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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

December. 09,1974
|
7.3
|
PG
| Drama Comedy Romance

After her husband dies, Alice and her son, Tommy, leave their small New Mexico town for California, where Alice hopes to make a new life for herself as a singer. Money problems force them to settle in Arizona instead, where Alice takes a job as waitress in a small diner.

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Perry Kate
1974/12/09

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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BelSports
1974/12/10

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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Ava-Grace Willis
1974/12/11

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

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Matho
1974/12/12

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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Danny Blankenship
1974/12/13

Finally watched "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" after many years and it's a stand up and standout performance from Ellen Burstyn as the film is a showcase of journey proving that life is a travel on the road in the form of change and meeting new people opening up new chances.Alice(Burstyn)is a mother with a young boy named Tommy and after the sudden and unexpected death of her husband Don(Billy Green Bush)she starts a new life as Alice begins a trip from New Mexico across the west to go back to her birth state of California to start a new life.Along the way plenty of things are a spin and twist like Alice having a relationship with a younger man that doesn't work. Speaking of work the only thing she can get is jobs of being a waitress. Yet thru it all it's her dream and hope of being a singer that moves her to survive and live on.Overall good road journey film of life it proves it's tough and one must stand up and battle and face their journey head on and that's just what the Alice character did, and plus it was an A+ performance from Ellen Burstyn.

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bkoganbing
1974/12/14

I had never seen Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More, but I had seen the Alice TV series which was taken from this film. If you think you're going to see a lot of situation comedy here, disabuse yourself of that notion. This original film is as serious as a crutch about a recently widowed woman Ellen Burstyn trying to both raise her adolescent son and find her own fulfillment. Part of Burstyn's identification is that she was named after her mother's favorite film star Alice Faye and has aspirations as a singer. But when we meet her she's settled down in her marriage to probably not the greatest catch in the world in Billy Green Bush and their son Alfred Lutter,III. They live pretty much paycheck to paycheck.But when Bush is killed in an automobile accident, Burstyn wants to move from Socorro, New Mexico back to Monterey, California where she grew up and where she felt truly happy. So they take to the road and the story really starts from there.Ellen Burstyn got her career role and a Best Actress Oscar for this film. It's one multi-layered performance, especially in her scenes with Lutter whose hormones are starting to kick in and he's a handful. She gets into a bad relationship while lingering in Phoenix with a married man whom she didn't know was married. Her scenes with Lane Bradbury as the wife and the psychotic Harvey Keitel when she learns what a violent psychotic he is are devoid of dialog for the most part on Burstyn's part. But her expressions contain so much meaning. Keitel should be commended for his performance here also.In fact after both Bush and Keitel, Burstyn's understandably gun shy when she meets rancher Kris Kristofferson. Is Kristofferson the real deal or is Burstyn just afraid? And how will young Mr. Lutter factor in? For that you need and should watch Alice Doesn't Live Her Any More.The film also got Oscar nominations for Robert Getchell's original story and screenplay and for Diane Ladd as her fellow server at Mel's Diner in Tucson. Ladd's is not the comic performance from the Alice TV series that Polly Holiday was. But she's been around the block a few times and has some sage advice for all who listen. Vic Tayback is the only member of the film cast to repeat his role in the TV series. His Melvin Sharples is subdued here, he really gets to shine on the small screen.Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More was directed by Martin Scorsese and is a timeless film. Absolutely could be remade today and try to figure out who could play these parts with today's players.

