The story of Edward D. Wood Jr, the auteur behind such awful films as Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster and his masterpiece (or should that be disaster-piece) Plan 9 from Outer Space, widely recognised as the worst director to ever step behind the camera, and as such is prime bio-pic material. Enter Tim Burton, a director whose whole career has shown an affinty with the outsider (a category Ed Wood falls in expertly). You can see that he clearly loves Wood and his work for, despite them being some of the worst things ever commited to celluloid, his enthusiam, ingenuity, work-ethic and his never-give-up attitude are infectious. He really feels he is making classics worthy of Orson Welles (the film-maker he aspires to be) and, because of this, we as an audience stop laughing at Wood and his rag-tag trope of oddballs (ageing horror star Bela Lugosi, Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson, TV host Vampira) and grow to love them. This is because of a multitude of reasons; a superb script, equal parts funny, touching (particularly in Wood's relationship with Lugosi) and brilliant, the excellent range of acting on display (Johnny Depp is his usual awesome self, Martin Landau deservedly won the Oscar for his portrayal of Lugosi, Bill Murray is hilarious) and superb direction from Mr Burton, expertly recreating the time period with his own unique spin while shooting in beautiful black and white. Just an excellent film through and through.
Ed Wood (1994)
Ed Wood Reviews
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