review for Alice's Restaurant on AllMovie

Eschewing Hollywood polish, director Arthur Penn's loose narrative and partial use of non-professional actors in this feature meshed with a new youth culture predicated on rejecting convention. Like Penn's Bonnie and Clyde before it, Alice's Restaurant delved into rebellion against the establishment, but Penn keeps an eye on its potential limitations even as Arlo Guthrie and the commune live out its possibilities. The military-industrial complex may not prevail this time, but the communards and their protector are not necessarily any better off. Released the same year as the anti-establishment smash Easy Rider, Alice's Restaurant also became a hit (although not quite of the same magnitude). With its authentic counterculture milieu, down-home style, and narrative mix of drama, music, commentary, and comic satire, the film is at once a time capsule of the late '60s and a more timeless story of youthful idealism and adult compromise.