ED WOOD (1994) B/W widescreen 127m dir: Tim Burton

w/Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey Jones, G.D. Spradlin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Bill Murray, Mike Starr, Max Casella

From The Movie Guide: "It's ironic that one of the best films of 1994 told the story of one of the worst filmmakers of all time. Tim Burton's ED WOOD is a delightful, off-the-wall, and ultimately moving portrait of a young man trying to claw his way up into Hollywood from the bottom.

"Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) produces awful plays in LA with various friends and hangers-on, including his girlfriend Dolores Fuller (Sarah Jessica Parker) and transsexual wannabe Bunny Breckinridge (Bill Murray). Ed himself is a secret cross-dresser, and when he learns that schlock producer George Weiss (Mike Starr) intends to make a film based on notorious transsexual Christine Jorgensen, he pitches himself as the best man for the job. A chance encounter with his idol, Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), leads Ed to cast the now drug addicted actor in his picture, and a deep friendship begins to develop between the two.

"Typically, Burton's storytelling is sometimes erratic, but his emphasis on humanizing marginal characters --- a project that seems central to his artistic agenda --- is as strong as ever. Wood and his entourage may be bizarre, but they're sympathetic and likable; one roots for Wood to succeed despite his evidently complete lack of talent. Indeed, Burton, a true devotee of bargain-basement pop culture, probably intends to question whether 'talent' is not just a cultural shibboleth, as misleading and overdetermined as 'taste,' or even 'art.'"

ED WOOD won two Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Landau) and Makeup (Rick Baker, Ve Neill, Yolanda Toussieng).