The single greatest director of the past 10 years?

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I'm not the hugest Nolan fan but i think what makes him pretty great is that he's made big budget movies that still are distinctly his and are not completely compromised. They do have some artistic integrity.

I mean what, Inception had a budget of 150 million. How many 150 million dollar movies are like Inception?

But his best movies are the smaller ones like The Prestige or Memento.

And there is nothing inherently wrong with big summer movies that are made for mass appeal. Ones that are made well anyway. I've seen you praise the hell out of Avengers, for example.

A film lover should love all kinds of movies. From mega budget blockbusters to shoe string indies.

Don't get me wrong, I have no issue against people favoring Nolan. I just like discussing directors beyond Nolan in this thread because the Nolan discussion in this thread has already been done ad nauseum.

To change the topic, I don't think Edgar Wright gets enough credit. He's made some great films that are incredibly rewatchable, due to his great kinetic style, and his excellent camera work that adds to the comedy.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Yeah, slumcat if you're the kind of guy who snubs his nose at tentpole films...why oh why are you posting on a message board that largely revolves around them?

It's being around Pop music fans complaining that they don't talk about classical music as much.

 

[BatLobster]

To change the topic, I don't think Edgar Wright gets enough credit. He's made some great films that are incredibly rewatchable, due to his great kinetic style, and his excellent camera work that adds to the comedy.

I think Edgar Wright is great. I really admire the way he constructs his movies visually...it's never "standard coverage". He storyboards exhaustively and shoots his movies to be edited a very specific way.

I don't always find his brand of humor to be laugh out loud funny, but his movies are outrageously entertaining. I'd say he's underrated for sure.

 

[The Endless]

The Cornetto Trilogy is so, soooo good. Shaun of the Dead is amazing. As a British person i think, no offense to anyone, it's even funnier. The montage where Shaun is detailing his plan where they end up at the pub is just so relatable and funny. I've seen the film dozens of times and every time i'm in stitches at that part.

 

[weezerspider]

I think great directors extend the discussion of cinema. Nolan has actually compressed it and tanked it.

I find it so reductive to restrict cinema to stupid big budget studio money grab tent pole blockbusters. I find it the most inferior kind of cinema today.

There is so much wonderful cinema made around the world, in various languages, in various formats of various kinds. Yet we are limited to this extremely limiting form of mass appeal consumerist cinema.

But whatever sells I guess.

I agree Nolan is overrated by fanboys. I agree the over-fandom of him on this board can get annoying. I get it, but come on, the guy has a damn solid filmography. You're acting like he's Michael Bay or something. Nolan's got some artistic merit.

Also, it does depend on your criteria for best director. If we are going by impact as a whole to the whole world, GA/cinephiles EVERYBODY, it has to be Nolan. I personally think that's the wrong way to go about it(I believe it should just be who makes them best films, popularity/pop culture impact not mattering at all), but if that's your criteria, I totally understand Nolan getting so many votes.

If I made a list it would probably be:

1. PTA
2. Fincher
3. Tarantino
4. Scorsese
5. Wes Anderson
6. Nolan
7. Arnofosky
8. O. Russell
9. Wright
10. Cuaron

 

[Majik1387]

Edgar Wright.

It's also laughable that people think Nolan's movies are diverse in any way.

 

[BatLobster]

I think Fincher's a wee bit overrated. I feel like he's great at making these pristinely dark/psychological movies, and they're clearly meticulously crafted, but I also have been sensing some degree of hollowness to his movies at this stage in his career. It feels like he's going through the motions and isn't saying anything new artistically. I mean, I guess he's tried to branch out with Benjamin Button and Social Network, but neither of those movies blew me away. And I really dislike those Trent Reznor scores that he seems keen to keep incorporating.

He's still a must-see director for me, but I've been a bit disappointed with his last few movies. I hope Gone Girl can turn that around for me.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I like The Social Network way more from a filmmaking perspective than a a filmgoer perspective. I love the layers that are on the Social Network, such as the notion that most of the story could be true, or could not be, or how all of the characters have their good and bad sides. Fincher did an excellent job of presenting the characters as they are without telling us "this is bad guy" or "this is the good", but also at the same time implying that they are simply that, characters in a story as the whole movie is told by possibly unreliable testimony.

