Who do you think is the best american director? right now

[Rac]

Scorcese still going good but i dont know about Francis Ford he hasnt mad a movie in a while

http://akas.imdb.com/title/tt0481797/

Spielberg? Pleaseeee hes washed up hasnt made a great film since minority report

Spielberg is very overrated director. He's made a decent amount of ****ty/medicore movies and still people treat him like a ****ing God.

The dudes I dig right now:
David Fincher
Martin Scorsese
Quentin Tarantino (btw #1, QT's mother was Cherokee so he's kinda the MOST American director right now mentioned in this thread.)

Btw #2, Cronenberg ain't American either. He's from Canada.

 

[dude stannis]

Gus Van Sant
Bryan Singer
Sofia Coppola
Sean Penn
George Clooney
Spike Jonze
Darren Aronofsky

Good list of potentials.

Singer and Clooney only have one (supposed) misstep to their names, Clooney's got Best Director in his pocket if he keeps making serious dramas, Singer could be the next James Cameron or even Steven Speilberg if he where to try directing some blockbusters with original concepts. Singer is in my top five directors and my personal favourite to hit greatness on this list.

Darren Aronofsky's big test will be RoboCop. His Batman ideas sounded dumb. I personally was bored shyteless by Requiem for a Dream.

Spike Jonze might have the most potential in this list from an unbiased perspective.

Sean Penn is solid but nothing blew me away. I still need to see Into the Wild.

Sofia Coppola needs to movie on from coming of age teenagers and vary her style a bit.

Gus Van Sant. Psycho remake. Why Gus why?

 

[Sarge 2.0]

Into the Wild is why Sean Penn is on that list. That was a truly incredible film that got shafted during award season. Probably because Penn was the one who directed it.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

False.

You see how ridiculous that is?

No, because when I say things are false, they actually are.

And that doesn't change the fact that Robert Rodriguez is a good director and Guy Ritchie is a hack. Rodriguez has made too many good movies, and Ritchie has made too many bad ones. Unless of course you actually enjoyed Swept Away or Revolver. Then there's no hope for you.

 

[luke1234]

Spike Jonez and Charlie Kauffman are one hell of a team

Charlies got a new film coming out with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, looks amazing

 

[cerealkiller182]

No, because when I say things are false, they actually are.

And that doesn't change the fact that Robert Rodriguez is a good director and Guy Ritchie is a hack. Rodriguez has made too many good movies, and Ritchie has made too many bad ones. Unless of course you actually enjoyed Swept Away or Revolver. Then there's no hope for you.

Revolver is no where near as bad as people make it out to be.

 

[luke1234]

No, because when I say things are false, they actually are.

And that doesn't change the fact that Robert Rodriguez is a good director and Guy Ritchie is a hack. Rodriguez has made too many good movies, and Ritchie has made too many bad ones. Unless of course you actually enjoyed Swept Away or Revolver. Then there's no hope for you.

wo wo wo wo wo

You got it the other way around bub,

#1-Rodriguz is a hack, the only thing hes ever done that was watchable was Sin City, and that was only because of the Visual Elements.
#2-Rodriguez was this close to ruining Tarantino's career. Thank god hes doing Inglourious Bastards and not hanging with Rodriguez
#3-Richie actually has a style and flow throughout his movies. How can you not like snatch or lock stock and two smoking barrells?

 

[Carmine Falcone]

And that doesn't change the fact that Robert Rodriguez is a good director and Guy Ritchie is a hack. Rodriguez has made too many good movies, and Ritchie has made too many bad ones. Unless of course you actually enjoyed Swept Away or Revolver. Then there's no hope for you.

When you can't see that Revolver is an extremely skillfully made movie, then there is no hope for you.

Revolver is no where near as bad as people make it out to be.

wo wo wo wo wo

You got it the other way around bub,

#3-Richie actually has a style and flow throughout his movies. How can you not like snatch or lock stock and two smoking barrells?

QFT.

By the way, I'm now done with this discussion. I accept that our opinions differ. I don't really feel like writing more about it.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I'm not even treading on some of these things but let me just say "Booooo" to the use of the lame "Overrated" stance.

Now Sean Penn could be the next great American storyteller in the vein of Clint Eastwood, a director I might add that has been left off many lists here in favour of "flash young pups".

Bryan Singer doesn't remind me of Spielberg or Cameron at all, he strikes me as being forced into set pieces rather than loving them, he reminds me more of Roman Polanski in his style.

 

[cerealkiller182]

When you can't see that Revolver is an extremely skillfully made movie, then there is no hope for you.

I wouldnt say "extremely skillfully made" but Revolver is both heavily flawed but better than most make it out to be.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I'm not even treading on some of these things but let me just say "Booooo" to the use of the lame "Overrated" stance.

Now Sean Penn could be the next great American storyteller in the vein of Clint Eastwood, a director I might add that has been left off many lists here in favour of "flash young pups".

I think the fact that its not all-time, its "right now" has skewed the results in favor of what you call "flash young pups"

But I agree Eastwood is definitely a strong force in Hollywood. I think Penn has some potnetial but I hated Into the Wild. It was fantastic til the end. The relationships he made are interesting and well acted but his final insight is one I knew going into the theater (and Im sure most if not all of the other people who saw it) making him look like a jack ass in the end.

Bryan Singer doesn't remind me of Spielberg or Cameron at all, he strikes me as being forced into set pieces rather than loving them, he reminds me more of Roman Polanski in his style.

I never thought of it before but I agree.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I think the fact that its not all-time, its "right now" has skewed the results in favor of what you call "flash young pups"

To me Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and his war opus make him as relevant as any of them, but his subtle style and focus more on story than visual probably puts the others over him for some.

