Alice
Vertical Entertainment | Release Date: March 18, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
6
Mixed:
9
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrJan 28, 2022
In many ways, Alice feels like a film looking to inform as well as entertain, by exploring the evolution of Black identity with unflinching honesty. Read full review
80
Screen DailyNikki BaughanJan 26, 2022
Like her Lewis Carroll namesake, the protagonist of writer/director Krystin Ver Linden’s bold and enlightening feature debut hurtles down a rabbit hole — but the alternative reality in which she finds herself is certainly no fairy tale. Read full review
80
TheWrapDan CallahanJan 25, 2022
Ver Linden never goes the commercial route here with her high-concept idea. Like Palmer, she stays true to her goal but does give the audience several satisfying moments that call for applause. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayMar 17, 2022
Even when Alice doesn’t work, it remains gripping. Ver Linden underdevelops her “what if” scenario, but thanks in large part to Palmer the film is a fascinating character study. Read full review
70
VarietyAmy NicholsonJan 25, 2022
The power of the film — and of Palmer’s phenomenal performance — is watching Alice grow into her voice. Read full review
65
SlashfilmBen PearsonJan 25, 2022
Palmer's performance, disjointed though it may be because of the script, is solid in each individual time period, and though the movie speeds too quickly across the finish line after taking way too long to get revved up, its metaphors and parallels to the struggles of today are effectively drawn. Read full review
58
Original-CinJim SlotekMar 14, 2022
An undercooked ‘70s-style blaxploitation revenge fantasy with a reverse-Shyamalan plot (the “twist” is up front), Alice is an objectively bad movie wrapped around one great, all-in performance. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandJan 25, 2022
Ver Linden’s film may play out mostly in a straight-forward chronology, but that choice doesn’t do “Alice” (or Alice) any favors, expecting major revelations and revolutions to happen in the exact minimum of time. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiMar 17, 2022
Alice stitches together an intriguing premise, but ends up weaker than the sum of its parts. Read full review
50
Washington PostPat PaduaMar 16, 2022
It’s a fantastic idea, but the execution is inconsistent. Alice, the movie, dares to go through the looking glass, but it doesn’t entirely know what to do once it gets there. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 25, 2022
The queasy mix of realism and wish-fulfillment will set many viewers’ heads spinning, or at least shaking with disappointment, in this well-intentioned but unpromising debut. Read full review
50
The PlaylistRobert DanielsJan 25, 2022
Linden offers a fascinating premise, but her visual language doesn’t catch the eye, and the potential excitement to be mined from translating Blaxploitation motifs for modern-day audiences is missing. “Alice” could’ve been so much more, but instead, it comes off like a lost opportunity. Read full review
42
The Film StageMitchell BeaupreFeb 3, 2022
Though Alice is bringing up a part of American history sadly under-discussed, and not present anywhere in high school history textbooks the way it should be, it struggles to find a voice, never able to capture the right rhythm to bring itself to life. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBeandrea JulyMar 17, 2022
Ver Linden wants us to view Alice as an empowered freedom fighter. Instead she lands as a caricature of one, as the film never really metabolizes or unpacks its conceit: the bonkers time-traveling predicament of its protagonist. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 25, 2022
Palmer is fantastic in a film that needed more depth and time for Alice to acclimate to her surroundings. Without that, it leaves Alice’s realism and emotional core lacking as it veers wildly into one-note chaos. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackMar 20, 2022
Ver Linden has the potential to twist and upend expectations – to play with genre and character in a way that reworks and remixes both film history and storytelling. Instead, she spends the majority of her film’s runtime vaguely approaching those intentions rather than actually materializing them. It is a tiring series of runarounds that viewers will lose patience for. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 17, 2022
Despite Palmer’s investment in the title role, there’s little more to add about Alice except that it shows up two years too late, even less logical, and a lot of budget dollars short of “Antebellum." Read full review
12
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJan 25, 2022
Alice plays as an inadvertent parody of contemporary liberalism’s fascination with and fetishization of ‘70s black radicalism. Read full review
0
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonMar 18, 2022
If this film were a person, it would tell you it had a Black friend and voted for Obama twice. That’s how insultingly simplistic it is about race. Read full review
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