Holmes stumbles through his life, double crossing anyone and everyone, yet he is truly pained by the damage he does to these two women. Although his feelings are meant to give him a heart unseen in his interactions with the various drug dealers, one terrible scene in which he whores out his girlfriend, calling her his niece, to Nash, shows that his heart isn’t ultimately in control of the broken, destroyed man.

Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 similarly themed study of the 80s’ destruction of the brightest stars of 70s era pornography, loosely describes the robbery of Eddie Nash’s house at the nadir of the Holmes-like protagonist’s existence. Yet his valley is a brief stop on the road to happiness and a renewed friendship, allowing the audience to believe in redemption.

Wonderland doesn’t give the audience that breathing room. Holmes starts off bad and just gets worse as the movie progresses and more about his character and actions is revealed. I haven’t needed a shower this much after a movie since Boys Don’t Cry, although this dealt with a very different type of sleaze.

Humans can be a truly awful group and no new movie demonstrates this as clearly as Wonderland. Some may be tempted to think that this Wonderland can only be found by going through a rabbit hole entering another terrible universe. In truth, Wonderland unflinchingly show us our own world, making it that much harder to take.

—Scoop A. Wasserstein