1994--The Year in Review

1994 marks the beginning of the Tarantino age, for better or worse (its effects still reverberate today, and mostly from ill-equipped imitators). As stunning as his 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs was, it couldn't prepare us for the time-jumbling tale awaiting in his sophomore directorial effort Pulp Fiction. It was simply impossible to watch this movie without feeling your heart racing so fleetly, you might require a shot directly to the ol' pump to slow it down. Absolutely everything works so perfectly in it that you actually feel in your gut the moviemaking machine operating absolutely to par. It was a slam dunk at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme D'or. But the populist vote arrived when Forrest Gump was released in the summer to absolute acclaim and big box office. I stupidly fell for Zemeckis's film upon first viewing--in fact, it took me a few years to realize it was a venal work, filled with damning judgments directed at its most innocent characters, and ever since then, I've found Forrest Gump unwatchable, even though I like elements of it. It likewise hoodwinked the Academy into awarding it Best Picture and five other accolades (including a second consecutive Best Actor Oscar for Tom Hanks). But Gump never blinded me to the quality of Pulp Fiction, a movie that continues to offer deeper insight into the concepts of loyalty, understanding, and morality--it's a much more lovable and entertaining film, even with its abject bloodiness. Its two closest competitors--Terry Zwigoff's painfully intimate documentary Crumb and Tim Burton's gorgeous, surprisingly joyful biopic Ed Wood (with Johnny Depp again arriving up top under Tim Burton's direction)--come within a hair's breadth of besting Tarantino's epic. And yet the year included additional remarkable titles like Hoop Dreams, Little Women, Natural Born Killers (co-written by Tarantino), Heavenly Creatures, box-office disappointment The Shawshank Redemption, and art house hits Four Weddings and a Funeral, Leon (released as The Professional in the US), The Hudsucker Proxy, To Live, Through the Olive Trees, and surprise Best Picture nominee Il Postino (which wouldn't hit US shores until 1995). I have to note the tie I've arrived at here: it's just impossible to choose between the two finest supporting male performances of the entire decade; as much as I adore Martin Landau's lovingly detailed portrayal of Bela Legosi in Ed Wood, it feels horribly wrong to ignore Samuel L. Jackson's superb showing as the icy, contemplative hitman Jules Winnfield. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold. 

PICTURE: PULP FICTION (US, Quentin Tarantino)
(2nd: Crumb (US, Terry Zwigoff)
followed by: Ed Wood (US, Tim Burton)
Three Colors: Red (France/Poland/Germany, Krzysztof Kieslowski)
To Live (China, Zhang Yimou)
Hoop Dreams (US, Steve James)
Vanya on 42^nd Street (US, Louis Malle)
The Shawshank Redemption (US, Frank Darabont)
Little Women (US, Gillian Armstrong)
Natural Born Killers (US, Oliver Stone)
Heavenly Creatures (New Zealand, Peter Jackson)
Leon (aka The Professional) (US/France, Luc Besson)
The Hudsucker Proxy (US, Joel Coen)
Through the Olive Trees (Iran, Abbas Kiarostami)
Il Postino (Italy, Michael Radford)
A Pure Formality (Italy/France, Giuseppe Tornatore)
Quiz Show (US, Robert Redford)
The Kingdom (Denmark, Lars Von Trier)
Chungking Express (Hong Kong, Wong Kar-Wai)
The Madness of King George (UK, Nicholas Hytner)
Burnt by the Sun (Russia, Nikita Mikhalkov)
Fresh (US, Boaz Yakin)
Spanking the Monkey (US, David O. Russell)
Shallow Grave (UK, Danny Boyle)
Four Weddings and a Funeral (UK, Mike Newell)
Reality Bites (US, Ben Stiller)
Being Human (US, Bill Forsyth)
The Glass Shield (US, Charles Barnett)
Nobody’s Fool (US, Robert Benton)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Australia, Stephen Elliott)
Before the Rain (Macedonia/UK/France, Milcho Manchevski)
Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (Hong Kong, Ang Lee)
Forrest Gump (US, Robert Zemeckis)
Queen Margot (France, Patrice Chereau)
The Boys of St. Vincent (Canada, John N. Smith)
Bandit Queen (UK/India, Shekhar Kapur)
Muriel's Wedding (Australia, P.J. Hogan)
Death and the Maiden (UK, Roman Polanski)
Exotica (Canada, Atom Egoyan)
Ladybird Ladybird (UK, Ken Loach)
The Last Seduction (US, John Dahl)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (US, Alan Rudolph)
Wyatt Earp (US, Lawrence Kasdan)
Interview with the Vampire (US/UK, Neil Jordan)
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (US, Steven M. Martin)
A Great Day in Harlem (US, Jean Bach)
Barcelona (US, Whit Stillman)
I Like it Like That (US, Darnell Martin)
Bullets Over Broadway (US, Woody Allen)
The Lion King (US, Roger Allers and Ron Minkoff)
Once Were Warriors (New Zealand, Lee Tamahori)
Cemetery Man (Italy/France/Germany, Michele Soavi)
Faust (Czechoslovakia/UK, Jan Svankmajer)
I'll Do Anything (US, James L. Brooks)
The Mask (US, Charles Russell)
It Could Happen to You (US, Andrew Bergman)
Ashes of Time (Hong Kong, Wong Kar Wei)
Go Fish (US, Rose Troche)
When a Man Loves a Woman (US, Luis Mandoki)
Speed (US, Jan de Bont)
True Lies (US, James Cameron)
The Ref (US, Ted Demme)
Cabin Boy (US, Adam Resnick)
Legends of the Fall (US, Edward Zwick)

