Film #44 of Project 90

” We are going to finish this picture just the way I want it... because you cannot compromise an artist's vision.”

Making a biopic about someone who is known as “The Worst Director of All Time” looks like an easy task, there is a reason that people call him the worst so if you want to make a funny and entertaining comedy you only need to show his “style” of film making and his childish passion for his own works. His life gives you enough material to make at least a couple of parodies, but Tim Burton chooses another way. He doesn't see Edward J. Wood as a talentless man who can be laughed at,…

This story's gonna grab people. It's about this guy, he's crazy about this girl, but he likes to wear dresses. Should he tell her? Should he not tell her? He's torn, Georgie. This is drama.
-Edward D. Wood, Jr.

This is probably my favorite Tim Burton film now. Most of his films of the last few years have been style over substance, but like I noted with Frankenweenie, he seems to be at his best when he's passionate about the subject matter. You can clearly see this is a personal film for Burton made with a lot of heart.

You can tell from the get-go that this is not a factual based biopic of Ed Wood, but rather a tribute…

80/100

Faulting this movie for whitewashing Wood's life is goofy—no one could possibly mistake its cartoonish exaggeration for a traditional biopic. Instead, it uses the broad outline of his career as the foundation for an affectionate, heartfelt paean to cockeyed optimism, with Depp as the poignant personification of drive and passion divorced from talent. Making this funny and even borderline heroic rather than cruel was no small feat, and ultimately I don't care that Lugosi was actually married for the last year of his life, or that Wood was a skirt-chasing drunk from an early age. And has there ever been such a non-judgmental portrait of tranvestism? (Even if there has, I bet it's comparatively dreary.) Stunningly beautiful, too—maybe the…

“This is the one, this is the one I’ll be remembered for.”

Of all the films in Tim Burton’s library, I can say for certain that this is his magnum opus. The life and career of one of Hollywood’s worst directors was perfect material for a filmmaker as eccentric as Tim Burton; and this movie is proof of that. In three acts we’re shown a Hollywood retelling of how Ed Wood made Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and Plan 9 From Outer Space. It’s a tale of monsters, UFOS, cross-dressing, transexuality, mad doctors, and a giant octopus. The story is outrageous, maybe even unbelievable, but it’s also filled to the brim with plenty of laughter and heart. 

Johnny…

Edward D. Wood, Jr.: [on phone with Mr. Feldman] Really? Worst film you ever saw. Well, my next one will be better. Hello. Hello.

I suppose I’ll get this out of the way, I’m not the hugest fan of Tim Burton’s films. There, I said it. I’m sure for some of you that is straight up sacrilege but I’m just being honest. However, I do appreciate the heart in some of his earlier work like ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Edward Scissorhands’ as I consider that period to be the peak of his tales about outcasts and weirdos accompanied with his signature style. Out of all his films that I’ve seen I would easily claim ‘Ed Wood’ as his crowning achievement and is…