Although a funny, only slightly scary meditation on the nature of film-making is not everyone's cup of tea, this is a wonderfully crafted, funny, intelligent perfect movie.
Willem DaFoe is marvelous as the exhibitionist, horny (feeding on a beautiful woman is erotic for him), alternately menacing and petulant real vampire Schreck, who has agreed to star in Murnau's Nosferatu. There are shades of Christopher Walken's campy haminess in his performance, but he brings his own flavor of humor to a rather profound, poignant portrait. It makes me want to see his prior works again. John Malkovich plays the exact same cold prissy control freak he *always* plays, and it works perfectly. The rest of the cast is wonderful. Nice to see Eddie Izzard onscreen. No need to go into more details--prior reviews have captured all the important points. This film inspires confidence that there really are some intelligent filmmakers (producers, actors, directors, writers) in Hollywood.
Willem DaFoe is marvelous as the exhibitionist, horny (feeding on a beautiful woman is erotic for him), alternately menacing and petulant real vampire Schreck, who has agreed to star in Murnau's Nosferatu. There are shades of Christopher Walken's campy haminess in his performance, but he brings his own flavor of humor to a rather profound, poignant portrait. It makes me want to see his prior works again. John Malkovich plays the exact same cold prissy control freak he *always* plays, and it works perfectly. The rest of the cast is wonderful. Nice to see Eddie Izzard onscreen. No need to go into more details--prior reviews have captured all the important points. This film inspires confidence that there really are some intelligent filmmakers (producers, actors, directors, writers) in Hollywood.