Big Eyes

Tim Burton - 2014 - USA

• Forms with Burton's 1994 masterpiece Ed Wood - (also written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski) - a diptych of films celebrating the artistic struggle in a world of commerce.  The former film is black-and-white, this one in saturant color; both set in the 1950s.

• Mirroring the motif of framed painting, every shot is a composed portrait; a technique that may seem trite and gimmicky to some but is no less satisfying to the eye.

• Ed Wood's trash movies and Walter/Margaret Keane's kitsch paintings are defended against received wisdom of critics as valid art that resonates with its creators' souls and passions.

• Like its predecessor of 20 years earlier, Big Eyes is a shamelessly romanticized portrayal of its subject.  Burton is a visual storyteller, not a historical biographer.