Wonderland

[mogwai]

here's more info on the wadd documentary (this is why i didn't buy the wonderland dvd):

source: dvdjournal.com

But the best reason to pick up the disc is the Limited Edition inclusion of Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes (1.45:16). Made in 1998 by Cass Paley, it is the perfect antidote Paul Thomas Anderson's rose-colored world. A talking-head documentary, the film offers a biography of Holmes that is shocking and engrossing, and obviously meant to directly counter Anderson's film. Want proof? PTA is interviewed for the film, and he says that Holmes wasn't a bad actor and had natural charm, which is intercut with three clips of Holmes that show him bereft of any talent, and to top it off Wadd cuts to Holmes' director Bob Chinn (the person Burt Reynolds' character was modeled on), who says that Holmes was a "not a good actor."

There are great moments of insight in the film into Holmes, and it's more than just a discussion about his penis, though there is plenty of talk about that. While many sing his praises, it quickly becomes obvious that the people who liked him most were the one's who knew him least. The meat of Wadd is the interviews with Sharon Holmes and Dawn Schiller (both shot in silhouette); they both love John but were well acquainted with his dark side. Dawn especially — the two met when she was 15, and John would sometimes pimp her for drugs (an element included in Wonderland). The film also helps flesh out many details in Wonderland — M.C. Gainey's character was modeled on interviewee Det. Tom Blake, for whom John snitched out other porn people to stay out of trouble.

If Wadd has any drawbacks, it's that the footage of Holmes comes mostly from his oeuvre; though some shots feature nudity (for the curious, one can see his infamy, but not in action) and none feature penetration, the bulk consists of Holmes practicing his "O face." After a while it becomes repellent to watch Holmes overact yet another orgasm. Still, Wadd reveals a more complicated and interesting man than Boogie Nights or Wonderland are able to surmise.

"As the joke goes, if John (Holmes) ever got fully erect he'd lose consciousness from lack of blood to the brain, because his dick was that big. And it's true that his cock was never hard. It was like doing it with a big soft kind of loofah."

Annette Haven in Wadd: The Life and Time of John C. Holmes

[mogwai]

anyone else who've seen the wadd documentary??

damn, this is a really heartbreaking story. it follows john holmes through his whole life and several close friends and family members tells their story about him. there's also a plenty of graphic sex scenes through out the movie except about the wonderland story. it's something i expected to see and it's definitely not for everyone though. there's interviews from well known people like pta, ron jeremy, his second wife misty dawn who first comes off as a bimbo but later makes a little sense and a host of other porn and ex porn stars. while i don't hold any sympathy for the man i couldn't help to feel a little sad at the end when a couple of his friends breaks down crying after his death. worth watching if you've seen boogie nights or if you're interested in the world of porn. *cough*

[NEON MERCURY]

....yeah ...i have seen it also when i bought wonderland.....my feelings mirror your exactly....its a great doc....for those interested in a unique person.....i thougth it was phucked up though that even though he new he had AIDS ....he still went to Italy and "worked"...thats not cool....and even Jeremy was diss'n on that.....also....that one girl from Italy w/ the teddy bear or somewthing...(the one with the white hair and the wierd eyebrows and over done makeup) freaked me out.......can someonen post a caption of that.....????...its one of those you got to see it to believe it....



as for the film itself.....i thought it was great....i  don't see whats up w/ the negative views on this...i'm not saying its a masteepeice or some sh*t but...its underrated i think.....its just a rock'n kind of flashy film w/ good moments....ui really like the scene where holmes..is driving the car and the screen goees into some sort of animae effect or something....its cool....and josh lucas was great.....

[MacGuffin]

as for the film itself.....i thought it was great....i  don't see whats up w/ the negative views on this...i'm not saying its a masteepeice or some sh*t but...its underrated i think

I agree with you. I enjoyed it too. Of course, it's gonna get comparisons to "Boogie Nights", but it was interesting to see how the actual events went down and see it from different points of view. It raises questions and doesn't give biased answers to who or what version was correct. The opening was overly stylized, but once it settled down a bit and Dylan McDermott came on to get the story going, that's when it got better. Great soundtrack of songs and score from Cliff Martinez. The killings at the end were very well edited and showed you so much (with help with the sound effects) without showing much. Pretty brutal.

[analogzombie]

Mac, for once i agree with you ;)

I liked the film, i didn't think it was the ebst thing ever but I definately liked it more than a lot of films I've seen over the past year. It's hyper stylized in sections and more traditional pacing in others but I never felt as if they two styles didn't mesh. During the hectic beginning I felt as if I was along for the coked up wild ride with Holmes. As the movie settles down its like moving to a different perspective. And I agree totally with the killing scene, wow! I can't really think of another sequence of murder that conveyed the brutality, kinetic violence, and raw emotion as well. Some of the scenes in natural Born Killers had a similar effect, but those were stylized into a kind of cartoonish violence. Maybe the end sequence in 'Fat Girl' but that was much less stylized than in Wonderland. At any rate it was extremely effective and reminds you what this story is all about, and how truly grisly it was.

I found the WADD documentary to be more relevent to 'Boogie Nights' than 'Wonderland'. So much f how Mark and Paul molded Dirk is evident here. I liked the inclusion of scenes from 'Exhausted' (which I have never seen) that were the inspiration for segments in the short Amber Waves makes for Dirk. Especially the 'blocking my own scenes' bit.

