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The opening title card of "Wonderland" (2 STARS Rated R) informs us that John Holmes, the subject of the film, was the first true porn star-a statement that is both historically questionable (you could argue him as the first male porn star but people like Linda Lovelace and Marilyn Chambers were well-known long before he came along) and fairly redundant since director James Cox has chosen to completely ignore that aspect of Holmes’ life. Instead, he focuses entirely on a sordid episode in the summer of 1981 where four people were brutally beaten to death and it appeared that Holmes (Val Kilmer), now an out-of-work junkie, had some connection to the case (which inspired the climactic scenes of "Boogie Nights", a fictionalized version of Holmes’ life). However, neither Holmes nor anyone else was convicted of the crime, so Cox has decided to give a "Rashomon"-like accounting of the crime (at least that is how I remember it) using the points-of-view of both Holmes and another criminal (Dylan McDermott) who was also peripherally involved.

No matter who is telling the story, "Wonderland" is still a dreary downer of a film that wallows in its lurid subject matter without ever bringing anything new to the table. A lot of good actors (including Kilmer, McDermott, Lisa Kudrow, Kate Bosworth, Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson, Christina Applegate, Eric Bogosian and Janeane Garofalo) get to indulge in sleazy on-screen behavior (actors love roles where they get to beat up people, swear violently, fondle guns and inhale whatever it is that they use to fake snorting cocaine) but are otherwise wasted on a script that gives them nothing else to do (if Garofalo had one audible line of dialogue, I must have missed it). This is especially disappointing because there is a fascinating plot thread-the strangely amicable relationship between Holmes, his estranged wife (Kudrow, in the film’s best performance) and his teen girlfriend (Bosworth)-that Cox perversely seems to ignore in order to jam in more blood and show-off effects (including split-screen and other camera tricks) in order to establish his bad-boy directing credentials. "Wonderland" struts along like it is the cock of the walk but for all of its posturing, it goes limp pretty quick.

The worst mistake that one can make when making a film based on the life of a real person is to attempt to portray them as some kind of saint-it almost never comes off as even remotely believable and such an approach takes away from their real accomplishments. However, in making "Veronica Guerin" (2 STARS)-which tells the story of the real-life Irish journalist (played nicely by Cate Blanchett) who began a crusade against local drug dealers and paid for it with her life-director Joel Schumacher has chosen that exact approach and, as a result, a potentially powerful story gets dumbed down into the kind of life-affirming drama more at home on Lifetime. I suspect that this was done because there was a fear that the character of Guerin wouldn’t be "sympathetic" unless we saw her appearing as a perfect wife and mother instead of as a crusading journalist. While Schumacher, often derided for such glitzy material as his "Batman" movies, has wisely chosen to direct the film in a relatively low-key manner (no nipples or codpiece on Blanchett’s Veronica Guerin suit)-too bad that the screenplay didn’t take a similar approach.

If you see only one film this year in which Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell), who never died and who now resides in a run-down Texas nursing home (and yes, there is a plausible explanation), teams up with the similarly not-quite-dead John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis-no, that is not a misprint and yes, there is a reasonably plausible explanation) to battle an ancient soul-sucking mummy (whose point-of-entry is best left to the imagination), it will almost assuredly be the weirdo insta-cult comedy "Bubba Ho-Tep (3 STARS)-unless, of course, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of "The Return of the King" is a bit more radical than originally anticipated. Admittedly, the film (written and directed by Don "Phantasm" Coscarelli and adapted from a Joe R. Lansdale short story) is pretty much a one-joke affair but that one joke is so determinedly odd that you can’t help but admire the sheer audaciousness of the premise. And while the film is hardly perfect-the effects are tatty and there are about 20 minutes too many in the 92-minute running time-there is enough wit, energy and endlessly quotable dialogue (I love Davis’s reading of "Let’s get decadent!") to make it a reasonably fun ride. Most of all, it has a truly stellar lead performance from Campbell, best known as the hapless hero from the "Evil Dead" films. His portrayal of the now-decrepit King, equal parts parody and homage, is a funny, compelling wonder and it demonstrates that there is more to him as an actor than a jutting shin and a high pain threshold.

1/2 A hit at every festival that it has played at so far (including Sundance, where it won two top awards, Toronto and Chicago), "The Station Agent" (3 1/2 STARS Rated R) is a crowd-pleaser about a loner dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who inherits a run-down train depot in a small New Jersey town. When he arrives, he finds himself, almost against his will, drawn into the lives of a troubled divorcee (Patricia Clarkson), a pregnant young librarian (Michelle Williams) and a goofy hot-dog vendor (played hilariously by Bobby Cannavale). While the film is pretty slight-almost too slight for the praise being heaped on it-this debut film from writer-director Tom McCarthy is enormously entertaining and one of the better American independent offerings to emerge this year.<

In the Pedro Almodovar-produced melodrama "My Life Without Me" (3 STARS Rated R), the always-impressive Sarah Polley stars as a young lower-class wife/mother who learns that she has only a few months to live and decides to keep the information to herself. Instead, she decides to make a list of the things that she wants to do before she dies (visit her incarcerated father, take a lover and find a suitable maternal replacement for her daughters) and the film follows her as she goes about fulfilling her final dreams. It sounds unbearably gloppy (especially during the scenes where she records future birthday wishes for her children) but writer-director Isabel Coixet saves it from completely turning into a soap opera with some smart writing and a better-than-expected cast (including Alfred Molina as the father, Mark Ruffalo as the lover and Debbie Harry as the embittered mother). Most of all, the film is saved by the wonderful performance by Polley-a turn that avoids stooping to cheap sentiment and is all the stronger because of it.<

There have been worse movies to emerge this year than "Mambo Italiano" but I can’t quite recall one that annoyed me as much as "Mambo Italiano" (1 STAR Rated R). Imagine "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", only gay, Canadian and Italian, and you can begin to conceptualize the utter horror. It wants to be a winsome romantic comedy about a young Italian man struggling with both his sexual identity and his overbearing parents (including Paul Sorvino as his dad) but it traffics in the kind of offensively over-the-top stereotypes that you might have assumed had disappeared decades ago. Unfunny, loathsome and utterly hateful, I have the horrible feeling that this is going to wind up being a huge success at the box-office.

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
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While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.