The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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!

This is the foundation for the TV show, Alice. This is a much more complex study in characters under stress. Alice is trying to do what is good for her son, even though he is a fragile ego, unable to cope very well with their peripatetic ways. She does everything she can but this is a good study of the forces that come into play when a single woman tries to take it on the road with a child. We get to meet the whole range of characters. The gregarious Flo and Mel (Vic Tayback who reprised the role on television), as well as a set of interesting customers and acquaintances. While she tries to find love it evades her. This movie is not earth shatteringly complex, but it does give us some memorable moments.

Martin Scorsese's fourth feature, a rare anomaly in his oeuvre where a female protagonist is at the helm of the entire story, since maestro can be addressed as anything but a woman's director, but in fact, it is an Ellen Burstyn's star-vehicle, and Scorsese was the young talent being picked by her personally for the project, it won Burstyn an Oscar, a hard-earned victory over Gena Rowlands in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, in hindsight.Burstyn plays our titular heroine, Alice Hyatt, a housewife in New Mexico, trapped in a fraught marriage with his offish husband Donald (Bush), who will soon bite the dust and once he is out of the picture, the newly-widowed Alice decides to pick up her old passion to be a lounge singer to sustain the family, and brings their 11-year-old son Tommy (Lutter), to her hometown Monterey, California, to restart her long-abandoned career and at the same time, earns some money en route.The first stop is in Phoenix, Arizona, Alice is fortuitous enough to find a job in a local bar in the first day of her arrival, but an ill-fated romance with a testy nut-case Ben (Keitel), which halts suddenly in a violent episode, forces them to flee the town as soon as possible, here, Scorsese's regular Keitel, chews the scenery with another love-it-or-hate-it explosion which can be categorically repulsive to watch.The next stop is Tucson, where Alice accepts the job as a waitress in a local greasy spoon owned by Mel (Tayback), where she befriends a brusque fellow waitress Flo (Ladd, whose accessibly flamboyant turn wins her a first Oscar nomination), and encounters a divorced rancher David (Kristofferson), this time, it seems that she finds the right man (after a rambunctious interlude concerns their difference on her method of raising a child), but what about her original plan in her hometown, should she give it up or stick to her dream?Ellen Burstyn wondrously shows her chameleonic facades to unpick Alice's emotions and reactions in a full gamut, also nails the singing and piano-playing parts, her voice is unadorned, far from impressive, but pulses with a feeble quality which very much appropriate for Alice's lot. Alice's relationship with Tommy, is the most contentious takeaway of the film, it seems that their spontaneous dynamism which makes them interact more like friends than a mother and her son, creates many hearty moment with great comic response, but in the third act, when the overstatement of Tommy's spoilt nature is tapped as the ultimate igniter of the fall-out between Alice and David, it is totally at the expense of Tommy's characterisation, although Alfred Lutter III's naturalistic performance is gold, his Tommy turns out to be an utter brat, self-centred, petulant and annoying, so what is the point? One can only blame his upbringing, which must be Alice's fault, she spoils her son, and almost ravages a perfect relationship, but on the other hand, David, under his charming and avuncular miens, he is an abandoner at the first place, that's my major beef about the otherwise pretty scintillating script.The film starts with a sound-stage gambit, a homage to the old-time big studio production in its heyday, and apart from Scorsese's immaculate taste in music, his consistently fluid camera movement promises that he is more than just a hack-for-hire in the cutting-edge business, he is willing to go out on a limb if he is given the right material, and two years later, he would take audience's breath away with TAXI DRIVER (1976).

Early On, in His Illustrious Career Director Martin Scorsese Made this Timely Female Move, Ironically Fitted Between Two of His Most Macho, Mean Streets (1973) and Taxi Driver (1976). What will be Known Later is No Surprise that He Nailed it, Because Scorsese is a Great Filmmaker.His Love for Cinema is Evident from the Opening Homages to Hollywood's Dream Factory Past and Continues with Personal Flourishes Throughout, Popular Rock Tunes on the Soundtrack and a Neatly Nervous Camera Moving About.Yes, it is Ellen Burstyn's Film but it is Framed in Scorsese's Artsy Way and the Two Combined for an Unforgettable and Timeless Movie. Burstyn Won the Oscar and Scorsese was a Voice to be Reckoned With. Along with a Great Supporting Cast, Diane Ladd Also Took Home a Statue, the Film Today Does Not Feel a Bit Dated. It is an Amusing, Heartfelt, and Dramatic Movie that Can Inspire and Entertain. Highly Recommended for Scorsese Fans to See What the Director Could Do in His Youth Against Type and for Anyone with a Feel for Women and Their Struggle in a Man's World.Note...Inspired the TV Sitcom Alice.