ACTOR: Johnny Depp, ED WOOD (2nd: Nigel Hawthorne, The Madness of King George, followed by: Woody Harrelson, Natural Born Killers, Morgan Freeman, The Shawshank Redemption; John Travolta, Pulp Fiction; Massimo Troisi, Il Postino; Roman Polanski, A Pure Formality; Gerard Depardieu, A Pure Formality; Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump; Paul Newman, Nobody’s Fool)

ACTRESS: Irene Jacob, THREE COLORS: RED (2nd: Linda Fiorentino, The Last Seduction, followed by: Kate Winslet, Heavenly Creatures; Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle; Juliette Lewis, Natural Born Killers; Natalie Portman, Leon; Melanie Lynskey, Heavenly Creatures; Meg Ryan, When A Man Loves a Woman; Jessica Lange, Blue Sky)





SUPPORTING ACTOR: (TIE) Martin Landau, ED WOOD and Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION (2nd: Robert Downey Jr., Natural Born Killers, followed by: John Turturro, Quiz Show; Paul Scofield, Quiz Show; Bob Gunton, The Shawshank Redemption; Bruce Willis, Pulp Fiction; Dennis Quaid, Wyatt Earp; Myketi Williamson, Forrest Gump)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Brooke Smith, VANYA ON 42ND STREET (2nd: Kirsten Dunst, Interview With The Vampire, followed by: Claire Danes, Little Women; Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction; Helen Mirren, The Madness of King George; Janeane Garafalo, Reality Bites; Amanda Plummer, Pulp Fiction; Dianne Wiest, Bullets Over Broadway; Jamie Lee Curtis, True Lies)

DIRECTOR: Quentin Tarantino, PULP FICTION (2nd: Tim Burton, Ed Wood, followed by: Terry Zwigoff, Crumb; Krzysztof Kieslowski, Three Colors: Red; Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers; Zhang Yimou, To Live; Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption; Steve James, Hoop Dreams; Abbas Kierostami, Through the Olive Trees)



NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: THREE COLORS: RED (France/Poland/Germany, Krzysztof Kieslowski) (2nd: To Live (China, Zhang Yimou), followed by: Through The Olive Trees (Iran, Abbas Kierostami); A Pure Formality (Italy/France, Giuseppe Tornatore); Il Postino (UK/Italy/France, Michael Radford); Chungking Express (Hong Kong, Wong Kar Wei); Burnt By The Sun (Russia, Nikita Mikhalov); Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (Thailand, Ang Lee); Before the Rain (Macedonia/France/UK, Milcho Manchevski))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: CRUMB (US, Terry Zwigoff) (2nd: Hoop Dreams (US, Steve James), followed by: Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (US, Steven M. Martin); A Great Day in Harlem (US, Jean Bach))

