Tim Burton’s been on a hit-or-miss streak for a while now, but when he was on, he was on – in one unbroken run, he gave us Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Batman Returns. That’s enough awesomeness for the entire careers of many directors – Burton accomplished that with his first five real films.

Capping off that winning streak, though, is Burton’s genuine masterpiece, an outstanding piece of cinema that is now often forgotten about when talking about Tim Burton, Director.  That film is Ed Wood, the lovingly crafted, brilliantly successful biopic of one of Hollywood’s most infamous personalities:  Edward D. Wood, Jr., the “Worst Director of All-Time.”

Now, fellow fans of “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ know that Ed Wood’s pictures are far from being the worst movies ever made – as bad as a Plan 9 From Outer Space or Bride of the Monster can be, they are nowhere near as poorly made or soul-crushingly torturous as films like Manos:  Hands of Fate, Monster-a-Go-Go, or Red Zone Cuba. Fortunately, Ed Wood doesn’t really play into the “worst of all time” mantra that much, instead depicting Wood as a relentlessly optimistic, wide-eyed dreamer with aspirations of being the next Orson Welles, using his talents to their absolute fullest – never realizing that his talents are pretty puny.  The film takes Wood’s side and crafts him as a likable, charming go-getter that one can’t help but sympathize with, which makes the inevitable ups and downs of being a Z-grade Hollywood director all the more affecting.

The film follows Wood from his early days transforming a sex-change exploitation flick into a personal, emotional (but still unsuccessful) look into cross-dressing (1953’s Glen or Glenda), to his meeting washed-up drug-addicted horror icon Bela Lugosi, to getting 1955’s Bride of the Monster made amidst funding troubles, ending on the iconic note of Wood’s career:  the filming and release of the legendary Plan 9 from Outer Space in 1959.  

It’s fairly exhausting to list everything this film gets right, but #1 has to be the cast.  Everybody is spot on, and it starts with Johnny Depp as Wood himself.  Depp plays Wood as an ambitious artisan who’s working from a rather limited palette – he might not have much of a talent for filmmaking (a fact he’s oblivious to), but he’s going to make every movie as big and far-reaching and amazing as his (lack of) ability and budget will allow.

Overflowing with optimistic smiles and good-natured charm, Depp’s Wood is one of the actor’s finest performances.  He transforms Ed Wood into the sort of larger-than-life mythic figure we all hoped he really was (not necessarily 100% accurate to reality), and is a complete joy to watch.

The other cornerstone of the film is an equally fantastic peformance:  that of Martin Landau as the aged, out-of-work icon of horror, Bela Lugosi.  Landau absolutely nails Lugosi, from the accent to the mannerisms, and skillfully navigates a complex, challenging role.  He handles radical shifts in personality, from Lugosi’s world-weary lows to his drug-enhanced highs, and winds up being an incredibly sympathetic and tragic figure.  He’s funny, he’s dramatic, and he’s perhaps the finest performance in the film.

The interplay between Depp and Landau is just fantastic – as Wood and Lugosi evolve into their friendship, one of the strangest and least-likely in Hollywood’s history, Depp and Landau sell every moment.  As the film unfolds, it becomes clear that Wood’s entire world is made up of the weirdos and outcasts of Mid-Century Hollywood’s low-level fringes, and Lugosi quickly becomes, essentially, one of the gang.

Speaking of which, the supporting players are all equally fun to watch.

Ed’s girl at the outset of the story is Dolores Fuller, who Ed casts as the female lead in his films.  Dolores is played by Sarah Jessica Parker, a long time before she was “Sarah Jessica Parker from Sex and the City.”  Dolores has the task of being the one relatively normal person in Ed’s sphere of society’s rejects, a position that becomes increasingly frustrating as Ed’s films become ever-more complex and convoluted.  SJP does a great job here, and her slowly building exasperation and intolerance for Ed’s way of life is entirely believable.

Jeffrey Jones shows up as Criswell, the famously inaccurate “psychic” whose bizarre predictions are the stuff of legend, and who became a fixture in Ed’s movies, narrating Plan 9 and using phrases like “future events such as these will affect you in the future.”  Jones capture’s Criswell’s bravado and quirkiness perfectly, and even gets the famous spit-curl right.

Lisa Marie capably fills out the corset of Vampira, who gets drawn into Ed’s world almost against her will, and who appeared in Plan 9 with a mute character so nobody could recognize her voice.  The sense of sheer embarrassment Vampira must have felt when she signed on for Plan 9 is palpable, and Marie does a fine job portraying the original Queen of Darkness.

Patricia Arquette plays Kathy O’Hara, Ed’s eventual wife.  Sweet and caring, Kathy plays an important role in the film, as the first woman who really accepts Ed and his life for what they are, never judging him and never backing down in her commitment to him and his work.  Arquette is incredibly effective, quietly conveying all that Kathy means to Ed in a lovely, subtle performance.

Another eerie doppleganger is George “The Animal” Steele, playing Swedish wrestler-turned-Ed Wood leading man Tor Johnson.  Steele’s resemblance to Johnson is uncanny, and he brings a lot of charm and humor to the role of one of moviedom’s oddest actors.

Very nearly stealing every scene he’s in is Bill Murray as Ed’s flamboyant drag queen-turned-actor friend Bunny Breckinridge.  Murray is hilarious, but wisely plays Breckinridge subtly, never taking him into caricature territory.  One of Murray’s best roles, though not a well-known one unfortunately.

One of my favorite things about Ed Wood is how wonderfully it depicts this strange world of bottom-level fringe mid-1950s Hollywood.  The movie’s sense of style and place is impeccable, from the fashions to the cars to the mannerisms and speech of the characters.  It all has a very slightly off-kilter feel, thanks to Burton’s direction and sense of style.  However, it never approaches the sort of preconception we have of Burton’s films today – it doesn’t look like a “Tim Burton movie,” yet there is an unmistakable air of Burton surreality to the proceedings from time to time.

Because of this subtlety (among many other reasons), this is my favorite Tim Burton movie.  Long before he was a Hot Topic stereotype, Burton made a name for himself for his bizarre, imaginative visuals, but Ed Wood showed Burton playing a very different game, creating a depiction of mid-’50s Hollywood that is true to the era but has a slightly weird feel about it, befitting the oddball characters populating Ed’s world.

Filmed in smooth black & white, Ed Wood is also, simply, a lovely movie to look at.

The film also has many scenes that are treats for fans of B-movies and Ed’s films in particular, creating an on-the-set feel that really captures the sort of charm that a great B-movie can create, and the sort of love that fans of lesser-quality cinema feel for their subject matter.

Ed Wood is, simply, a great movie.  An engaging story, beautifully acted, wonderfully filmed, and accompanied by a pitch-perfect score by Howard Shore that echoes the tropes of classic B-movies.  It’s virtually impossible to watch this movie and not come away moved by the story of Ed Wood and his strange world of incompetent films and offbeat people, especially if you enjoy watching a good bad movie.  It’s a film that gets in behind the scenes and explores some of the most colorful people behind some of the most famous bad movies ever made, and it does it all with genuine heart and affection for the people and films it examines.  It truly is Tim Burton’s masterpiece, and a fitting memorial to the legacy of one of Hollywood’s most fascinating people.