Ed Wood

In the 1950s, would-be filmmaker Edward D. Wood Jr. (Johnny Depp) struggles to make a name for himself despite a lack of any discernable talent. A transvestite, Wood ends up making a series of deeply personal low-budget films which are released to widespread critical disdain. Along the way, he befriends and recruits aging horror actor Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), freakish wrestler Tor Johnson (George “The Animal” Steele) and other outcasts, alienating himself from women, financial backers, and society in the process.



Directed by Tim Burton, Ed Wood is an A-list treatment of a Z-list icon. As a biopic, it plays fast and loose with the facts – children and spouses are omitted, an encounter between Wood and Orson Welles is fabricated, etc. But as a tribute, this is spot-on. Filmed in black and white, the movie opens with a dramatic introduction in Wood’s own schlocky style. The filmmaker’s “rise” is covered, up to and including the production of his “masterpiece,” Plan 9 From Outer Space (often cited as the worst film ever made). This would be a fall from grace in another kind of film, but it’s strangely endearing to watch Wood and Co. triumph in spite of their incompetence.


The biggest payoff here is the discrepancy between what’s happening on the screen and what we as viewers know to be true. Wood’s movies may be trash, but in his eyes, they’re art. That kind of irony requires the cast to not only give convincing performances, but to do so with a straight face. Fortunately, they are up to the task. Depp imbues Wood with relentless, oblivious, never-say-die optimism. He’s counterbalanced by an Oscar-winning Landau, whose Lugosi is drug-addled and well past his prime but still full of gravitas. Sarah Jessica Parker, Jeffrey Jones, Patricia Arquette, and Bill Murray (in a quick appearance as a drag queen) round out this freak show.


Through an unapologetically glib and personal treatment, Ed Wood’s idiosyncratic approach to biography reveals more – good and bad – about its subject than a more straightforward or “neutral” approach ever would. That it’s often hilarious is an added bonus.


8/10