It’s fitting somehow that Tim Burton made his best film to date about the world’s worst filmmaker. The inherent layers of stylization—a period setting, shot in black and white, amid the schlock cinema milieu of Ed Wood Jr.— subsume Burton’s self-conscious peccadilloes, leaving a funny, sweet story of friendship and dreams anchored by career-best performances from Johnny Depp and Martin Landau. -Lee Gardner

1994 Tim Burton 1.85:1 B&W DCP 127 min.