ANIMATED FEATURE: THE LION KING (US, Roger Allers and Ron Minkoff) (2nd: Faust (Czechoslovakia/UK, Jan Svankmajer))



ANIMATED SHORT: BLACK ICE (US, Stan Brakhage) (2nd: Tales From The Far Side (US, Marv Newland), followed by: Bob’s Birthday (UK, David Fine and Alison Snowden)



LIVE ACTION SHORT: TREVOR (US, Peggy Rajski) (2nd: Bottle Rocket (US, Wes Anderson), followed by: Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life (UK, Peter Capaldi) (tied with Trevor); Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade (US, George Hickenlooper); Sabotage (US, Spike Jonze))



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avery, PULP FICTION (2nd: Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, Ed Wood, followed by: Krzysztof Kieslowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, Three Colors: Red; Wei Lu and Hua Yu, To Live; Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, Heavenly Creatures)



ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Frank Darabont, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (2nd: Alan Bennett, The Madness of King George, followed by: Robin Swicord, Little Women; Anna Pavignano, Michael Radford, Furio Scarpelli, Giacomo Scarpelli and Massimo Troisi, Il Postino; Paul Attanasio, Quiz Show)



CINEMATOGRAPHY: Stefan Czapsky, ED WOOD (2nd: Piotr Sobocinski, Three Colors: Red, followed by: Roger Deakins, The Shawshank Redemption; Robert Richardson, Natural Born Killers; Owen Roizman, Wyatt Earp)

ART DIRECTION: THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE, The Hudsucker Proxy, Ed Wood, Quiz Show, Little Women

COSTUME DESIGN: THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, Interview With The Vampire, Little Women, The Madness of King George, Queen Margot



FILM EDITING: NATURAL BORN KILLERS, Pulp Fiction, Hoop Dreams, The Shawshank Redemption, Leon



SOUND: SPEED, The Shawshank Redemption, Natural Born Killers, Leon, Forrest Gump

SOUND EFFECTS: SPEED, Leon, Forrest Gump



ORIGINAL SCORE: Thomas Newman, LITTLE WOMEN (2nd: Howard Shore, Ed Wood, followed by: Zbigniew Priesner, Three Colors: Red; Luis Bacalov, Il Postino (won in 1996); Thomas Newman, The Shawshank Redemption)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” from THE LION KING (Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice) (2nd: "Hakuna Matata” from The Lion King (Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice), followed by "Circle of Life" from The Lion King (Music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice); "Regulate" from Above the Rim (Music by Warren G., Nate Dogg, Michael McDonald, Dr. Dre, and Bob James, lyrics by Warren G. and Nate Dogg); "Stay (I Missed You)" from Reality Bites (Music and lyrics by Lisa Loeb))



ADAPTED SCORE/SCORE FOR A MUSICAL: David Boeddinghaus, CRUMB (2nd: Hans Zimmer, The Lion King (won as Original Score))

SPECIAL EFFECTS: FORREST GUMP, The Mask, The Hudsucker Proxy

MAKEUP: ED WOOD, The Mask, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

1990--The Year in Review

1990 was an unremarkable year for film, though its primary note, Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, was easily the movie of the year, and the entire decade, judging by its clear influence three decades hence. Two other gangster related films, The Coen Brothers' regal Miller's Crossing and Stephen Frears' The Grifters, were similarly terrific. Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet was the most humanistic work of the year, while Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves took all the awards. But it's Scorsese's film that remains the most memorable and widely loved. NOTE: These are MY choices for each category, and are only occasionally reflective of the selections made by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (aka The Oscars). When available, the nominee that actually won the Oscar will be highlighted in bold.

