Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

The movie has been both attacked and defended on feminist grounds, but I think it belongs somewhere outside ideology, maybe in the area of contemporary myth and romance.

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is an American comedy of the sort of vitality that dazzles European film critics and we take for granted. It's full of attachments and associations to very particular times and places, even in the various regional accents of its characters. It's beautifully written (by Robert Getchell) and acted, but it's not especially neatly tailored. [29 Jan 1975]

One of the rare films that genuinely deserve to be called controversial. I think people will really fight about it. It's the story of a woman who has a second chance thrust on her; she knows enough not to make the same mistake again, but she isn't sure of much else. Neither is the movie. Alice is thoroughly enjoyable: funny, absorbing, intelligent even when you don't believe in what's going on--when the issues it raises get all fouled up. [13 Jan 1975, p.74]

Alternating gritty realism and red‑hued fantasy, this is one of those '70s films that wears well, universal in its heart while picking out specifics which are exactly of their time.

While his actors carry the drama to glittering heights of intensity in outbursts of violence, explosions of temper, gushes of tears, Scorsese is unfortunately putting on a camera show of his own, the handheld pursuit of the image lending an exhausting freneticism to what is melodrama enough on its own. [27 Jan 1975, p.64]

[An] effective but uneven work, which chronicles a woman's search for self.

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore takes a group of wellcast film players and largely wastes them on a smaller-than-life film – one of those ‘little people’ dramas that make one despise little people.

Mouais, c'est donc une jeune veuve plus très jeune mais presque qui part sur la route avec le break familial avec son rejeton pré-ado et... comment résumer ça au juste ? disons qu'on dirait Julie Lescaut sauf que ça se passe aux Etats-Unis. C'est super tarte mais aussi très naïf et lorsqu'on apprend qu'il s'agit d'un film de Scorsese, on n'arrive pas à le croire... cela dit, il était encore un débutant et sa filmographie était fort médiocre ou quasi-inexistante... aussi n'est-il pas si étonnant de constater qu'il ait commis un film aussi mauvais et aussi ennuyeux et plat. Il vaut mieux faire comme si cet truc n'était jamais arrivé, il vaut mieux tout ramasser et balayer ce sous-produit sous le tapis : c'est de toute façon tellement mince et tellement insignifiant que ça ne se remarquera même pas...