.

BUT, in this case, I think Scorsese is being legit. And we can honestly apply what he's saying to the film itself. Personally, as I watched this movie, my focus was almost entirely on the mother-son relationship. Everything else (her singing career, her job in the diner, the men she encounters) was on the sidelines for me. These were all things that the protagonist would realistically be dealing with, yes, but not the focal point of the story being told.

In my original response, I almost went as far as to mention that perhaps the only people that would "get" this movie are women who are mothers and men who had a close relationship with their own mother. Not to imply that people not fitting this description would be incapable of understanding the movie--but they might struggle to find a locus within the story itself. The mother-son relationship aside, the movie is an utter mess. But, if Scorsese's words are to be believed, that's kind of the idea.

Anyone watching Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore looking for a satisfying story of romance, or a tale of a woman struggling her way to "the top," or--most importantly--an account of a strong, independent, "feminist" icon, is going to be sorely disappointed.

None of this will likely change your opinion of the movie, Becs, but perhaps it helps explain why both of our responses are valid. You know, without one of us simply being cuckoo.

See I didn't see any real progress in the mother-son relationship at all, which is what left me with the opinion that it was solely focused on her personal growth.
Either way I see the directing genius, I just don't think the story itself or the characters really warranted it or utilized it to its best.

Okay I finally got my netflix account and I was able to watch this on instant viewing. Sorry to be late.

I know I'm last to reply here so most people may not care, but it seems everyone has praised this movie so maybe that why I'm here to counter the praise. I just finished it, so it's still very fresh in my mind but on a list of great movies, you will not find Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. It's was okay, I understood the movie just fine, it's just not that great of a movie.

Music was classic Scorsese, I loved that the movie took place on location in Nex Mexico at the beginning. Because it was suppose to be depressing and New Mexico just comes off as a depressing place to live, especially in the sevenites. I would love to find out what the inspiration was for the writing of this movie, but to me it just feels like this is a movie written by a man and directed like a man. The women acted so typical to women and as classic scorsese men go they were to the extreme with hot tempers. Do men really act this way, or at least in the seventies. I mean I never do, nor do I know anyone who does. They seemed like dumb men who had anger issues. I understood that Alice was a bit deperate and needed any man to take care of her and her son, but jeez, was there no half way decent men.

I though Ellen was great, I loved her in Requiem for a Dream and The Exorcist but I don't think I've seen her in much else, so that was nice. I loved her line to Tommy "Don't worry about the mule going blind." I have to use that line sometime.

This movie was heartwrenching and I know it was meant to be but not in a beautiful way, more in a gross way. American Beauty is a heartwrenching movie but it's funny so it's makes it enjoyable. I didn't think this movie was very funny at all. I know Nspan said in his review that the comedy was great mixed with drama but I didn't see it. I thought the retard waitress part was weird and bizzare and not funny. I didn't get her. Anyway I'd give this movie a 6 and I won't over praise it just because Martin directed it.

I do in the end give props to Ellen, she was fantastic, Kris K. was also good, but pretty much played the same kind of role he always does.

interesting perspective--and points well made..

people have called this Scorsese's "studio picture" or said that he simply took the job for the money (mostly true), but i don't think anyone who has seen the movie would say that he "half-assed" it.. he wasn't simply going through the motions waiting for that paycheck.. he embraced the project and attempted to make the best movie he could out of it.. in my opinion, he succeeded..

either way, it's definitely interesting to see what Marty was up to between Mean Streets and Taxi Driver.. even though Alice sticks out like a sore thumb between those movies, i think you can actually chart his progression as a director (and as an auteur) through the three

Yes I think it was a great movie to watch to add feeling for the director. I'm glad I watched it for sure and I wouldn't take that back.