Wonderland (2003)
An independent Lions Gate Films release shot in 18 days, Wonderland is director James Cox’s debut feature film about porn king, John Holmes (Val Kilmer). The film features Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Dylan McDermott, Eric Bogosian, Christina Applegate, Janeane Garofalo, and even Paris Hilton.
Hailed the ‘Elvis of the porn industry,’ Holmes was a man who embodied the fantasy amidst a complex of lies and half-truths and maintaining, at that time, a $1,500 a day coke habit. Holmes the man became indistinguishable from the myth, even unto himself.
Cox’s film deals with the period in Holmes’s life when the fantasy started to disintegrate. His drug habit landed him with the wrong crowd, and events went from bad to worse. He ended up entangled in a murder case - the infamous 1981 Wonderland Murders, also referred to as ‘Four on the Floor’ with regard to the brutal demise of four individuals bludgeoned with lead pipes.
The film delves into the darkness of Holmes’s life, revealing his cruelty, over-inflated ego and a myriad of lies and manipulation, all marking a definitive tragedy. More generally speaking, the film astutely displays how the idealism that characterized the 70’s led to an awakening from the dream, faced with hard-cold realities in the 80’s. The more popularly acclaimed film, Boogie Nights, loosely based on aspects of the porn star’s life, fictionalizes and glorifies Holmes in the character of Dirk Diggler.
An interesting documentary accompanies the DVD, including interviews with Holmes, his friends and colleagues. Although it could be more concise, it gives a fuller, more informative account and details his struggle with AIDS that led to his death in 1988.
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Grading
- Story A-
- Acting A-
- Visuals B+
- Originality/Innovation B+
- Enjoyability A-
- Overall A-
- DVD Extras B+
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