My favourite film, I think

Rating: 9/10 (6 September 2003)

Warm, witty, clever and sad, a great ensemble piece. Gorgeous to look at too. A near perfect film.
Enough one-liners to keep the most cultish fan happy for years ("You the waterboy?", "No! I'm the Director!"), the film treads a fine line between a sharp pathos and slushy sentimentality at the freak show. Burton's virtuoso technique contrasts (and redeems, I suppose) Wood's rank amateurism. Very clever.
Depp is superb, and the ever wonderful Bill Murray excels, but Martin Landau shines (as it were) as the deeply tragic Bela Lugosi.
Superb.