I want your opinion as a director. Who are the most overrrated directors and who are the most underrated directors? Maybe your favorite movie from the underrated ones? I have a few days until I go back to school and want to watch some films that wont disapoint.
Will the Top 5 for each one do?
Overrated: Tarantino, Anderson, Burton, Lucas, and Malick (this one particularly kills me because throughout my career I’ve gotten “your work reminds me of Malick” so many times from so many different people in the industry and it’s just…no)
Underrated:
Gaspar Noe: My favorite director of all time. Everything he touches is something no one else but him could ever make. If there is a person whose career I would want, it’s his. He makes some of *the* most fucked up movies ever so if you have trigger warnings of any kind, I’d recommend staying away because I have a feeling at least one of them will be touched upon at some point. It’s hard to pick which one of his movies I like best, but I’d have to say his 2002 film “Irreversible” takes it by hair above “Enter The Void”. It usually makes it onto every list of most fucked up movies but honestly it’s sheer brilliance. It’s just…incredible. It was in Sundance, Cannes, Telluride, etc etc etc. It’s one of those films that critics for the most part rated simply with one word, because really it’s all you can say about it. If you want raw, human, gritty, gut wrenching dramas you watch Gaspar’s movies. They’re not “fucked up” for gratuity’s sake. The things he depicts are things that happen in real life and that’s what makes people uncomfortable. He brings the audience confront the shitty things human beings are capable of doing. He takes you to the point where you almost want to look away but you can’t because not only does he tell incredibly well written stories but he finds a way to portray them in a creatively unique way. His films are utterly fucking powerful and so very devastating and not one of them is even remotely similar as any of the previous ones.
Sean Durkin: Won “Best Director” at Sundance 2011 for his masterpiece “Martha Marcy May Marlene”.
Debra Granik: I’ll go with the obvious, picking multi Oscar nominated and winner of 2010 Sundance’s Jury Prize for “Best Picture” and “Best Screenplay”. Yes, of course “Winter’s Bone” is on my list. It was the film JLaw should’ve gotten the Oscar for instead of Silver Lining’s but that’s a rant for another day. One of the most thought provoking, brutal, and expertly crafted films of the decade, possibly ever…and written/directed by a fucking woman. She’s the living embodiment of the fact that a man can direct a shitty mediocre movie and then get hired to direct seventeen tentpoles back to back, but a woman takes makes one of the best films in cinema history and fades into obscurity never to work again.
Mike Cahill: I’ve talked about at length about Mike and his work with Brit Marling before. It’s absolutely sublime and the stuff you need to experience if you love sci-fi and quality movies. He’s always making waves at Sundance and other huge festivals with his work.
Andrea Arnold: Andrea directed what was easily the best movie of 2016 and one that has gotten robbed this award season. At least it got the Jury Prize at Cannes. “American Honey” is a film you can’t take your eyes off. It’s mesmerizing and rich. Andrea not only made a beautiful film but she managed to get stellar performances out of her entire cast, but specially Shia and Sasha. Shia has had a very long career, but he has never been this good.