Who do you feel are the greatest, best, your favorite directors WORKING today? (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

But the series is Paddington and both of those movies are about as good as movies get.

My wife absolutely adores the Paddington films. I certainly think they are high water marks for that genre.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Can I add Barry Jenkins to this list of important filmmakers? Moonlight was powerful and exquisitely beautiful. He is a director who knows his light and how to make subtle emotions visible. I think he is a poet of the highest order.
PS - The Coens, Wes Anderson, Tarantino, Scorsese, PT Anderson, Safdie Brothers

Do you see something that all the directors you mention have in common?

 

[Jeffrey D]

Do you see something that all the directors you mention have in common?

Can’t wait for the answer.

 

[mskaye]

Do you see something that all the directors you mention have in common?

They all have distinct and elevated visual styles and creative visions. Their films are almost immediately identifiable as their own. There is authorship and a point of view. They take chances with style and with subject matter. They work outside the traditional Hollywood blockbuster system.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

They all have distinct and elevated visual styles and creative visions. Their films are almost immediately identifiable as their own. There is authorship and a point of view. They take chances with style and with subject matter. They work outside the traditional Hollywood blockbuster system.

I would add that all of them place a very heavy emphasis on characters and character building. When you watch their pictures you walk away feeling like you met and know the people in them.

I think this generally says something about us as moviegoers. The way we select favorites is often very related to how the characters are presented to us. While all those guys have distinct quirks and visual styles they all definitely want you to feel you know their characters...whether they are good guys or bad they open a door to them for us to step through to put us in their world and make us understand them.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

He's only made one picture but what a debut it was. I certainly want to see whatever Boots Riley does next. Part comedy, social satire, and science fiction, Sorry to Bother You was a knockout first film.

 

[mskaye]

I would add that all of them place a very heavy emphasis on characters and character building. When you watch their pictures you walk away feeling like you met and know the people in them.

I think this generally says something about us as moviegoers. The way we select favorites is often very related to how the characters are presented to us. While all those guys have distinct quirks and visual styles they all definitely want you to feel you know their characters...whether they are good guys or bad they open a door to them for us to step through to put us in their world and make us understand them.

absolutely agree about characters. Also a great knack for casting and tweaking/experimentation with narrative structure. Sound design is also very original.

 

[mskaye]

absolutely agree about characters. Also a great knack for casting and tweaking/experimentation with narrative structure. Sound design is also very original.

One other observation: rarely, in most of these great director's films, do any of the big dramatic moments or climaxes fall flat. The set up dramatic situations perfectly. They pay them off with electricity, style and emotion. By the way, I seriously liked Sorry to Bother You. A great mash up of styles - a little Get Out, a little Island of Lost Souls, Twlight Zone, with a very relevant profound message.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Joel & Ethan Coen
Mel Gibson
Edgar Wright
Quentin Tarantino
Tom Tykwer
Nicolas Winding Refn
Sam Raimi
S. Craig Zahler (Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, Dragged Across Concrete)

 

[Beckford]

Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine, Prince of Broadway)
Xavier Dolan (Mommy, Laurence Anyways, Matthias & Maxime)
Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman, About Elly, A Separation)
Pedro Almodovar (Law of Desire, Bad Education, Pain and Glory)
Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Kingdom of Heaven, Matchstick Men)
and I'm still hoping for another masterpiece from Terrence Malick, whose already given us several
(Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life).

 

[jayembee]

Right now, at this specific moment in time, the director I'm most excited about is Denis Villeneuve. In 20 years I expect he will be held in the same regard as the ones above.

I got excited about Villeneuve from the one-two punch of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. He was the reason I was so excited about Dune. Sicario hadn't looked like my kind of film, so I didn't see it until after Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. I still need to catch up with his earlier work.

 

[JohnRice]

I got excited about Villeneuve from the one-two punch of Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. He was the reason I was so excited about Dune. Sicario hadn't looked like my kind of film, so I didn't see it until after Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. I still need to catch up with his earlier work.

Sicario and Prisoners are both excellent. Enemy is very weird and not for everyone. I haven't seen any of his French language movies.

 

[jayembee]

Ah, Kore-eda! Always looking forward to his next film.

I was gob-smacked recently when I saw an announcement that Netflix is co-producing a TV series that he's writing and directing:

Breaking News - Netflix Announces New Series "The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House" Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda | TheFutonCritic.com

thefutoncritic.com

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Sicario and Prisoners are both excellent. Enemy is very weird and not for everyone. I haven't seen any of his French language movies.

I really liked Prisoners although it seems it wasn’t as widely seen as it could have been - the director’s slow burn, longer length tendencies are well in effect there but if you have the time I think it pays off.

Because of his skill with long films, I’d really like to see him try his hand on a limited series for a premium outlet, the kind of thing with a single director for all of the episodes that runs about 8 hours. I think he’d excel with that form. I almost think his Dune would have been better in that format than separate films spaced years apart.

 

[JohnRice]

I really liked Prisoners although it seems it wasn’t as widely seen as it could have been - the director’s slow burn, longer length tendencies are well in effect there but if you have the time I think it pays off.

Because of his skill with long films, I’d really like to see him try his hand on a limited series for a premium outlet, the kind of thing with a single director for all of the episodes that runs about 8 hours. I think he’d excel with that form. I almost think his Dune would have been better in that format than separate films spaced years apart.

Anyone who liked Zodiac would probably like Prisoners. Ironically Jake G is in both films.

 

[bujaki]

Polytechnique is another excellent film about a difficult matter: a mass shooting in Montreal, 1989. The targeted victims were women.
Incendies is a masterpiece that was justly nominated for an Academy Award. It also won many international awards. This was the film that made me look forward to his future work. I haven't been disappointed.

 

[Alex...]

Ridley Scott hands down one of the best. His films always have that grandness, the worlds he creates, and characters as well. This is but a fraction of his amazing accomplishments:

Alien
Prometheus
Alien Covenant
Blade Runner
The Martian
Thelma & Louise
Legend
Gladiator
The Counselor
Black Rain

 

[Ross Gowland]

Wes Anderson would be my choice for best working director.

Godard would be a contender, but although he’s still alive he’s 91 so probably not likely to make another film. I also highly rate Richard Linklater, Edgar Wright, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. And as a teenage Cinema du Look fan, I also have soft spots for Leos Carax and Luc Besson.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Ridley Scott hands down one of the best. His films always have that grandness, the worlds he creates, and characters as well. This is but a fraction of his amazing accomplishments:

Alien
Prometheus
Alien Covenant
Blade Runner
The Martian
Thelma & Louise
Legend
Gladiator
The Counselor
Black Rain

One of Ridley’s better films is one that isn’t epic, and doesn’t have a large feel to it-
Matchstick Men. Highly recommend it, if you haven’t seen it.

 

[Tino]

I love Ridley Scott films too but truth be told he is somewhat inconsistent Imo. For every great film there is a mediocre one.