Synopsis
Alice spends her days enslaved on a rural Georgia plantation restlessly yearning for freedom. After a violent clash with plantation owner Paul, Alice flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973.
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Cast
- Keke PalmerAlice
- CommonFrank
- Jonny Lee MillerPaul
- Gaius CharlesJoseph
- Madelon CurtisMrs. Bennett
- Kenneth FarmerMoses
- Natasha Yvette WilliamsRuth
- Jaxon GoldenbergDaniel
- Craig StarkAaron
- Alicia WittRachel
- 80
TheWrap
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. - 80
Screen Daily
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. - 80
We Got This Covered
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. - 70
Variety
The power of the film — and of Palmer’s phenomenal performance — is watching Alice grow into her voice. - 65
Slashfilm
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. - 58
IndieWire
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. - 50
The Hollywood Reporter
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. - 50
The Playlist
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.