PICTURE: GOODFELLAS (US, Martin Scorsese)
(2nd: Europa Europa (Germany/France/Poland, Agnieszka Holland)
followed by: Life is Sweet (UK, Mike Leigh)
Miller’s Crossing (US, Joel Coen)
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (US/UK, James Ivory)
The Grifters (US, Stephen Frears)
American Dream (US, Barbara Kopple)
The Reflecting Skin (Canada, Philip Ridley)
Mindwalk (US, Bernt Capra)
Men Don’t Leave (US, Paul Brickman)
Quick Change (US, Howard Franklin and Bill Murray)
Strangers in Good Company (Canada, Cynthia Scott)
An Angel at My Table (New Zealand, Jane Campion)
C’est la Vie (France, Diane Kurys)
White Hunter, Black Heart (US, Clint Eastwood)
Wild at Heart (US, David Lynch)
Mountains of the Moon (US, Bob Rafelson)
Dances With Wolves (US, Kevin Costner)
The Godfather Part III (US, Francis Ford Coppola)
Begotten (US, E. Elias Merhige)
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (Japan, Akira Kurosawa)
Miami Blues (US, George Armitage)
Edward Scissorhands (US, Tim Burton)
La Femme Nikita (France, Luc Besson)
Close-Up (Iran, Abbas Kiarostami)
Truly, Madly, Deeply (UK, Anthony Mingella)
The Freshman (US, Andrew Bergman)
To Sleep With Anger (US, Charles Burnett)
Henry and June (US, Philip Kaufman)
The Krays (UK, Peter Medak)
After Dark, My Sweet (US, James Foley)
Ju Dou (China, Zhang Yimou)
Tatie Danielle (France, Etienne Chatiliez)
Alice (US, Woody Allen)
Christo in Paris (US, Deborah Dickson, Susan Fromke, David Maysles and Albert Maysles)
Awakenings (US, Penny Marshall)
King of New York (US, Abel Ferrara)
Jacob’s Ladder (US, Adrian Lyne)
Paris is Burning (US, Jennie Livingston)
Riff Raff (UK, Ken Loach)
Dick Tracy (US, Warren Beatty)
Tremors (US, Ron Underwood)
The Sheltering Sky (US, Bernardo Bertolucci)
Days of Being Wild (Hong Kong, Wong Kar-Wai)
Reversal of Fortune (US, Barbet Schroeder)
Vincent and Theo (US, Robert Altman)
A Shock to the System (US, Jan Egleson)
Berkeley in the Sixties (US, Mark Kitchell)
Cyrano de Bergerac (France, Jean-Paul Rappeneau)
Metropolitan (US, Whit Stillman)
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (US, Chuck Workman)
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (US, John McNaughton)
Mo' Better Blues (US, Spike Lee)
White Palace (US, Luis Mandoki)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (UK/US, Tom Stoppard)
The Witches (UK/US, Nicolas Roeg)
The Field (Ireland, Jim Sheridan)
Boiling Point (Japan, Takeshi Kitano)
Avalon (US, Barry Levinson)
Pump Up The Volume (US, Allan Moyle)
Joe Versus The Volcano (US, John Patrick Shanley)
Back to the Future: Part III (US, Robert Zemeckis)
Stanley and Iris (US, Martin Ritt)
State of Grace (US, Phil Joanou)
Bad Influence (US, Curtis Hanson)
Nouvelle Vague (France, Jean-Luc Godard)
Postcards from the Edge (US, Mike Nichols)
Trust (US, Hal Hartley)
Lord of the Flies (US, Harry Hook)
The Hot Spot (US, Dennis Hopper)
Internal Affairs (US, Mike Figgis)
Presumed Innocent (US, Alan J. Pakula)
Green Card (US, Peter Weir)
Texasville (US, Peter Bogdanovich)
Pretty Woman (US, Garry Marshall)
Darkman (US, Sam Raimi)
Total Recall (US, Paul Verhoeven)
Hardware (US, Richard Stanley)
Misery (US, Rob Reiner)
The Two Jakes (US, Jack Nicholson)
Ghost (US, Jerry Zucker)
Graffiti Bridge (US, Prince)
Home Alone (US, Chris Columbus)
Troll 2 (US, Claudio Fragasso (as Drake Floyd)
The Bonfire of the Vanities (US, Brian De Palma)
Die Hard 2 (US, Renny Harlin))

ACTOR: Johnny Depp, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (2nd: Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune, followed by: Gerard Depardieu, Cyrano De Bergerac; Alec Baldwin, Miami Blues; Ray Liotta, GoodFellas; Paul Newman, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge; Robin Williams, Awakenings; Bill Murray, Quick Change)