 

[BatLobster]

That's the thing...the movie raises some interesting questions and paints Zuckerberg in this semi-tragic/ironic light, but I felt myself walking away from it ultimately not caring all that much about how much credit Zuckerberg did or didn't deserve. As I said, it's well-crafted like all his films, with a whip-smart screenplay from Sorkin, but it just didn't leave me with any sort of lasting impact.

 

[-Arya-]

Fincher's last great film was Zodiac. A true masterpiece. I feel as though all his recent films are devoid of any long lasting appeal. I could watch Zodiac all day long, but I can't say the same about The Social Network, Benjamin Button or Girl with The Dragon Tattoo.

 

[BatLobster]

Yup, my thoughts exactly. Zodiac is amazing. Everything after that's come after that so far...eh. Imo of course.

 

[Laderlappen]

The Social Network is my favorite film so far this decade. Its the best work of Fincher's whole career I think. Its almost perfectly crafted in every detail.

 

[weezerspider]

The Social Network is Fincher's best film by far.

 

[BatLobster]

Ah, the beauty of subjectivity. For me it doesn't even begin hold a candle to Fight Club, Se7en or Zodiac.

 

[The Chris]

My favorite Fincher movies are still Fight Club and Seven, but Social Network is third to me. For the question in hand I have to say Nolan, he's wowed me too much in the past ten years whether it was the TDK Trilogy, Inception or The Prestige it doesn't matter, my reaction leaving the theater was the same.

1. Nolan
2. Fincher
3. Scorsese
4. Coens (Yeah the LadyKillers came out in 2004, but anybody that makes No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, True Grit, and Inside Llweyn Davis definitely makes my list)
5. Trying to figure out between Darren Aronofsky, Alfonso Cuaron, and Danny Boyle

I was thinking of PTA but he's only directed two films in the last ten years not counting this years movie, and The Master is not my favorite, though I still consider it very good.

 

[weezerspider]

Ah, the beauty of subjectivity. For me it doesn't even begin hold a candle to Fight Club, Se7en or Zodiac.

I actually think Fight Club is one of his most flawed works. The fact that so many people find Tyler Durdan so awesome shows Fincher didn't quite do his job. All of Durdan's ramblings are parody, but so many people take it as prophetic badassness. Fincher even admitted it disturbed him that so many people didn't get the parody of Durden and that he clearly failed at something. It's a great film, but that is a pretty strong flaw.

 

[The Endless]

I wouldn't say it's a flaw. Loads of people thought Rorschach was cool and bad ass and agreed with him.

That wasn't Alan Moore's fault. It's the fault of the prats in the readership who completely missed the point.

Same applies here.

 

[DA_Champion]

I agree Nolan is overrated by fanboys. I agree the over-fandom of him on this board can get annoying. I get it, but come on, the guy has a damn solid filmography. You're acting like he's Michael Bay or something. Nolan's got some artistic merit.

Also, it does depend on your criteria for best director. If we are going by impact as a whole to the whole world, GA/cinephiles EVERYBODY, it has to be Nolan. I personally think that's the wrong way to go about it(I believe it should just be who makes them best films, popularity/pop culture impact not mattering at all), but if that's your criteria, I totally understand Nolan getting so many votes.

If I made a list it would probably be:

1. PTA
2. Fincher
3. Tarantino
4. Scorsese
5. Wes Anderson
6. Nolan
7. Arnofosky
8. O. Russell
9. Wright
10. Cuaron

Are you annoyed by the fact Nolan's so highly-rated on a comic book site, or is your frustration also due to additional observations elsewhere?

The fact Nolan would be the most beloved director on a comic book movie discussion board doesn't strike me as either potentially annoying, frustrating, etc. Just predictable and matter of fact.

 

[DA_Champion]

I wouldn't say it's a flaw. Loads of people thought Rorschach was cool and bad ass and agreed with him.

That wasn't Alan Moore's fault. It's the fault of the prats in the readership who completely missed the point.

Same applies here.

