It’s December 31st, and I’m sure you know what that means, dear reader… that’s right, it’s Val Kilmer’s birthday! Today we celebrate by examining the John Holmes crime pic Wonderland (2003), starring Kilmer as the fallen star.
I went into the proceedings expecting a more sweeping Boogie Nights-esque tale of an ill-fated career in the porn industry during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boogie Nights, after all, was inspired by Holmes’s life. Instead, Wonderland is more focused on the days, weeks and months immediately on either side of the gruesome 8763 Wonderland Avenue murders in Laurel Canyon on July 1st, 1981. It is more of a microcosmic crime study than a sweeping cautionary tale. The “Four on the Floor Murders” quickly joined the ranks of the Manson family killings and the Black Dahlia murder as some of the most infamous crimes in 20th century Hollywood lore.
I went into the proceedings expecting a more sweeping Boogie Nights-esque tale of an ill-fated career in the porn industry during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Boogie Nights, after all, was inspired by Holmes’s life. Instead, Wonderland is more focused on the days, weeks and months immediately on either side of the gruesome 8763 Wonderland Avenue murders in Laurel Canyon on July 1st, 1981. It is more of a microcosmic crime study than a sweeping cautionary tale. The “Four on the Floor Murders” quickly joined the ranks of the Manson family killings and the Black Dahlia murder as some of the most infamous crimes in 20th century Hollywood lore.
- 12/31/2020
- by Alex Kirschenbaum
- Trailers from Hell
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