ACTRESS: Alison Steadman, LIFE IS SWEET (2nd: Anjelica Huston, The Grifters, followed by: Joanne Woodward, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge; Jessica Lange, Men Don’t Leave; Laura Dern, Wild at Heart; Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miami Blues; Juliet Stevenson, Truly, Madly, Deeply)



SUPPORTING ACTOR: Joe Pesci, GOODFELLAS (2nd: Robert De Niro, Goodfellas, followed by: Albert Finney, Miller’s Crossing; John Turturro, Miller’s Crossing; Timothy Spall, Life is Sweet; Chris O’Donnell, Men Don’t Leave; Philip Bosco, Quick Change)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:  Annette Bening, THE GRIFTERS (2nd: Jane Horrocks, Life is Sweet, followed by: Diane Ladd, Wild at Heart; Lorraine Bracco, GoodFellas; Claire Skinner, Life is Sweet; Joan Cusack, Men Don’t Leave; Mary McCormack, Dances with Wolves)

DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese, GOODFELLAS (2nd: Agnieszka Holland, Europa Europa, followed by: Mike Leigh, Life is Sweet; Joel Coen, Miller’s Crossing; Stephen Frears, The Grifters; James Ivory, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge; Phillip Ridley, The Reflecting Skin)



NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM: EUROPA EUROPA (Germany/France/Poland, Agnieszka Holland) (2nd: C’est la Vie (France, Diane Kurys), followed by: Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (Japan, Akira Kurosawa); La Femme Nikita (France, Luc Besson); Close-Up (Iran, Abbas Kiarostami); Ju Dou (China, Zhang Yimou); Tatie Danielle (France, Etienne Chatiliez); Days of Being Wild (Hong Kong, Wong Kar-Wai); Cyrano de Bergerac (France, Jean-Paul Rappeneau); Boiling Point (Japan, Takeshi Kitano); Nouvelle Vague (France, Jean-Luc Godard))



DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: AMERICAN DREAM (US, Barbara Kopple) (2nd: Christo in Paris (US, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Deborah Dickson and Susan Fromke), followed by: Paris is Burning (US, Jennie Livingston); Berkeley in the Sixties (US, Mark Kitchell); Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (US, Chuck Workman))



ANIMATED SHORT: THE COW (USSR, Aleksandr Petrov) (2nd: Darkness Light Darkness (Czechoslovakia, Jan Svankmajer), followed by: Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse (US, Stan Brakhage))



LIVE ACTION SHORT: NIGHT CRIES: A RURAL TRAGEDY (Australia, Tracey Moffatt) (2nd:  12:01 PM (US, Jonathan Heap), followed by: Bronx Cheers (US, Raymond De Felitta)



ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Mike Leigh, LIFE IS SWEET (2nd: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Miller’s Crossing, followed by: Sally Bochner, Gloria Demers, Cynthia Scott and David Wilson, Strangers in Good Company; Bernt Capra, Fritjof Capra and Floyd Byers, Mindwalk; Andrew Bergman, The Freshman)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, GOODFELLAS (2nd: Agnieszka Holland and Paul Hengge, Europa Europa, followed by: Donald E. Westlake, The Grifters; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge; Peter Viertel, James Bridges and Burt Kennedy, White Hunter, Black Heart)

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Vittorio Storaro, THE SHELTERING SKY (2nd: Vittorio Storaro, Dick Tracy, followed by: Barry Sonnenfeld, Miller’s Crossing; Michael Ballhaus, GoodFellas; Phillippe Rousselot, Henry and June)

ART DIRECTION: DICK TRACY, Edward Scissorhands, Miller‘s Crossing, GoodFellas, The Godfather Part III

COSTUME DESIGN: CYRANO DE BERGERAC, Dick Tracy, GoodFellas, Miller’s Crossing, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge



FILM EDITING: GOODFELLAS, The Grifters, Miller’s Crossing, La Femme Nikita, Dances with Wolves

 

SOUND: DANCES WITH WOLVES, GoodFellas, Miller’s Crossing, Total Recall, The Hunt for Red October

SOUND EFFECTS: TOTAL RECALL, The Hunt For Red October

 

