“You should never close a book until you’ve read something from it.”

Justin’s rating: Something fishy about this film…

Justin’s review: Want to stab my heart with nostalgia? Toss on any indie flick from the ’90s — preferably Miramax — and watch me get all muzzly and pining for this era of crazy little experimental flicks. There were so many of them before this bubble collapsed in the 2000s, and I feel that they’re all helpless orphaned stories that must be collected and protected and nurtured.

Since these indie projects were constrained by budget, they tended to skew toward crime, romance, drama, comedy, or some combination thereof. Next Stop Wonderland tosses all of those in a blender and brings it to our lips as a delicious smoothy of a time long past.

Erin (Hope Davis, Flatliners) is a melancholy Boston nurse who’s helpless in love, especially when Philip Seymour Hoffman dumps her. Alan (Alan Gelfant, Monkeybone) is a marine biologist plumber — yes, that’s a thing — who owes some money to the mob or something. Both of them are, oddly enough, introverts who aren’t exactly frothing to find someone, seeing as how they’ve both bottomed out in some way.

The hook of this film is that this obviously perfect pairing always keeps missing that initial meet cute connection as the two repeatedly cross paths. We know they’d be pretty great for each other, but fate seems to have other plans. They stumble through their troubled lives while we keep rooting for the inevitable introduction to happen. Meanwhile, the movie impishly keeps drawing attention to how close they came to noticing or talking or seeing each other.

Erin’s domineering mom puts her out there in a single’s ad (that used to be a thing, too) which results in Erin going on a string of disastrous dates. There’s also a lot of weird drama over the construction of the northern addition of the Boston aquarium (it’s getting a puffy fish! that the mob hates! for no reason!) and plenty of Bostonian touring.

One of the things I like about these indie flicks is that they weren’t afraid to be unconventional. In Next Stop Wonderland, people are odd, the plot not always predictable, everyone smokes, and the focus more on character moments while a quirky soundtrack plays. I haven’t watched this specific film before now, but I’ve seen it, if you know what I mean.

Hope Davis absolutely owns this film as the quiet but intelligent Erin. You can see her thought processes click and churn as she takes in the oddballs all around her. She’s probably the best on-screen example of an introvert who’s very comfortable in her own skin and with her own rituals.

Next Stop Wonderland embodies some of the best elements of the ’90s indie scene. It’s a sweet, funny, and occasionally odd tale with a couple familiar faces, a handheld camera that’s never still, and a feel that certainly doesn’t exist any longer. It’s not a conventional romcom, sure, but it’s still a very enjoyable one.

Intermission!

• Breaking up with someone via VHS tape and taking the VCR is a weird move, man
• These are the worst costumes for those hospital kids. They are not impressed. I think they honestly terrorized these child actors to make them cry.
• Erin listens to vinyl, she was cool before it got trendy!
• The blue puff fish is coming to the aquarium in 1999! I can’t wait!
• “These are very sensitive fish.” “They have feelings?”
• The mob’s putting a hit out… on a fish?
• This conversation about French kissing is very uncomfortable
• “The real mystery is what keeps two people together after they meet.”
• VHS tapes and cassette answering machines in the same scene, how much retro tech do you want here?
• Loser phone call montage
• “Consider what the consequences would be without those little rubber nubs.”
• Calling guys “posers” takes me back
• Oh that phone call… that was painful
• That is an awful lot of chum
• “I’m not lonely. I like to be by myself. People don’t understand that.”
• Erin turning all the guys on each other is diabolical
• “With men, there’s always a choice, it’s just a weak selection.”
• “Sadness has no end, happiness does.”