Ed Wood

Rating: 10/10 (13 July 2005)

I have always liked director Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street) and his films (here he was nominated the Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm Award), and this biography showing his love for classic sci-fi films is another terrific example of his distinctive style. We saw him in Edward Scissorhands, and then Golden Globe nominated Johnny Depp played director Edward D. Wood. If you have heard of Wood, he considered himself a great director of great films, mostly horror, but in fact he was voted one of the worst film directors of all time. He also had a habit for dressing as a woman, ever since childhood. Anyway, this film basically shows the process of making his ridiculous and utterly awful films, and relationships with people, including his wife (for a while), Dolores Fuller (Sarah Jessica Parker), his new girlfriend Kathy O'Hara (Patricia Arquette), and his favourite actor that he worked with, Dracula's Bela Lugosi (Oscar and Golden Globe winning, and BAFTA nominated Martin Landau). Also starring Jeffrey Jones as Criswell, Vincent D'Onofrio as Orson Welles, Bill Murray as Bunny Breckinridge, Mike Starr as Georgie Weiss, Lisa Marie (Burton's fiancée at the time) as Vampira and Juliet Landau (Martin's daughter) as Loretta King. Landau is fantastic, Depp is funny, and there are some fantastic giggles in this great biographical period comedy drama. It won the Oscar for Best Makeup, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Make Up/Hair, it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical. Johnny Depp was number 22 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, he was number 9 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and he number 2 on The World's Greatest Actor. Outstanding!