Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) is a drama directed by Martin Scorsese — watch it online on iFILM. Ellen Burstyn plays Alice Hyatt, a woman from a small New Mexico town who once had a voice and a dream of singing professionally. Her husband dies without warning. She is left with no money and a ten-year-old son, Tommy, who talks back constantly and means every word.

Alice packs the car and heads for Monterey, where she sang in a bar years ago and where some version of her old self still exists. Arizona stops her first: money runs out in Tucson, and she ends up waitressing at a roadside diner. A farmer named David (Kris Kristofferson) comes in one day and keeps coming back. Harvey Keitel appears in an early role; Jodie Foster is there too, already magnetic.

Scorsese made this between Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, and it stands apart from both — quieter, funnier, and centered entirely on a woman's stubborn refusal to give up on herself. Burstyn won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Stream Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) in full on iFILM.