I think that as artists part of what makes them good/bad is their evaluation and awareness of their audience. They need to know what can work and what can't work. If everybody in the world had their IQ spontaneously jump by 20 points, art would change as well because creators would respond to the shift in audience expectations.

A lot of people comment negatively on Nolan's use of exposition, quite frankly I don't think it's possible to communicate complex, specific ideas to the mass audience without exposition.

A good example is Snowpiercer, Harvey Weinstein wanted more exposition, when he couldn't get it, he chose not to invest the resources necessary to justify a mass release. Now the movie has less exposition, but a smaller number of people, people who are more interested, are watching it.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I actually think Fight Club is one of his most flawed works. The fact that so many people find Tyler Durdan so awesome shows Fincher didn't quite do his job. All of Durdan's ramblings are parody, but so many people take it as prophetic badassness. Fincher even admitted it disturbed him that so many people didn't get the parody of Durden and that he clearly failed at something. It's a great film, but that is a pretty strong flaw.

I actually got that Durden was parody with how over-the-top most of his actions are and how awful his living situation was (essentially showing him as the complete absolute opposite of a consumerist), but misaimed fandom will do that. Like Endless said, the same thing happened with Rorschach. Sometimes, there's nothing you can do about it without drastically chanaging the character.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I think that as artists part of what makes them good/bad is their evaluation and awareness of their audience. They need to know what can work and what can't work. If everybody in the world had their IQ spontaneously jump by 20 points, art would change as well because creators would respond to the shift in audience expectations.

A lot of people comment negatively on Nolan's use of exposition, quite frankly I don't think it's possible to communicate complex, specific ideas to the mass audience without exposition.

A good example is Snowpiercer, Harvey Weinstein wanted more exposition, when he couldn't get it, he chose not to invest the resources necessary to justify a mass release. Now the movie has less exposition, but a smaller number of people, people who are more interested, are watching it.

Nolan did a lot of handholding for Inception because of it. He had a lot of exposition to the point where characters were asking the same questions over again just so most of the audiences would get it, and there were still some people that said they didn't get it.

 

[Kane52630]

If you really dwell on it and look at all the greats in the past ten or so years, the one that immediately pops into my brain is the one and ONLY, Tommy Wiseau. Wiseau has accomplish many things when he made the Room. His film has not only transcended the romance film genre, it created its own genre and to this day, it remains untouchable.
Years from now, film scholars will continue to dissect and examine The Room for hidden messages and clues that Wiseau left that will bring answers to the War in Iraq and the Bush Administration. Wiseau is shrouded in mystery and that allows the film to grow in popularity and thus spreads his subtext message from The Room. All in all, this man towers over Spielberg, Kubrick, and Coppola with a single film and for that, he is the single greatest director of the past 10 years. Anyone who is willing to refute this simply doesn't get it.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

The real question is: How's your sex life?

 

[Black Narcissus]

I actually think Fight Club is one of his most flawed works. The fact that so many people find Tyler Durdan so awesome shows Fincher didn't quite do his job. All of Durdan's ramblings are parody, but so many people take it as prophetic badassness. Fincher even admitted it disturbed him that so many people didn't get the parody of Durden and that he clearly failed at something. It's a great film, but that is a pretty strong flaw.

You can say the same for Joker. Hell, how many Calvin Candie avies will you run into online?

 

[BatLobster]

If you really dwell on it and look at all the greats in the past ten or so years, the one that immediately pops into my brain is the one and ONLY, Tommy Wiseau. Wiseau has accomplish many things when he made the Room. His film has not only transcended the romance film genre, it created its own genre and to this day, it remains untouchable.
Years from now, film scholars will continue to dissect and examine The Room for hidden messages and clues that Wiseau left that will bring answers to the War in Iraq and the Bush Administration. Wiseau is shrouded in mystery and that allows the film to grow in popularity and thus spreads his subtext message from The Room. All in all, this man towers over Spielberg, Kubrick, and Coppola with a single film and for that, he is the single greatest director of the past 10 years. Anyone who is willing to refute this simply doesn't get it.

"If everbudy luv each other...the wurld would be a better place."

Poetry. The wurld was not ready for its brilliance.