I have an online database (called "Movie Collector" from Collectorz.com, a Dutch company) where I log all of my DVDs, it pulls down the cast & crew and a cover image and plot summary. Anyway I was adding my latest purchases a couple days ago, and ended up re-reading the entry for "Alex in Wonderland," a 1970 movie by Paul Mazursky which I bought because it's an homage to Fellini. It made me realize I don't have any other Paul Mazursky movies. The review of "Alex" said it was a box office flop and destroyed the credibility Mazursky had gained with his first feature film, "Bob and Carol," which had been a huge hit the year before.
I remembered seeing it at the time, but didn't remember much about it.
Checked my local used movie emporium, and sure enough, they had a copy for cheap.
What a piece of shit. It's an uncomfortable, awkward, forced exploration of sexual mores and the mid-60s trend (largely died out by '69) of sexual exploration. It's full of touchy-feely Esalen mumbo-jumbo which is absolutely taken at face value. Elliott Gould and Robert Culp are hilariously miscast, Natalie Wood is dishy to look at but vacuous and Dyan Cannon looks too old for her part. The acting by everybody does nothing to sell the story.
Which is overwrought and cringe-inducing. The lighting was obtrusively bad. The music was bad. The pacing was all off, and the story had no arc.
A lot of late-60's films were free-wheelin' and devil-may-care -- Putney Swope, Zabriskie Point, Easy Rider, Head, Magical Mystery Tour -- and a lot of them were largely improvised on the spot.
Not Bob and Carol. It was scripted (by Mazursky) to be this bad.
Which come to think of it, is Alex's problem too. Bad pacing, no sense of momentum, long scenes that seem like they belong on the cutting room floor because they really don't work and really don't advance the story.
I'd have to say Paul Mazursky isn't a very good director.
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