The Ten Best Johnny Depp Movies
With the latest chapter in Disney’s juggernaut Pirates of the Caribbean franchise hitting theaters this week, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, CinemaNerdz takes a fond look back on one of the most dynamic marquee names in film today – Johnny Depp – who only recently found his footing with popular audiences thanks in large part to director Tim Burton’s recent forays into bloated children’s fodder (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland) and, of course, the instantly iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow, in which the versatile Depp spiced his years of interestingly fey tics with a big dash of Keith Richards swagger to elevate what would have otherwise been routine popcorn fare.
Depp is currently filming Tim Burton’s reimagining of the 1970s vampire soap opera Dark Shadows and a big screen version of 21 Jump Street (a show he once considered a prison sentence…how times have changed). But, has Depp become too comfortable in his new era of gecko-voicing family entertainment and Angelina Jolie-starring vanity pictures? Here’s hoping he finds his way back into the kinds of challenging and off-kilter roles that typify his best work. Roles such as those on our list of the Ten Best Johnny Depp Movies….
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Runner-ups: Finding Neverland (2004), Blow (2001), The Libertine (2004), The Ninth Gate (1999), and a fantastic cameo in Before Night Falls (2000).
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10. Public Enemies (2009)
A welcome respite from Depp’s current glut of showy roles, Michael Mann’s lean account of 1930s gangster John Dillinger does the actor a service by encouraging a steely approach augmented by startling, business-like violence. The anomaly is a standout scene in which Dillinger, after making another daring prison escape, breaks into song and encourages his captive driver to join in (apparently a true occurrence). In scenes like this where he can indulge a bit of that devil-may-care eccentricity, Depp’s greatest assets as an atypical Hollywood lead are on full display.
9. Cry-Baby (1990)
John Water’s rambunctious ode to 1950s juvenile delinquency was the movie that released Depp from his 21 Jump Street TV purgatory. As the titular teardrop-tattooed rockabilly king, Depp delights in sending up the hysterics surrounding his teen idol status and the role offers him his first chance to tap into his curious blend of male and female qualities. Amongst Water’s family of eccentrics, Depp found a home and a career path.
8. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (1993)
Leonardo DiCaprio got due attention for his performance as the mentally-challenged brother of Depp’s title character, but this is an important moment in Depp’s early career where he put himself on display as a melancholy character free from the eccentric comforts of Burton or Waters. While taking care of an obese mother and DiCaprio’s playful Arnie, Johnny plays up his thoughtful gaze and poet’s tenderness in a romance with Juliet Lewis. Another teaming with director Lasse Hallstrom for Chocolat (2000) reveals an actor whose confidence and screen command had grown tremendously in just a seven year span.
7. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Despite the misgivings about Depp’s beloved splash as Captain Jack Sparrow leading him down the path of more milquetoast choices, credit must be paid to the improvised free-reign he brought to his character’s development. A rogue playfulness sets him apart from the terribly bland Orlando Bloom and achieves the rare feat of making a hero as over-the-top as the villain. Shame about the sequels though.
6. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1997)
Another Depp/Burton pairing in a darker vein most notable for Depp’s David Bowie-inspired singing debut on film (he was dubbed in Cry Baby). Though an avid guitar player since his teen years, Depp has rarely showcased this particular passion in a movie. Sweeney Todd allows the actor to belt out some classic Stephen Sondheim numbers while reveling in the Grand Guignol story of the throat-slashing/meat pie-serving “Demon Barber of Fleet Street” Sweeney Todd.
5. Dead Man (1995)
For an actor who has become so reliant on big gestures and cartoonish character choices, Depp gave a stunningly quiet, enigmatic performance as William Blake: a bookish sort floating through dreamy encounters in Jim Jarmusch’s anti-Western. A grotesque gallery of mystics, murderers, and philosophers populate this black-and-white curiosity with Depp at the center of it all suffering from a near-fatal gunshot and led deeper into the Weird by an Indian guide called “Nobody” (Gary Farmer). Arty to be sure, but also really damn funny if you’re in the right mood. Incidentally, this may have inspired the actor into his own never-distributed-in-America directorial debut The Brave (featuring Marlon Brando, “bleak” doesn’t begin to convey the darkness found in that one).
4. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
Chalk it up to an unhealthy amount of time spent in the presence of unhinged gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, but Depp absolutely embodies the hyper-realized figure of the writer’s alter-ego “Raoul Duke” in Terry Gilliam’s kaleidoscopic adaptation of Thompson’s cult novel. Depp’s hilarious mumbled asides and glazed eyes transcend caricature; the possibility of real drug-fueled violence coils tightly around every scene. He has used many of the mannerisms of the Duke character in subsequent films (especially the interesting use of his hands) but has never again been so alive and menacing. The belated follow-up The Rum Diary (minus many of this film’s key players) is due later this year.
3. Donnie Brasco (1997)
More beloved in England than here in the States (possibly due to British stalwart Mike Newell directing), this is one of the best gangster flicks of the modern era. Less flash than Goodfellas, less heft than The Godfather, it is a modest look at low-level humps trying to get over (as typified by Al Pacino in a marvelous show of restraint and weariness as the never-was “Lefty”). Depp is FBI agent Joe Pistone in the true story of his years deep undercover with the mob and his conflicted psyche in having to bring down men to whom he became closer than family.
2. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
The Depp legend would not have flourished without touchstone works exploring his strange brand of androgynous sensitivity like this miraculous first collaboration with Tim Burton. Edward is the unfinished product of a fatherly mad scientist (Vincent Price) left to his own rather precarious devices (huge scissors in place of hands) and subjected to mockery as a meek foil for Burton’s bitter look at moribund suburbia.
1. Ed Wood (1994)
“This is the one I’ll be remembered for” crows Depp at his most boyish and wide-eyed as notoriously-inept 1950s B-film icon Edward D. Wood, Jr. in the best film in which he and Tim Burton may ever be involved. A special sort of magic permeates every frame as Depp channels Wood directing schlock like Bride of the Monster while indulging his fetish for cross-dressing and befriending fading legend Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) in a deeply poignant farewell to Old Hollywood.
Gregory Fichter
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