Encounter groups, terrible late-'60s clothes, bare breasts (though not the leading ladies'), wife-swapping, pot smoking, extramarital hijinx -- Mazursky's movie dives into the deep end of the "New Freedom" mainstream movies were beginning to enjoy around then (this is also the year of "Midnight Cowboy" and "Easy Rider," among others). It has some perceptive observations about the counterculture as experienced by the upper class: They seem to be doing so not out of a profound need but just to be trendy. There's some smart dialogue and a very funny performance by Dyan Cannon as perhaps the most confused of the quartet. But for all that, the whole thing seems a little... snarky. Mazursky laughs too quickly at these misguided rich people, makes too much fun of the Esalen group at the beginning, wants its audience to feel superior to everybody on screen. Too, Robert Culp and Natalie Wood aren't very convincing as a happily married but perhaps over-experimental couple. (And they seem lackadaisical parents at best; who's minding the kid during all these sexual exploits?) A fun time capsule, but with a slightly acid aftertaste.
Review of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
