By the time Chopper begins, the title thug is already a celebrity watching himself on TV from the comfort of his prison cell. Why should we watch him as well? Based on a true story, this rough-around-the-edges feature from Australian director Andrew Dominik never answers that question. Played with stolid charisma by Eric Bana, Mark " Chopper " Read is incorrigible and indestructible. In fact, for the most part it seems he’s the choppee, not the chopper, as when a cellmate repeatedly stabs him with a shiv and Chopper just stands there looking vaguely offended.

Chopper’s not the brightest guy in the world, but the lowlifes, killers, and druggies he deals with are a step lower down the evolutionary chain, and it’s by offing them that he builds his legend of being a kind of criminal vigilante. A much bigger success at public relations than as a public menace, Chopper puts out a bestseller and becomes a star. The movie, though, is a muddle with attitude. Its chronology is skewed with little purpose, and its play with reality and myth is self-conscious and trite: it’s Pulp Fiction without the fiction. Although Bana’s bravura performance holds it together and some mordantly hilarious set pieces stand out, Chopper is hip hack work.