ORIGINAL SCORE: John Barry, DANCES WITH WOLVES (2nd: Thomas Newman, Men Don’t Leave, followed by: Elmer Bernstein, The Grifters; Richard Robbins, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge; Carter Burwell, Miller‘s Crossing)



ORIGINAL SONG: “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" from DICK TRACY (Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) (2nd: “The Hello Song” from Crazy People (Music and lyrics by Cal Devoll), followed by “Blaze of Glory” from Young Guns II (Music and lyrics by Jon Bon Jovi); "I'm Checkin' Out" from Postcards on the Edge (Music and lyrics by Shel Silverstein))

VISUAL EFFECTS: TOTAL RECALL, Dick Tracy 

MAKEUP: DICK TRACY, Edward Scissorhands, Cyrano De Bergerac

Film #11: Ed Wood

Lessee now...bio-pics about filmmakers. I dunno what took moviemakers so long to get around to attacking this subject---doesn't make sense, given how they make their lettuce. But as far as I can tell, Clint Eastwood's 1990 film White Hunter, Black Heart seems to have come first, surprisingly enough. It may have cloaked its main character with the name "John Wilson," but it obviously and effectively tells the brutal story of John Huston and his exploits while making The African Queen. Then we have Richard Attenborough's stuffy 1992 recounting of the life of Chaplin, with its only memorable element being Robert Downey Jr.'s dead-on performance as the film pioneer. But the best of the bunch, before or since, is Tim Burton's comically inventive version of the life of the greatest Z-list moviemaker of all time. What would've Ed Wood himself thought about Ed Wood? He would've eaten it up like a thick steak and downed it all with a fifth of scotch.

I'll never forget seeing Ed Wood for the first time, at 10:30 on a Sunday night in Atlanta, at Phipps Plaza. Not many people in the audience--the film was a bigger hit on video/DVD than at the theaters. That was okay by me--that meant less people talking in the theater. But from their rapt attention, I knew this crowd knew and appreciated Ed Wood the man. And from that first shot pulling into a rain-battered house that hides a coffin containing Criswell (Jeffrey Jones), who rises and proceeds to introduce this film in the same manner that the real Criswell introduced Plan 9 From Outer Space--this thunderstruck concept had its hooks in me, and I had no worries. I knew we were all in for a good time. Further, when Howard Shore's masterful, bongo-and-theremin-driven score blares forth, and the inventively orchestrated credits sequence carries us through an Woodian cemetery, a fight with a giant octopus, and a trip into outer space--I REALLY knew I was in for transcendence. And the show had barely started.

Face it: Edward D. Wood Jr. made movies the way he wanted to make them. He had twisted visions and technique, and not a dime, and it didn't matter, 'cuz people are still watching Plan 9 From Outer Space, Bride of the Monster, Glen or Glenda, and Jailbait. Ed Wood is easily Tim Burton's greatest movie, and one of the greatest movies about the movies, because it knows this. It realizes the singularity of his efforts and boldly makes a direct correlation between Wood, who made the "worst" movies of all time and Orson Welles, who made the "best." On top of that, the film's special luminescence comes from the clever irony seeing Burton's opulent, expensive black-and-white work, gorgeously produced and paced, about a guy who made perfectly ugly black-and-white el cheapos that still, because of their naive, even sloppy uniqueness, hold us in their thrall.

In what is still also their best work, pop culture chroniclers/ screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karazewski (Man on the Moon--about Andy Kaufman--and Auto Focus--about Bob Crane) found a sapphire of inspiration in their exploration of the creative urge and the joy in following a dream, however whacked-out it may be. Ed Wood exudes a romance for filmmaking, maybe for the first time in cinema history; it loves the process. Rich in character--and in characters (Jones' Criswell, George "The Animal" Steele's Tor Johnson, Lisa Marie's Vampira, Bill Murray's Bunny Breckinridge, and the incomparable Martin Landau, unrecognizable in Rick Baker and Ve Neill's deft makeup, as Bela Lugosi), Ed Wood's life now seems made for cinematic retelling (the film is based on Rudolph Gray's verbal history book, Nightmare of Ecstasy). Even if Wood's (and Lugosi's) time on earth weren't as peachy as it appears here, it's okay--for me, that's part of the movie's cosmic joke: it's a $25 million Hollywood movie about an off-Hollywood director who was probably lucky to make 25 million cents in his lifetime.