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LuvSopr
1974/12/15

This film was a rarity for the time in that it focused exclusively on a woman's point of view - a woman who is attractive, but not a bombshell, a woman who is flawed while still being a decent person, a woman who has no idea how to raise her mixed-up son, but does her best, a woman who has the same harmless delusions we all have, a woman who has been so constrained by society's idea of happiness, but still can't resist wanting to find love and fulfillment with men. The next year, Ellen Burstyn, who won a well-deserved Oscar for her work in the role, would go on television complaining about the nominees for Best Actress, stating that they were supporting roles in a lead category. Last year, Diane Ladd, so superb as Flo and in many other roles, criticized the Academy for putting lead actresses in supporting roles. Sadly, if anything never changes in Hollywood, it's poor material for women. Scorsese made sure viewers knew ADLHA was not a "soap opera" (even though both Ellen Burstyn, via her old name, and Diane Ladd both cut their teeth in daytime drama before moving to Hollywood), but the core is not far off the best of what soaps used to be - an exploration of the life of a "normal" woman, her day-to-day struggles, her haunted psyche, and her search for a better life. As soaps no longer have any interest in this type of woman (yet another reason they have faded into irrelevance), it's up to movies like this to live on.What to make of Alice herself? While the opening scene gets it a little wrong in its attempt to shock us (a fake-Hollywood, Wizard-of-Oz-esque backdrop with a little girl who curses to remind us this is no fairy tale), the next scenes strongly establish what makes Alice such a refreshing character, how she is the everyday woman, a Socorro housewife, who is torn between wanting more for herself and barely managing to even cope with what she has. The scene where, after Tommy goads her husband into yet another outburst, she flings the doors of her dining room open and shouts, "Socorro sucks!," is a real shock to the system, yet it makes you laugh, and feel relieved. You're reminded that even if this isn't real life, you know Alice, and you care about her. You see her tease Tommy, who is about to implode from a father he both loves and hates. You see her banter with her best friend (another reflection of soap operas), a woman who, in a poignant moment before the departure for Phoenix, she realizes she will likely never have contact with again. While Alice, in a sense, is stuck in hell, the movie doesn't completely demonize her husband, doesn't make him a faceless droid of the liberation movement - he tries, but he's utterly helpless to understand his wife. The moment where she casually says she'd be better off without and then learns of his death, crying out, "God forgive me," is one of the film's most harrowing.ADLHA has a harder edge than the sitcom it spawned in many ways - Tommy is a real brat, and not a TV-cute brat (likely why he was replaced so quickly on the sitcom), and rather than characters like Vera being dizzy but heartwarming creatures Alice takes into her heart, she's a space cadet, one, in an unpleasant but realistic enough scene, is openly laughed at (along with her father) by our noble heroine. And Diane Ladd's Flo is just a bit less heartwarming, a bit coarser than her TV version (superbly played by Polly Holliday). You get a warm welcome from her, but you are also on guard, as Alice is. One of the film's best moments is when an overwhelmed Flo spews profanity at the diner patrons, and Alice, astonished, convulses into raucous laughter that Flo initially mistakes as sobbing. From then on, they're firm friends. Only Vic Tayback, basically playing a Mel who can say blue language, closely resembles his TV counterpart.Ironically, the sitcom gets one thing right that, for me, always keeps this film from being what it could have been, in that it scraps the relationship between Alice and David, and focuses more on her relationships with the women at the diner. While everything about Alice and David makes "sense," and I respect Scorsese and Burstyn for not bowing to the idea that a woman must be alone to be strong (as Pauline Kael said about the ending of An Unmarried Woman, who could believe anyone wouldn't go away with Alan Bates???), David feels like he is from another movie, and I never can invest in the chemistry between Kristofferson and Burstyn. Jodie Foster, on the verge of stardom, pops up as a friend for Tommy. She also feels like she's from another movie, and is an odd mix with Tommy, although the scene where (after his mother kicks him out of the car for being mouthy and hostile) he tracks her down and they get drunk is pretty good. In terms of romantic attachments, Alice - and the film - peak during far her brief turn with Harvey Keitel, who plays a charmer she knows is not going to be good for her, but has no idea just how bad he will turn out to be. Indeed, this portion of the movie - when she and Tommy are at their most broken and desperate, fleeing the hotel with every possession they own - is viscerally good, and is the part of the film that always stays with me most. So, while certain parts of the movie make it what it is for me, it's still a very good, very unique, very modern film throughout. Give it a try.

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preppy-3
1974/12/16

Widowed mother Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn) sets off on the road to find a living for her and her son, 11 year old Tommy (Alfred Lutter). She ends up in Tucson AZ and gets a job as a waitress in a diner. There she meets David (Kris Kristofferson) and falls in love with him. But is he what she wants or needs? An excellent comedy drama about a woman trying to find herself and what to do after her husband dies. Burstyn (in an Oscar winning performance) is just perfect in the role. You see her struggling and wondering what she wants. Also Lutter is her son and he's not ignored. You also see him struggling to fit in and fall in with the wrong person--Audrey (played by a VERY young Jodie Foster). The script is fantastic full of sharp observations on love, life and sex. There are also plenty of genuinely funny one-liners to lighten the mood. All the acting is great too. I never thought Kristofferson was much of an actor but I like him here. Also Diane Ladd is great (and also Oscar nominated) as Flo--another waitress. There's also a ridiculously youthful-looking Harvey Kietel in a small role. This is a great film. It does end rather conventionally (it seems Alice and David will end up together) but that's a small complaint.This led to the long-running sitcom "Alice" which was MUCH different in tone. Only Vic Tayback recreated his role for the series and later Ladd came back as Flo also. It's still hard to believe that Martin Scorsese did this. Recommended.

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