Bravely unorthodox true-life comedy

Johnny Depp plays the eponymous director of the film once rated as the Worst Movie of all Time: ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’.

This is a classic Depp role, and he successfully captures the naïve enthusiasm and ability to suspend disbelief that led the cross-dressing Edward D. Wood Jr to film scenes that even an eight year old child would normally reject as hopelessly unrealistic or bodged.

Wood himself became a somewhat tragic character, but this true-story film stops before his ultimate booze-fuelled decline. Instead, it focuses on Wood’s real-life partnership with the aged Bela Lugosi, the out-of-work former horror actor who added the ‘star’ quality to Wood’s films. Lugosi is superbly played by Martin Landau, and his last scene (addled by age and drugs but still magnificent) is genuinely moving.

This bravely unorthodox black and white film certainly isn’t mainstream comedy. But if you are the type who enjoys the many bizarre-but-true events and characters (some not out of place in Monty Python), this is one of the most quietly amusing and strangely uplifting films about eccentricity that you will ever see.

Don’t skip the end credits either, since the ‘whatever-happened-to-him/her’ story that they tell is itself a surreal delight.