Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

tangreat-bk A Martin Scorsese movie with a female lead? Sign me up.This has got to be the funniest film in Scorsese's filmography. I wasn't really expecting it to be. It's not like it's trying to be funny. All the humor grows organically from the characters. And that's the best kind.There are some great scenes in this movie. Loved the opening. I think it really set up the movie. I was hooked throughout. Part of it is due to Ellen Burstyn's is incredible performance. The supporting performances are also good. Harvey Keitel almost steals the scenes in which he is in.This is a sweet movie filled with a heart. But that doesn't mean it's some glossed up version. All the problems Alice faces are real. There are no neat resolutions. There is a little roughness ...a little grittiness.It's an odd film in Marty's filmography. More of this please!

g-bodyl Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is an entertaining, well-respected film created by the legendary Martin Scorsese. Marty opened the eyes of movie-lovers all over the world with his 1973 film, 'Mean Streets." He further opened eyes a year later with this film. Despite the film be entertaining to watch, it also shows the director has better days ahead of him. Through all of cinema history, an issue in Hollywood has always been women and their lack of representation. I think it was a necessary, but bold move for Marty to tackle a film that shows life through a woman's eyes. On the whole, the film smoothly changes between drama and comedy. There are some intense dramatic moments, but there are some laugh-out-loud moments. Especially when it came to the interactions between mother and son.Martin Scorsese's film is about a woman named Alice, who is a housewife. After her abusive husband dies in an accident, Alice embarks on a road trip with her only son to find a better life for themselves. But that is easier said than done. Alice learns many things about life as well that finding love may still exist.The film features many fine performances, with Ellen Burstyn in particular. She does a mighty fine job as Alice, the woman seeking a new life. Her interactions with her son are rather nutty and quite genius. Speaking of which, Alfred Lutter does a good job as her son. He can be annoying sometimes, rather admittedly. Kris Kristofferson does a good job in one of his first roles as a romantic interest of Alice. Finally, I liked Diane Ladd's performance as the waitress co-worker of Alice who gets through lifer with quite an attitude.Overall, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a really good dramedy about searching for meaning in life. It may not be Martin Scorsese's best feature, but he is learning fast. The story and the performances are top-notch, given the very low budget. But sometimes the tone of the film and how it can quickly change takes me out of the film every here and then. But it's a well-written film that delivers consistent performances and now we all know what to expect from a Scorsese film.My Grade: B+

SnoopyStyle Alice Hyatt (Ellen Burstyn) is a long-suffering housewife in New Mexico. However, she is still devastated when her emotionally abusive husband is killed. She decides to sell off everything, pack up the rest and drive to California with her son Tommy. She tries to get singing gigs along the way which she abandoned when she was younger. She sleeps with Ben (Harvey Keitel) but he turns out to be abusive and married. In Tucson, she takes a waitress job in a diner owned by short-order cook Mel (Vic Tayback). Flo (Diane Ladd) and Vera (Valerie Curtin) are the other waitresses. Alice falls for diner customer David (Kris Kristofferson). Tomboy Audrey (Jodie Foster) gets Tommy into trouble.Ellen Burstyn is an amazing actress. She's asked to play a complicated character that grows and changes. She's a meek housewife at the start. She struggles with everything especially her son. She's a tough cookie. The only thing truly missing from her is a good singing voice. This is from Martin Scorsese. Without Harvey Keitel and Jodie Foster, it wouldn't occur to me that he's the director. He's coming off of 'Mean Streets'. This is not about gangsters. It's about a single mom. He does get the lower class grittiness and he leaves the single mom characterization to Burstyn. Diane Ladd is also terrific as the loud-mouth Flo. The plot does meander like Alice's journey. The shooting is documentary style. It's not surprising that the diner turns into a TV show. It's filled with possibilities. It may have been more compelling to get there sooner.

bigverybadtom The movie's first scene shows Alice as a little girl in a parody scene of a musical, where she sings a song out of tune and yet thinks she can make it as a professional. Years later, she is a married housewife with a scary (if not abusive) husband and a badly-behaving 11-year-old boy, and has had a brief singing career. But Alice is devastated when her husband is killed in a truck accident, and she sells her furniture and home and moves to another city with her son, with plans to live in a motel with her son while working with the idea of saving enough money to eventually move back to Monterrey, California, where she had been happy.But things do not go as intended. She meets a man at the place where she has gotten a job as a singer-only to find him a married man, and a violent thug to boot, so she abruptly flees to another city. She cannot find a singing job, so she has to take a waitress job at a diner, which she hates. She is also constantly fighting with her son, who is flippant and disrespectful. She meets another man who definitely has no other wife-but is he a prize? And has Alice been fair to the people around her, who have problems of their own, or has she been too self-centered all along? As the movie reaches the end, she finds herself questioning everything. The man has hit her son, but was that brutality-or did the son, with all his rudeness, genuinely deserve it? Could this man really be a match for her after all? With a child to take care of, is her dream of being a professional singer really important? Then why did she have a husband and son to begin with? These and other questions are asked by the movie's conclusion.