Ed Wood (1994)

Burton has made a film which celebrates Wood more than it mocks him, and which celebrates the zany spirit of 1950s exploitation films. The heart of the movie is Wood’s friendship with Lugosi, lifted enormously by Landau’s astounding performance.

Burton’s very good film about a very bad filmmaker has a cheerful defiance that would surely have appealed to Orson Welles. It filters the Z-movie ethos of Wood through Burton’s dark wit and visual brilliance.

Always engaging to watch and often dazzling in its imagination and technique, the picture is also a bit distended and lacking in weight at its center, resulting in something beguiling rather than thrilling. Landau’s astounding performance as the old Hungarian gives the film its most human moments.

This is perhaps Tim Burton's finest film to date, a delightful, funny, bizarre, touching, magical, moving insight into one of cinema's most maligned filmmakers. It succeeds mainly due to its performances, especially Martin Landau's Oscar-winning turn as Bela Lugosi and Johnny Depp's mesmerising portrayal of Ed Wood.

The critic finds Tim Burton’s Ed Wood daft enough and deft enough to satisfy both high-culture and low-culture fans. It is presented as a period look at showbiz that asks what an artist does when confronted with their own lack of talent, answering with the line “Cut! That was perfect! Next setup!”

The black-and-white “Ed Wood” turns out to be a thoroughly entertaining if eccentric piece of business, wacky and amusing in a cheerfully preposterous way. Anchored by a tasty, full-throttle performance by Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi, it is proof that an absence of convention and even talent need not be a bar to happiness or immortality.

The critic finds it an affectionate and admiring tribute to failure, highlighting Burton's optimistic portrayal of Wood as an obsessive with energy despite lack of talent, and singles out Martin Landau's Oscar-winning performance as Bela Lugosi.

The biopic succeeds as a funny, touching tribute to tenacity, energy, ambition and friendship, with affection shining through in the black-and-white camerawork and spot-on performances, especially Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi.