Today...who is the best director?

[Heisenberg]

I will also add:

-Frank Darabont
-Brad Bird
-Darren Aronofsky
-David Fincher
-Paul Thomas Anderson
-Paul Greengrass

Totally forgot him. From an aesthetic point of view I love the way he frames each shot and his creativity with the camera. Also the gorgeous blackness in Se7en and Fight Club specifically.

 

[That-Guy]

Troy Duffy.

At least that what he says.

 

[Max J Power]

I will say though, if Neill Blomkamp and Duncan Jones make movies better than D9 and Moon, we could have a couple of masters on our hands.

Agreed. Rian Johnson, Martin McDonagh, and Florian Henckel von Donnersmark are ones to watch as well.

 

[Laderlappen]

And Andrew Dominik.

 

[Infinity9999x]

That sentence seems to describe almost every Nolan fanboy. Putting aside the hilarity of calling something like Inception a deep and highly intelligent movie (its complex for the sake of it, in the end its complexity is utterly meaningless), they view his storytelling ability as the the standard to which almost everyone should be judged, and if any director deviates from that style, then he is a lesser director.

You know what annoys me almost as much as those blind Nolan fanboys? Blind Nolan haters who dislike him simply because of his popularity and the fanboys.

I understand that the Nolan supporters can get out of hand. Really, I do. But I've found a novel concept. If something is good, I like it. I liked Avatar and Inception. I like Nolan and Cameron. I like Nolan's Bat-films and Burtons Bat-films. I hate this annoying flame war that both fans seem to feel must exist. It's stupid.

 

[Sentinel X]

You know what annoys me almost as much as those blind Nolan fanboys? Blind Nolan haters who dislike him simply because of his popularity and the fanboys.

I understand that the Nolan supporters can get out of hand. Really, I do. But I've found a novel concept. If something is good, I like it. I liked Avatar and Inception. I like Nolan and Cameron. I like Nolan's Bat-films and Burtons Bat-films. I hate this annoying flame war that both fans seem to feel must exist. It's stupid.

I totally agree

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

That sentence seems to describe almost every Nolan fanboy. Putting aside the hilarity of calling something like Inception a deep and highly intelligent movie (its complex for the sake of it, in the end its complexity is utterly meaningless), they view his storytelling ability as the the standard to which almost everyone should be judged, and if any director deviates from that style, then he is a lesser director.

Oh my God! He was talking about Wes Anderson, not Nolan, stop attempting to start a freaking flame war just because you want to satisfy your raging desire to stir things up.

And if you'd taken a good look at this thread you would have seen that a lot of people, myself included, have not put Nolan on the God Pedestal you claim, but instead noted that while he is good, he has too much exposition, can't shoot action very effectively, can't direct women or include good female roles very well, or is simply a better writer than director.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

gotta say favreau, Jason reitman, edgar wright FTW, also Guillermo Del Toro is quite awesome. I like Quentin Tarentino as a director...but not as a writer, as a writer i think he tends to borrow too much from his favorite movies, he tends to outright cut and paste sometimes, but visually he knows his way around a camera, and he's also a master of characterization, every character has a distinct personality and i love it lol. Mathew Vaugh is also a great up and comer.

 

[dude stannis]

I'm making the early 90's a cut off point. As much as I love Stallone, The Scott Brothers, Speilberg, Tim Burton, Scorsese, Mann etc. they're no longer in their film making prime.

Aside from the top three, which are concrete, the rest is in rough order:

1. Guillermo Del Toro
2. David Fincher
3. Christopher Nolan
4. Quentin Tarantino
5. Bryan Singer
6. Guy Ritchie
7. Robert Rodriguez
8. Antoine Fuqua
9. Jon Favreau
10. Adam McKay/Todd Philips

 

[spider-neil]

I'm going to give it to del toro. pan's was a masterpiece and GDT can also do genre action (hellboy/blade)

as for nolan, inception is a vastly overrated movie with bloated running time, excessive exposition and tedious action, memento is far superior and cost a fraction of the budget. a great director, but 'the' best? no chance.

 

[redhawk23]

Edgar Wright is increasingly growing on me.

 

[redhawk23]

I'm going to give it to del toro. pan's was a masterpiece and GDT can also do genre action (hellboy/blade)

as for nolan, inception is a vastly overrated movie with bloated running time, excessive exposition and tedious action, memento is far superior and cost a fraction of the budget. a great director, but 'the' best? no chance.

There is a difference between skill in writing and skill in direction. Nolan is a far better director than writer ( which is no small feat considering hes a pretty damn good writer) IMHO and that of many others he is one of the best of his craft. We can agree to disagree.

 

[Infinity9999x]

I'm going to give it to del toro. pan's was a masterpiece and GDT can also do genre action (hellboy/blade)

as for nolan, inception is a vastly overrated movie with bloated running time, excessive exposition and tedious action, memento is far superior and cost a fraction of the budget. a great director, but 'the' best? no chance.

I disagree. I loved Memento, but I think Inception has much more value in terms of multiple viewings. I saw Memento once and didn't feel the urge to watch it again. Upon leaving the theatre for Inception, I made a note to definitely watch it again. Same with TDK, Prestige, and even BB. (Though I think BB is the weakest of all the films I've mentioned.)

 

[Poeman]

Nolan right now is at the top...

Fincher, Scorsese, Del Toro, Peter Jackson are all near the top

 

[terry78]

After King Kong, the net nerds seem to have abandoned Jackson though. They were actually taking issue with him taking over for Del Toro in Hobbit.

 

[SuperFerret]

I don't know why, I thought Kong was great.

 

[spider-neil]

After King Kong, the net nerds seem to have abandoned Jackson though. They were actually taking issue with him taking over for Del Toro in Hobbit.

I would definately (DEFINATELY!) rather watch a del toro hobbit rather than jackson hobbit. jackson has lost the plot, lovely bones was a piece of utter **** and king kong was uttertly indulgent with it's running time. imo he peaked with two towers.

 

[DCnightwing23]

Del Toro is up there as well, i think more so with visuals then anything, he really brings such a creative unique mind visually with everything hes done. Pans labyrinth, the hellboy franchise, im sure im missing some other great ones off the top of my head, but visually he does stuff that other directors would use cgi, i would have loved to see what he would have done with something like avatar, im a big fan of del toro, but at the top of the list is still Nolan.

 

[spider-neil]

my favorite director is still cameron but that is more to do with what he's done in the past than the present.

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

Ah, I'd forgot about Edgar Wright, how could I? Must commit seppuku for that. I think my favourite parts about his directing style is his excellent usage of quick cuts that make for both great humour and scene transitions, as well as his amazing ability to incorporate Chekhov's everything just wonderfully.

 

[CBGB]

I would definately (DEFINATELY!) rather watch a del toro hobbit rather than jackson hobbit. jackson has lost the plot, lovely bones was a piece of utter **** and king kong was uttertly indulgent with it's running time. imo he peaked with two towers.

Why does a running time make a movie indulgent? I mean, many great films are over 3 hours. Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Samurai, and Ben-Hur to name just a few. People can be very narrow-minded. It seems some fanboys have forgotten about entertainment as a whole, and focus on parts that didn't quite work and blow it way out of proportion. I'm not singling you out spider-neil, and I respect your opinion, but that's a pretty bad reason to not like a film.

Back on topic.

Tarantino
Jackson
Scorsese
PT Anderson
Von Trier
Herzog
Wright
Favreau
and the Coen's.

 

[redhawk23]

i agree that on *hand to hand* combat action nolan is relatively weak, on action in general he's pretty fantastic. I mean surely you guys arent including the chase scene in TDK or the hallway fight in inception in you comments of weak action. Those are two of the better action scenes i've scene in movies of the past 5 years at the very least.

 

[Laderlappen]

Ang Lee is somone that should be mentioned. Not a consistent director but when he is great he is really great. Brokeback Mountain is one of my favorite movies, and Crouching Tiger and Sense & Sensibility are two very great films.

 

[spider-neil]

Why does a running time make a movie indulgent? I mean, many great films are over 3 hours. Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Samurai, and Ben-Hur to name just a few. People can be very narrow-minded. It seems some fanboys have forgotten about entertainment as a whole, and focus on parts that didn't quite work and blow it way out of proportion. I'm not singling you out spider-neil, and I respect your opinion, but that's a pretty bad reason to not like a film.

Back on topic.

Tarantino
Jackson
Scorsese
PT Anderson
Von Trier
Herzog
Wright
Favreau
and the Coen's.

I didn't 'dislike' kong kong I just didn't think it reached the heights of the LOTR trilogy. the long running like was 'a' reason, not 'the' reason for not loving king kong. imho jackson can't be considered amoung the greats for essentially making a wonderful trilogy (and little else), if that's the case then the toy story director should be in the list as well.

 

[Two-Face=Badass]

Why does a running time make a movie indulgent? I mean, many great films are over 3 hours. Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Seven Samurai, and Ben-Hur to name just a few. People can be very narrow-minded.

Man, just because SOME films work great with long running times doesn't mean other do as well. King Kong was one of those films, where the added running time did very little but fatigue many viewers, as opposed to Seven Samurai for instance which used its longer time well Kong didn't need, and shouldn't have had, it.