Even with its love-lettering to movies, the decision to center the work on the father-son relationship between the optimistic Wood and the morphine-addicted Lugosi is a masterstroke, particularly coming from Burton. He had a similar relationship with his own boyhood idol, Vincent Price, who was not only the subject and narrator of Burton's first animated success, the likely autobiographical Vincent, but also, in his final screen role, played a key part in Burton's Edward Scissorhands. It stands, then, that this odd, touching on-screen fellowship between Johnny Depp's always-firey Wood and Landau's alternately sluggish and sharp Lugosi resonates throughout the film, even after Lugosi has disappeared from the scene. Both performances ended up being the single best special effect of 1994, a spinning wheel of desperate ego and deflated despair, all spiced up with Landau's grouchiness and Depp's emboldened zeal. Depp's showing here, after his uniformly touching displays of talent in Edward Scissorhands, What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Benny and Joon, convinced me that he was the finest male performer of his era.

As for the supporting cast, Murray scores points for delivering some of the movie's funniest moments, including its best throwaway gag--he dips a sneakered toe into a baptismal pool to "check" its temperature. Sarah Jessica Parker is an appropriately shrill presence as Ed Wood's first girlfriend and ill-fated leading lady (who went on to bigger things as the writer of a few Elvis Presley songs), while Patricia Arquette effuses wonderful sweetness as Wood's understanding true love (she barely reacts to Wood's nervous confession of compulsive tranvesticism). And Vincent D'Onofrio cameos brilliantly with his exacting imitation of Orson Welles (which is strangely looped in its sound--an element I like to view as a tribute to Welles' largely sound looped work in Touch of Evil). I also like Rance Howard (Ron Howard's dad) as the demanding producer of Bride of the Monster, with his emphatic desire that the film end with a "biiiiiiiig explo-sion!" Mike Starr's confused, streetwise backer of Glen or Glenda? is also a blustery notation.

However, Martin Landau is the miracle worker among them all. I still remember being introduced to him with Space:1999, the often maligned but strangely, quietly entertaining 1970s science fiction show from Britain's Thunderbirds producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. If you would've told me when I was 13 that he'd take home an Oscar in twenty years for playing Lugosi, I woulda laughed in your face, even while knowing of his contributions to such films as North By Northwest and Cleopatra. But, starting with Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream and on into Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors, Landau was obviously on to a superior second wind. I mean, is there anything funnier than the scene where Lugosi is charged with stepping into a night-shrouded pond ("Damn, it's cold! Throw me the viskey!!") in order to fake a life-or-death struggle with a giant, dead-tentacled fake octopus? His screams as he writhes with this thing are the stuff of myth, and the camera crew doesn't even have sound! By scene's end, the shot of an awed Ed Wood saying "That was perfect!" is completely called-for. And, in another key sequence, the way Landau's drugged-up Lugosi begs to end his life--with Wood in tow for the ride--and then grabs ahold of himself, eyes aglow, and breaks down in Eddie's arms, apologizing for even considering the notion. Wow. I didn't expect to cry in this movie. But I did.

Finally, as if all this weren't enough to convince one of Ed Wood's merits (and some people might still need convincing, since the film's cult status was confirmed by its sadly low $6 million box office take), the movie boasted of some indespensible technical contributions: Shore's moving and detailed  score, Stefan Czapky's award-winning, contrasty black-and-white photography, Tom Duffield's appropriately seedy art direction, and Colleen Atwood's imaginative costume design. With the exception of his gloriously silly Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Edward Scissorhands (each of which were nearly equal in quality to Ed Wood), I had always thought that Tim Burton had a genius for creating deeply-flawed but quite watchable films (his subsequent output, with the exception of the charming Big Fish and ambitious Sweeney Todd, has been much less impressive, with the outrageously puzzling and derivative Planet of the Apes, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and on and on, with the diminishing returns of Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows). But he vindicated himself, forever and entirely, with this heartfelt comedic masterpiece Ed Wood.  I like to think that Burton is constantly striving to make this kind of movie once again.