Friday, December 24, 2010

Alex in Wonderland (1970)


Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Directed by Paul Mazursky
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Turner Classic Movies)

Donald Sutherland is a maverick young movie director in Hollywood in the late 60s. He's just completed his first film but is struggling to find inspiration for his second. He turns to his own life, including his relationship with his wife and kids, as possible source material. He has wild fantasies inspired by his idol Federico Fellini, possibly fueled by his experimentation with LSD. On a trip to Rome he actually meets Fellini, who is in the editing room working on a film, but all he can think of to ask him is a juvenile question about his favorite food. Later, he meets Jeanne Moreau in a Hollywood bookstore and asks her the same thing, then she breaks into song as they walk together down the street. I liked these little breaks from reality, and the Fellini-inspired fantasies while well-done are more of an imitation than anything else. Overall, it is a dated but interesting look at an artist struggling to find inspiration in commercially-driven Hollywood against a backdrop of the late 60s cultural revolution.

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