I don't feel any real comparison between Boogie Nights and Wonderland except for the fact that they are both about the pron world and Dirk is partly based on John Holmes and the Wonderland fiasco. i look at Wonderland, WADD, and Boogie Nights as sort of companion films. All telling the same story of pain, ambition, love and suffereing in different perspectives.

[Weak2ndAct]

Yeah, I'm a sheep, I feel the same way about the movie.  Expected the worst (considering the critical golden shower and all of 7 people saw it in theatres) and was pleasantly surprised.  By no means perfect, but there were some great moments (I LOVE how Bogosian's Eddie Nash is set-up) and some interesting stylistic moves.

The documentary was decent, despite being made for 50 bucks.  The stories kept it interesting.  Wish there was more Ron Jeremy in it.

[analogzombie]

I will say though, that after watching the flm witht he commentary james Cox seems to want so desperately to be a respected filmmaker, in that 'i just got out of film school way'. He seems do have done everything possible to show off his own 'style' by borrowing from everyone from PT Anderson to Akira Kurosawa, and proclaiming it to help you realize what a clever guy he is. I like the film, but I can see that we will be living with the influece of PTA from now on, mostly with dire consequences. (the roller skating scene in Monster set to Journey) PTA casts a long shadow.

[meatball]

I will say though, that after watching the flm witht he commentary james Cox seems to want so desperately to be a respected filmmaker, in that 'i just got out of film school way'. He seems do have done everything possible to show off his own 'style' by borrowing from everyone from PT Anderson to Akira Kurosawa, and proclaiming it to help you realize what a clever guy he is. I like the film, but I can see that we will be living with the influece of PTA from now on, mostly with dire consequences. (the roller skating scene in Monster set to Journey) PTA casts a long shadow.

I'm sure if any of the members here made a movie they would have the same approach. And their commentaries would come off in the same way.

[snaporaz]

just finished it a few minutes ago. for the first fifteen minutes, i wanted to turn it off because it was almost annoying. the cinematography...yeah, it was over-stylized alot of time, but not most of the time. what really bugged me was the boogie nights crap, mainly concerning the arab eddie nash. the fucking silk [?] robe & speedos, and the floor-safe under the bed? also, alot of the visuals made me think that the commodores/machine-gun sequence in boogie nights alone influenced this film alot.

but anyways, the movie caught my interest a little while in and i liked it. but i do think the movie tried too hard to be a "crazed-out 70's coke movie".

[MacGuffin]

I will say though, that after watching the flm witht he commentary james Cox seems to want so desperately to be a respected filmmaker, in that 'i just got out of film school way'. He seems do have done everything possible to show off his own 'style' by borrowing from everyone from PT Anderson to Akira Kurosawa, and proclaiming it to help you realize what a clever guy he is. I like the film, but I can see that we will be living with the influece of PTA from now on, mostly with dire consequences. (the roller skating scene in Monster set to Journey) PTA casts a long shadow.

He comes off as very arrogant; sarcastic when quoting his critics about his "over-stylized" techniques. Too many "I love this" moments, not enough about about the details of the production.

what really bugged me was the boogie nights crap, mainly concerning the arab eddie nash. the fucking silk [?] robe & speedos, and the floor-safe under the bed?

I dunno about Nash's attire, but the floor safe is a fact of the real case. That's not something PTA originated.

[Derek]

Yeah, this movie was a surprise, I wasn't expecting to like it, but I really did. Val Kilmer was very good as Holmes, and I liked some of the stylistic flourishes, especially the opening credits. Although sometimes it felt like the movie was built to sell a cool soundtrack.

PTA wasn't kidding when he said some of the Brock Landers' stuff was lifted directly from Wadd.

[snaporaz]

I dunno about Nash's attire, but the floor safe is a fact of the real case. That's not something PTA originated.

yeah, i knew i might be wrong about what i said since i knew it could be true, so i guess that's no argument, but i just couldn't get rahad out of my head.

now i'm thinking it's possible anderson lifted the nash character off and made him into rahad jackson. it almost seems likely.

I liked some of the stylistic flourishes, especially the opening credits.

eesh. the opening credits, and all the other visual whatchamacallits, i can't really dig that stuff. it all seems too manipulative...if that makes any sense...

[BonBon85]

I'm guessing the short film on the DVD is "Atomic Tabasco" (Cox's NYU short). What do you guys think of it? I find it a tad overrated. NYU treats it like the ultimate student film and thus seems to show it in every single class. I suppose it's justifiable since it got Cox's career started, but I think the whole seeing the same event from different perspectives thing was a tired bit and yet it got treated like some innovative idea. Then he just went and tried to use the same trick that first got him attention again in Wonderland.

[godardian]

How is Lisa Kudrow? I find that she's much more versatile as an actor than she's usually given a chance to show... probably the only reason I'd consider checking this thing out, really.

[MacGuffin]

I'm guessing the short film on the DVD is "Atomic Tabasco" (Cox's NYU short). What do you guys think of it?

Those DVD specs are inaccurate. There's no short film, just like there is no Kilmer on the commentary track.

How is Lisa Kudrow? I find that she's much more versatile as an actor than she's usually given a chance to show... probably the only reason I'd consider checking this thing out, really.

She's not in it all too much, but she does have a couple of scenes with Kilmer that kinda upstage him; their relationship is played as if she was his mother (and in a way, she kinda was); nurturing him.