Johnny Depp Early Movies

Arizona Dream (1994)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, Lili Taylor, Vincent Gallo
Directed by: Emir Kusturica
Produced by: Yves Marmion, Claudie Ossard
MPAA Rating: R.

Depp is Axel, a New York fish tagger who claims to have the ability to listen to the fishes' dreams. One night, he is visited by his wannabe actor brother (Gallo) and told that his uncle (Lewis) wants him as his best man in his wedding in Arizona. Axel grew up with his uncle, who owns a Cadillac dealership, and no longer likes him as much as he used to. He doesn't want to attend, but, in a film where suspension of disbelief is required most of the time, he is shanghaied by his brother and driven all way to Arizona while in a drunken stupor.

There, he falls for a wacky and lusty widow (Dunaway), and later her daughter (Taylor). There is much to like about this film; some scenes are pure genius and turn you on in a way that makes you want to stick with it through its many unsure moments. Some of the more brilliant set pieces include Gallo's recreation of the crop-dusting scene from North By Northwest at an amateur night in a dusty old bar, and dinner scene set to the music of Django Reinhardt where Taylor tries to commit suicide with a pair of panty hose. A vastly uneven film that sabotages itself at some key moments, but its highs are great enough to recommend it.

Ed Wood (1994)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bill Murray, Patricia Arquette
Directed by: Tim Burton
Produced by: Denise DiNovi, Tim Burton
MPAA Rating: R.

A stranger-than-fiction true story of the early career of Edward D. Wood, Jr., the undisputed "worst movie director of all time," Tim Burton's Ed Wood is nevertheless a delightful, zany, and ultimately moving film. Wood was the auteur behind Glen or Glenda? (1953) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959), and it is during the making of these two no-budget flicks that Wood is profiled. His friendship with the aging, drug-addicted, former film star Bela Lugosi--who he cast in his movies--is one of the most poignant characters ever portrayed on film.

Wood had an infectious enthusiasm which inspired his cohorts, including transsexual wannabe Bunny (Bill Murray), the psychic Criswell (Jeffrey Jones), and behemoth wrestler Tor Johnson (George "The Animal" Steele). To a large extent, Ed Wood celebrates bad filmmaking raised to the level of a fine art form. With his fetishistic style of dressing in for pumps, narrow skirts and angora sweaters, Ed Wood was as much of an outsider as his actors. Perhaps the final irony is that Ed Wood may be one of the best films of all time about one of the worst filmmakers of all time.

Benny & Joon (1993)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Dan Hedaya, Mary Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn, Oliver Platt
Directed by: Jeremiah Chechik
MPAA Rating: PG.

Joon is a peculiar young woman overprotected by her older brother. Joon meets her match when she falls in love with a whimsical misfit, Sam. Sam is a dyslexic charmer obsessed with silent comedies. Together they prove the perfect mismatch.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis, Mary Steenburgen, Leonardo DiCaprio, John C. Reilly
Directed by: Lasse Hallstrom
Produced by: David Matalon, Bertil Ohlsson, Meir Teper
MPAA Rating: PG-13.

Bizarre, whimsical, and touching scenes mark What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Johnny Depp is Gilbert, the eldest brother in a large family of a very large (morbidly obese, actually) mother (Darlene Cates) who hasn't left the house since her husband committed suicide years before. Leonardo DiCaprio, who received an Academy Award nomination for his role, is Arnie, Gilbert's retarded teenage brother who needs constant supervision (he's often found scaling the town water tower).

Caring, passive Gilbert is burdened beyond reason, living a dead-end life in a dying small town, stocking shelves at a grocery store whose business being taken over by the new mall supermarket. Gilbert's best friends (Crispin Glover and John C. Reilly) see their futures in the form of undertaker and Burger Barn owner, and Gilbert's other social life is taken up with a random affair with a frustrated and reckless housewife (Mary Steenburgen).

Everyone needs the constantly patient Gilbert, whose future seems equally grim until well-traveled, straightforward Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her nonconformist grandmother (Penelope Branning) come to town. Their camper is in need of repair, so Becky stays long enough to actually have an effect on Gilbert, making his new life spiral in wild ways. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who also wrote the screenplay), What's Eating Gilbert Grape is quirky, irresistible, and endearingly eccentric without being a freak show.

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Starring: Robert Englund, Lisa Zane, Yaphet Kotto, Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper
Directed by: Rachel Talalay
Produced by: Robert Shaye
MPAA Rating: R.

Freddy Krueger, the evil dreamstalker, returns to lure his son back to Springwood. This time he may have met his match in his own child, but not before he enjoys some fiendish games of his own.

Cry-Baby (1990)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords
Directed by: John Waters
MPAA Rating: PG-13.

Cult director John Waters goes mainstream -- sort of -- in this send-up of 1950s teen melodramas. Heart-throb Johnny Depp stars in the title role as a glamorous delinquent who heads a gang of hoods known as the Drapes.

Trouble starts when Cry-Baby falls for a squeaky clean blonde from a rival group, the Squares. Their star-crossed romance sets off a rumble between the warring factions and Cry-Baby ends up doing time in reform school. Chock-full of rock 'n roll and Waters' usual cavalcade of eccentric celebrities, including Patty Hearst, Iggy Pop and former porn star Traci Lords.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Anthony Michael Hall, Vincent Price
Directed by: Tim Burton
Produced by: Denise DiNovi, Tim Burton
MPAA Rating: PG-13.

In Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, a suburban fairy tale with incredibly imaginative sets, an Avon lady, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), discovers the half-finished experiment--a man/monster named Edward (Johnny Depp)--of a mad scientist (played magically by Vincent Price) living in the neighborhood's old abandoned castle.

The scientist died before replacing the shy man's large shears with real hands. When Peg attempts to bring Edward into her suburban world, to live among her skeptical family (husband Alan Arkin and daughter Winona Ryder) and gossipy neighbors, his hands--dangerous yet capable of creating things of great beauty--make for some awkward, funny, and poignant situations: Edward as a topiary gardener, Edward as a cutting-edge hair stylist.

Edward Scissorhands is a story about tolerance, difference, and creativity as much as it is a story of a young man's coming of age (the young man in question is, of course, a monster). In the ironically surreal world of Edward's suburban community, he must try to find his place in it, and in the world at large.