The Komplete Val Kilmography (2003-2012): Wonderland

by Matt Smith

I have always been a fan of Val Kilmer, but excepting the odd movie here and there, I lost track of him for a while. The Komplete Val Kilmography (2003-2012) is a twice weekly column that will run through the summer. I will be viewing and writing about each film Val Kilmer appeared in (as long as I can track down a copy of it) in the past decade.

Director James Cox’s excellent Wonderland tells the story of an infamous and unsolved murder that took place in 1981 in Los Angeles. Porn legend John Holmes was directly involved in some way, but police could never pin the crime itself on him. Crime boss Eddie Nash was later tried and plead guilty to having planned the murders as an act of vengeance for being robbed by the Wonderland gang. Holmes was acquitted during trial and before his death reportedly admitted to his sister that he was forced to watch the murders take place, but did not take part in them. This is not an article about the murders. This is about the movie.

“I Can’t Be Fixed”: A review of Dead Man Down

by Matt Smith

Dead Man Down, a decent but not quite good B-thriller, reunites Swedish director Neils Arden Oplev with Noomi Rapace, the star of their international breakthrough hit The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Unfortunately, the magic of that film, which was fueled by the gripping narrative as much as the dark and gritty visuals and Rapace’s stunning performance in the role of Lisbeth Salander, is missing this time around. The story is extremely sparse and borderline nonsensical, and the bullet ballet it devolves into is ultimately not that exciting, let down by the lack of narrative logic and realistic character motivation. And that’s a shame, because I really love some things about Dead Man Down.

“We Don’t Need to Be Friends. We’re family.” A review of Stoker

by Matt Smith

*Spoilers*

India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) has just turned 18 and her father has died in a terrible car crash, his body burned in the wreckage. When her uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) appears at his funeral and moves in with her and her mother, Evelyn, she becomes increasingly infatuated with him. Who is this family member she never knew existed? What secret does he hold? And what, exactly, does he want from India and her mother? These are some of the questions to be answered in Korean director Park Chan-wook’s English-language debut, Stoker, a determinedly perverse work that dissects some version of the American family.
A straight-A student, quiet and unassuming, India is withdrawn and distant. Her father, we learn, used to take her hunting, and she excelled at it. He stuffed every bird she ever killed. Her mother was uncomfortable with the activity, but there are hints that her father recognized something in her that he felt the need to control. Something worrying. Late in the film, once some of the film’s mysteries are divulged, she remembers her father used to say, “Sometimes you need to do something bad to stop yourself from doing something worse.” What did he see in her?