Review

Within no more that the first 30 seconds of Malice in Lalaland, it becomes abundantly clear that what you're watching is something unlike any porn film ever made.

Hurtling at you with a psychotropic maelstrom of animation, live action and a growling bass track, it delivers right off on the promise of its fantastical, ultra-slick box art, and just gets better from there. And yes, it is a film, maybe or maybe not the last full 35mm one this industry will produce, but either way, one that utilizes the format to more bravura effect than just about any other this critic can recollect in his 20-plus years of porn viewing.

Sasha Grey is Malice, a patient in a gloomy mental facility who after sustaining a nasty round of shock treatment, follows a midget in a Donnie Darko-esque rabbit suit down a hole in the basement, which transports her to the warped desert land where she spends the rest of the movie fleeing Jabbowski (non-sex actor Dirty Fred), sycophantic henchman to the sanitarium's warden, Dr. Queenie (Andy San Dimas).

Soon Malice hooks up with the Hunter S. Thompson-modeled Chester Catz (Keni Styles), who helps her stay one step ahead of Jabbowski in exchange for letting him snap a few Polaroids of her ... which quickly leads into one of the most authentically impassioned fuck sessions we've seen Grey perform.

As the odyssey continues, more updated versions of Lewis Carroll's celebrated characters appear: there's "Matt Hatter," porn-directing brothers "Todd and Ted Tweed," and for a Caterpillar surrogate, titty bar proprietor Ron Jeremy.

It's a commonly held (though not all that accurate) perception that the sex in features—especially artistically ambitious ones like this—leaves something to be desired. Not the case here. Aside from the aforementioned Grey/Styles bout, there's a scorching four-way to open the picture with San Dimas, Chayse Evans, Chris Johnson and Danny Mountain; an even hotter three-way toward the end with Styles, Juelz Ventura and Sadie West; and an all-girl three-way between Grey, Alyssa Reece and Kristina Rose that includes an inventive daisy-chain-like stint in which Rose bangs Grey in spoon with a strap-on while Grey does the same to Reece. Oh, but there's more: Kagney Linn Karter works up a pouring sweat in the back of a car with Alan Stafford, and Phoenix Marie gets tag-teamed by Tommy Gunn and Billy Glide, anal throttling including.

Director Lew Xypher proved his chops with his striking, AVN Award-nominated debut release, Hell Is Where the Party Is. With this, only his second effort, he breaks through as a downright prodigy of the craft. And by virtue of the packaging alone, with its hardbound covers and attached 20-page booklet of storyboards, still photos and more, this is an instant collector's item. Here's hoping as many people get a hold of it as any justice would demand.

 -- Peter Warren - AVN