It's All About the Big Picture

Rating: 8/10 (8 September 2016)

Leave it to Tim Burton to direct a film about the "wackiest" filmmaker of all time. But in all seriousness, Ed Wood may very well be the best directing job of Burton's career. It's funny, strange, and rapidly paced. Burton deserves credit.
I really love when movies take place within the world of filmmaking, especially during the 1950's. It was just an interesting time to be involved in the film business. Perhaps nobody more interesting than Edward D. Wood Jr. Although apparently much of the film's details were made up for the movie itself, it's hard not to get a kick out of Wood's story. A man stumbles himself into Hollywood with little to no experience, and manages to garner decent budgets to make multiple films, that's Hollywood 101.
One of Burton's greatest qualities is the ability to develop a great journey for the characters. Ed Wood has a clear beginning, middle, and end, but it's the stuff along the way that makes for the most entertainment. The sheer absurdity of Wood's story is really where Burton tends to bring out his best work. Watching a man without any real talent as a filmmaker plow his way through studio executives and convince actors to join him in his quest makes it all the more amazing. I mean come on, this guy compares himself to Citizen Kane on multiple occasions.
As for the performances, there's almost too many good ones to mention. Johnny Depp, in his second Burton feature, begins to show exactly why he's one of this generation's greatest talents. He easily could have been nominated for an Oscar here. It's also the first real time he played such a uniquely strange character, something he's got himself stuck into doing these days. Martin Landau, who did win an Oscar for his turn as Bela Lugosi, is what makes this film work so well. It can get tiresome watching Wood's undeserved success, but Landau works so impeccably well as a drugged up Lugosi. I couldn't have imagined someone better in that role.
The rest of the cast and crew also deserve credit, mostly for succeeding in making such a strangely delicious film. After a while, you begin to go along with the joke of Wood's career. And to look up and see that there's still plenty that isn't falsified makes it all the better.
+Unique characters and story
+Movie about movies
+Burton's tight directing
8.0/10