ED WOOD review

I decided not to do a horror film for last night’s Halloween Marathon, but instead, watch my favorite Tim Burton flick ED WOOD.

It would have been easy to make a movie looking down at these Hollywood fringe dwellers, or even delve into Ed’s darker nature (alcoholism, softcore porn pics, depression), but it’s made with a filter of love. Even Lugosi’s tragedies are non-judgemental and sympathetic. These people had a rough enough life as it is; at least their biography shows their world as sentimental.

Depp (still in that magic phase where he could do no wrong) plays Wood like a confident, breezy car salesman who seems most alive when he’s surrounded by other misfits, shooting anything/anywhere for a few hundred bucks (we get the feeling the line between film producer and cult leader is a thin line indeed). Landau deservedly won the Oscar that year — I hope just for uttering the words “that limey cocksucker can rot in hell for all I care!”

A lot of us live in this fringe of filmmaking: hustling for cash, doing our best to keep a circle of friends around us involved in our dreams, scrounging creative measures for lack of budget. If anything, Wood is a patron saint to anyone whose wanted to play with ILM or KNB and is left downloading After Effects tutorials on the internet.