For those who may have seen "Boogie Nights," this picture may interest you highly. "Wonderland" is a limited release tale about porn star, drug addict John Holmes' involvment in the Wonderland Murders of July 1981, in Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles.

The reason I refer to "Boogie Nights" is because that feature was a fictionalized telling of John Holmes' rise and fall, including a similar drug sale debacle in its third act, inspired by the murders on Wonderland Avenue.

The plot of "Wonderland" is John Holmes' quest to gather up as much money as possible and get out of Los Angeles, while the LAPD dig up what information they can on the murders at Wonderland.

Wonderland refers to not only the street where the murders took place, but a house owned by Billy Deverell and his wife, where drug dealer Ron Launius lived and operated from; the site of the bloody assault.

Holmes' is introduced quickly as a completely pathetic excuse for a human being. He and his girlfriend Dawn Schiller check into a hotel in Santa Monica. Holmes' then takes off for three days or so, and returns a nervous wreck. Dawn then sees a TV news report of the murders at Wonderland, and remembers being taken to the same house. She suspects Holmes is involved somehow.

LAPD detectives Nico and Cruz then get two perspective stories on the events leading up to the massacre in Laurel Canyon. One version comes from biker drug thug David Lind, who's girlfriend was a victim in the case, while the second comes from Holmes himself, brought in for questioning and eventually placed in the witness protection program.

Detectives then argue amongst each other as to who is telling the truth, and how much of it. However, the viewer gets to see the truth from Holmes' seperated wife Sharon Holmes. It was her house he visited the morning of the murders, covered in Ron Launius' blood.

In the post-script of the picture, it was said Sharon Holmes' did not testify in the case against Holmes for the murders. Nor did she tell detectives of his bloody visit that morning, until Holmes' passed away in 1989 from AIDS.

The picture is pretty great in its telling. It doesn't focus on character too much, but rather what can be considered fact from those involved, including Sharon Holmes and Dawn Schiller. If you are really into true life crime dramas, "Wonderland" should be added to your list.

There are also very few scenes which refer to Holmes being a "huge" porn star. The Wonderland murders occurred two years after Holmes was finished starring in both straight and gay pornographic films. I appreciated this, since it left the focus of the picture on the facts of the case.

Val Kilmer (The Doors) heads the cast as Holmes with a frightening realism. He had a firm grasp on the man as a character, and allowed his vulnerable side to be shown at the proper moments.

The rest of the cast is loaded with recognizable faces, including Dylan McDermott (In the Line of Fire) as Lind, Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) as Launius, Tim Blake Nelson (The Good Girl) as Billy, Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio) as Nash and Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs) as Det. Nico.

The top female roles were offered by Lisa Kudrow (TV's Friends) as Sharon Holmes, while Kate Bosworth (Win a Date with Tad Hamilton) starring as Dawn. Kudrow stood out as probably the most complex character in the tale, while Bosworth showed a subtle and impressive maturity.

There are also cameos from Janeane Garofalo and Christina Applegate if you're watching close enough.

The material of the movie is very unnerving and real. The plot of the picture, trying to figure out the facts in the case, is a highly intense adventure.

Writer/director James Cox (The Rock Star, Highway) did a sufficient job of pacing this work. However, for the first 30 minutes, his choices of editing timelapse sequences gave me a headache. Overall, Cox appeared to be doing his best Steven Soderbergh impersonation with his choice of handheld camera angles and transitions.

My favorite technique of Cox's work on this was in depicting the actual Wonderland massacre. In the climactic murder scene from Holmes' perspective, there are several single frame shots thrown into the edit of actual corpses from the true-life crime. The frames were actually stills taken by LAPD from the 1981 crime scene. Working this in was Cox's best decision; just enough to make you squirm without realizing what you were actually looking at.

The film's story was pretty accurate, with a couple of exceptions. John Holmes never called Eddie Nash after the Nash robbery and assault. Nash's thugs saw Holmes walking around wearing some of the jewelry stolen in the robbery, then Nash had Holmes beaten and brought in.

Secondly, it was said in the movie's post-script that Eddie Nash was federally indicted for the Wonderland murders, acquitted along with Holmes. However, it was not shown in the film that the person who fingered Nash was Scott Thorson, longtime lover to singer/pianist Liberace. Thorson was present when Holmes was being beaten at Nash's house.

Overall, I found this work to be pretty exciting and well worth seeing if you like true-crime drama. However, some sequences may make you dizzy due to director Cox's style.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?