But I agree Eastwood is definitely a strong force in Hollywood. I think Penn has some potnetial but I hated Into the Wild. It was fantastic til the end. The relationships he made are interesting and well acted but his final insight is one I knew going into the theater (and Im sure most if not all of the other people who saw it) making him look like a jack ass in the end.

Into The Wild was my favourite movie of 2007, with the ending I felt it was very human and brought home the overall story perfectly.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

No film has ever effected me on the personal level that Into the Wild did. It was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life.

 

[cerealkiller182]

To me Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and his war opus make him as relevant as any of them, but his subtle style and focus more on story than visual probably puts the others over him for some.

Im not saying hes not relevant Im just saying the OP and thread title seemed to put everyones mindset on the younger, modern guys

 

[Commodore Schmidlapp]

I'm not saying he's the best (yes I know the thread title says "best") but after seeing Gone Baby Gone I think Ben Affleck has the potential to be a great director.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

Ben does definitely have potential. Hell, I always liked him as an actor as well. He just made some really bad choices.

 

[Cinemaman]

Although I admire the eagerness of Rodriguez to extend the power of screen, but I really wouldn't call him a great director, because along with knowing how to attract your audience, you also need to make people excited about your story to be considered great.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

Revolver is no where near as bad as people make it out to be.

Yes it is. So is Swept Away. Come on, try to say that Swept Away is not absolute garbage. Just try. And yes, Revolver is also garbage. Pretentious, convoluted, pointless garbage.

wo wo wo wo wo

You got it the other way around bub,

#1-Rodriguz is a hack, the only thing hes ever done that was watchable was Sin City, and that was only because of the Visual Elements.
#2-Rodriguez was this close to ruining Tarantino's career. Thank god hes doing Inglourious Bastards and not hanging with Rodriguez
#3-Richie actually has a style and flow throughout his movies. How can you not like snatch or lock stock and two smoking barrells?

Those films were amusing in parts, but they don't make Guy Ritchie a masterful director, and they're nowhere near good enough to forgive the other crap he has put out. Like I said, at least Rodriguez knows story structure.

When you can't see that Revolver is an extremely skillfully made movie, then there is no hope for you.





QFT.

By the way, I'm now done with this discussion. I accept that our opinions differ. I don't really feel like writing more about it.

I'm amazed that you can call the pointless assembly of flash backs, flash forwards, and other narrative convolutions that is Revolver a skillfully made film. Revolver is the antithesis of a skillfully made film. It's not skillfully made in any department. It's a meaningless, hollow film filled with insipid sayings and motto's that attempt to make up for the fact that the plot is nothing more than a haphazardly jumbled together mess of scenes that Guy Ritchie thinks are cool. It was almost punishing to sit through, and impossible to care about. It's like the editors never went to film school. I don't even think there were editors, Guy Ritchie probably hired monkeys to man the editing room, and he just released whatever they managed to come up with.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

Good list of potentials.

Singer and Clooney only have one (supposed) misstep to their names, Clooney's got Best Director in his pocket if he keeps making serious dramas, Singer could be the next James Cameron or even Steven Speilberg if he where to try directing some blockbusters with original concepts. Singer is in my top five directors and my personal favourite to hit greatness on this list.

Darren Aronofsky's big test will be RoboCop. His Batman ideas sounded dumb. I personally was bored shyteless by Requiem for a Dream.

Spike Jonze might have the most potential in this list from an unbiased perspective.

Sean Penn is solid but nothing blew me away. I still need to see Into the Wild.

Sofia Coppola needs to movie on from coming of age teenagers and vary her style a bit.

Gus Van Sant. Psycho remake. Why Gus why?

Valkyrie is going to make or break Singer. It looks very good, so I've got high hopes.

Aronofsky has the Wrestler and the Fighter on deck as well. Apparently the Wrestler is his departure from the typical Aronofsky film, and he does it very well. So I think Aronofsky has a bright future indeed.

Spike Jonze is great and has lots of potential. I wish he would do more films though.

Clooney definitely seems to be cementing himself as a great director, he just needs a few more films under his belt.

I agree on Coppola. I have high hopes for her though, I like her style.

Yeah, that's a really big black spot on Van Sant's record. Here's hoping that Milk will make up for it.

 

[cerealkiller182]

Yes it is. So is Swept Away. Come on, try to say that Swept Away is not absolute garbage. Just try. And yes, Revolver is also garbage. Pretentious, convoluted, pointless garbage..

Did I say Swept Away was good? No. Its ****. I agree. But Revolver isnt that bad. its not that great, its not groundbreaking, its not award winning, its not flawless, or even that note-worthy. but it entertained me.

 

[luke1234]

No film has ever effected me on the personal level that Into the Wild did. It was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life.

I agree that movie gripped me and still hasnt let go

 

[luke1234]

Wes Anderson is another young director with great potential. He needs to start taking on different films though. The last 3 movies he has done have all been "family" movies and all have had the same colors and looks. Im looking forward to Fantastic Mr. Fox, but if i have to see another father son bonding moment, im gona blow my head off hahaha.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

Did I say Swept Away was good? No. Its ****. I agree. But Revolver isnt that bad. its not that great, its not groundbreaking, its not award winning, its not flawless, or even that note-worthy. but it entertained me.

I don't understand how you could even find the film entertaining, considering how fundamentally bad it is.

 

[cerealkiller182]

I agree with Wes Anderson, but his stories have been fresh and different in their own ways but strung together by family bonds. I think you see the style of directing in many directors, an overall theme in most if not all their movies with the rest of the elements keeping the freshness

 

[cerealkiller182]

I don't understand how you could even find the film entertaining, considering how fundamentally bad it is.

I dont really care.