Wonderland (1997)

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Wonderland is a humorous look about the planned community of Levittown on Long Island, NY. Along with some brilliant historical footage, the film consists mainly of interviews with some of the town's kookier but endearingly genuine residents. The movie is sort of like Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" [about the town of Flint, MI] but without a cornball premise and without a self-absorbed director/narrator/"star". In fact, the best thing about this film is that talented director John O'Hagan stays completely out of it, letting his subjects tell the story. (The bartender who sings the national anthem is the funniest unstaged bit of film I've seen in years.) Someone made the comment that the film is mean-spirited but I don't think so. Yes, the people are often unintentionally hilarious... but no one forced them to do this movie. On the contrary, they seem to crave the attention. Mean-spirited is chasing someone around with a camera against their will, or being entertained by such.

This is the worst piece of film I've ever seen. It is nothing more than a hack job of levittown. I grew up in Levittown, spent the better part of my life there and I go back to visit my family and friends as often as I can. Of those people that I know and love, and even those that I hate, not a single one of them is represented in this mockumentary. Not everyone in Levittown believes there are ghosts that come into their house to drink their juice or goes around having orgies. Not every child who grows up there turns into a delinquent or spends their life lamenting the fact that they grew up in Levittown. This pathetic excuse for a documentary does nothing to actually document Levittown as it is or as it was. It's no better or worse then anywhere else, but to watch this film, you would think it was an insane asylum. To call this film a documentary is a disservice to the genre and to the town.

A masterpiece documentary, insofar as both the quality of selected people representing the cross section, and as a lesson in the highest art-form of editing. It is a bitter disappointment to me that the VHS is unavailable for purchase....

This is a fascinating documentary about Levittown, (or Levittowns-there are several), one of the first and largest postwar housing developments, the original located on Long Island. While watching the film you can see the director's shift from a historical/sociological perspective to a humorous and at times almost mean-spirited look at the lives of the people who still reside in the decaying community. There are interviews with famous ex-residents as well as almost painful revelations by some of the oh-so colorful inhabitants. Most people will have a new-found appreciation for their hometowns and also, hopefully, their present accommodations after seeing this.