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Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Romance · Drama · 1974

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.

Movie details

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

“A movie for everyone who has ever dreamed of a second chance.”

1974 Romance · Drama 1h 52m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.3 / 10

28.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

92 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

78 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

7.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

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.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Martin Scorsese

Written by

Robert Getchell

Ellen Burstyn

Ellen Burstyn

Alice Hyatt

Alfred Lutter

Alfred Lutter

Tommy

Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson

David

Harvey Keitel

Harvey Keitel

Ben Eberhardt

Diane Ladd

Diane Ladd

Flo

Lelia Goldoni

Lelia Goldoni

Bea

Billy Green Bush

Billy Green Bush

Donald Hyatt

Court is in session

Put Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.