Cannes & Landau

Rating: Null/10 (23 September 2002)

If you look twice at the context in which this movie was made, you can't regard it as anything but serious. It's a biopic that may very well have you laughing hysterically. And if you do find your funny bone being tickled, you're not getting the wrong message; you're getting the right one, because this true story told so accurately and meticulously by Tim Burton is really that funny - and tragic.
Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space won the Golden Turkey Award in 1988 as the Worst Movie Ever Made. This is a singular distinction. Many film critics say that amateur film makers would have done a better job. Check the memorable quotes section to see just how bad Wood's scripting was - it's atrocious.
Yet Wood is history, and through Plan 9 and especially this movie, possibly as well-known as his idol Orson Welles.
The movie itself is done with such care and precision that it can't help but engage you. Depp's Wood is nothing short of fantastic; no one but Parker could have done the Fuller part as well as she did; they're all great.
But Martin Landau stands out from the beginning. Landau does more than portray Bela Lugosi: He is Bela Lugosi. The transformation is so complete you forget you're watching an actor and become completely engrossed in this tragic tale. Wood is tragic, and it's about Wood this movie is made, but the personal real life story of the real life Lugosi is almost too horrible to contemplate here. As Landau quips, 'Hollywood chews you up and spits you out.'
We watched this tale on video just tonight; I'd seen it once before. And I couldn't get over how incredible Landau was doing the Lugosi part, and blurted out loud 'but that should have been worth at least an Oscar nomination.' How appropriate then for the temporarily clueless yours truly to discover that Landau won a total of 11 (eleven) major awards for best supporting actor, including the Golden Globe and the Oscar.
Everything that Ed Wood was not Tim Burton is in this movie. Alexander's screenplay, based on Grey's book, is spot on at every twist and turn. Ed Wood is simply amazing, and its b/w cinematography should not bore you either, but knock you out: this movie is a tribute, as the Golden Turkey Award was, 'to everyone who has ever had a dream, an ambition, and pursued it relentlessly - only to fall flat on their faces.'