Who Are The Best Directors In Hollywood

EW has recently published its top 25 filmmakers out there today, claiming that these 25 are the most talented, and most in-demand directors around. What does everyone else think?

1. Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List)
2. Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings)
3. Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
4. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)
5. Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)
6. Ridley Scott (Gladiator)
7. Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction)
8. Michael Mann (Heat)
9. James Cameron (Titanic)
10. Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
11. Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy)
12. David Fincher (Fight Club)
13. Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd)
14. Judd Apatow (Knocked Up)
15. Sam Raimi (Spider-Man)
16. Zack Snyder (300)
17. Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler)
18. Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
19. Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby)
20. Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind)
21. Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)
22. Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
23. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum)
24. Pedro Almodovar (Volver)
25. Jon Favreau (Iron Man)

Now, to be honest, its not a bad list. But come on, there are some glaring oversights going on here. Jon Favreau, as much as I liked Iron Man, is a little premature in his place. I think in a few years and a few more movies we can judge his abilites. Also, where is Brad Bird, Andrew Stanton, Sam Mendes, Wong Kar Wai, Alfonso Cuaron, David Lynch, Hayao Miyazaki, David Cronenberg (the list could go on). Surely all of these rank higher than the likes of Favreau and Snyder. But then also, if it is based on the most in demand directors, surely the year's most in demand director would be from the year's most in demand movie: Michael Bay (Transformers 2).

Well, let me break those down.


DESERVE THE LIST BASED ON THEIR LONGEVITY AND/OR OUTSTANDING RESUME:
Spielberg
Scorsese
Eastwood
R. Scott
Coen Bros.
Fincher
Burton
Howard


DESERVE THE LIST BASED MOSTLY ON THE PAST, BUT WHAT HAVE THEY DONE FOR US LATELY?
Jackson - "The Lovely Bones"... still not sold on it.
Soderbergh - can't wait for "The Informant"
Tarantino - "Inglorious Basterds" had better wipe "Grindhouse" from my memory, or there'll be hell to pay
Mann - ditto "Public Enemies"
Lee
P.T. Anderson - Only "There Will Be Blood" in the last seven years.


DESERVE THE LIST DESPITE THEIR RATHER LIMITED RESUME BECAUSE OF THEIR OUTSTANDING RECENT WORK
Nolan
Del Toro
Apatow
Snyder
Boyle

THEY'VE DONE GOOD WORK, BUT NOT ENOUGH TO BE ON THIS LIST
Raimi - Apart from Spider-Man, what? Quick and the Dead? Darkman? Evil Dead II? Come on.
Aronofsky - Yes, The Wrestler was a watershed event. But apart from that, only The Fountain this millennium. And he's remaking Robocop now?
Greengrass - Bourne was great, but that can't define his entire career.
Almodovar - don't know enough of his work
Favreau - let's talk ten years from now

Brad Bird and Andrew Stanton are awesome story-tellers, but I'd like to see how they do with something live before I enshrine them. I would certainly include, from surfer's list, Sam Mendes, Wong Kar Wai and Alfonso Cuaron. I think Cronenberg is (slightly) overrated, and I despise Lynch. Don't know Miyazaki well enough.

Other directors that may deserve mention, if not actual inclusion, are: Tyler Perry, Tony Gilroy, J.J. Abrams, Tony Scott, Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day and Analyze This), Michael Bay (natch), Chris Columbus, Nora Ephron, Roland Emmerich, and Rob Marshall. And I have to throw in Bryan Singer, Alex Proyas and Paul McGuigan on personal preference. But that's just me. I'm sure everyone has their favorites.

I'm not sure about your separation of Fincher and Boyle on a point of longevity/ body of work. Fincher has only released seven movies:

Alien3
Seven
The Game
Fight Club
Panic Room
Zodiac
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

Now compare that with Boyle's resume of:

Shallow Grave
Trainspotting
The Beach
28 Days Later
Millions
Sunshine
Slumdog Millionaire

I think there is easily enough there to compare the two, and so include Boyle on the first list. Also the same goes with Del Toro - Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy 1 and 2 and Pan's Labyrinth are some of my favourite movies and all executed brilliantly. I do agree with you regarding the Pixar guys, I'd love to see some live action stuff. Guess we'll see how Brad Bird does. You should check out Almodovar's stuff, it is stunning. One of the best character directors around today. I'm with you on Bryan Singer too, and would also add Wes Anderson, Alex Payne, Richard Linklater and Edgar Wright as a few of my own personal fave's.

i think the premise itself is flawed.. i don't think the terms "best," "most talented," and "most in-demand" are necessarily synonymous..




edit: i honestly hope Transformers 2 isn't acually 2009's most "in-demand" movie...... just off the top of my head, here are 10 movies i'm much more excited to see:

Watchmen (Zack Snyder)
I Love You, Man (John Hamburg... director of my favorite Stella episode)
9 (Shane Acker... based on his brilliant 2005 short... see below)
Inglorious Bastards (Quenin Tarantino)
The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson)
Tokyo! (Michel Gondry, Joon Ho Bong)
Ong-Bak 2 (Tony Jaa)
Avatar (James Cameron... but where's Michael Biehn?)
Wolverine (Gavin Hood..... he Wolverine / Weapon-X story has great potential, but this particular project hasn't convinced me yet)
T4 (He Who Must Not Be Named)

Shane Acker's 9 (the original short)

Well, that is indeed true, NSpan, but what would you expect from EW? However, I thought it was a good starting point for analyzing who is at the top of their game right now.

Shryke, the Evil Dead trilogy is amazing and one of the best film trilogies ever. In fact, it's still Raimi's best work.

I would also include Robert Rodriguez in that list. Sure he's hit and miss, but do you know any other director who is as diverse as he is working today? Plus, he gave us Sin City and that more than forgives his bad films (The Faculty, Spy Kids 3-D, Shark Boy and Lava Girl).

The Faculty kicks ass, despite its cliche ending.

I also liked The Faculty a lot more than I expected. Thrilled to see Pedro Almodovar on the list (one of my favourites) but is he "in demand" in Hollywood? And if that criteria doesn't matter so much than I rate Mike Leigh extremely high and think he deserves a spot.
What about Woody? Is he not rated anymore?

Yeah, I'm not sure about that one. Maybe it's because he doesn't make much money from his movies anymore, but then that could be said of a couple of those named directors. Mike Leigh is also very good, and fellow brit, Shane Meadows would also make my list. I am with you on Almodovar though, fantastic director and nice to see him recognised. His work since All About My Mother has been remarkable. I look forward to Broken Embraces with great anticipation.

Soderbergh shouldn't be on the list. Che was barely picked up by a distributor, and isn't exactly setting the arthouse scene alight. He has made a string of ignored indie pics over the last few years, and I've yet to meet someone who has actually seen The Good German. His position is only based on the Oceans films which are throwaway at the very most, and realistically I consider them to be feature-length ads.

numbersix_99 wrote:Soderbergh shouldn't be on the list. Che was barely picked up by a distributor, and isn't exactly setting the arthouse scene alight. He has made a string of ignored indie pics over the last few years, and I've yet to meet someone who has actually seen The Good German. His position is only based on the Oceans films which are throwaway at the very most, and realistically I consider them to be feature-length ads.

*raises hand in shame* I've seen 'The Good German.' The kindest thing I can say is that the book wasn't too bad...

That was the B/W with Clooney, right? Funny that it came out at virtually the same time as The Good Shepherd... I fully expected someone to release a third film soon after about a rabid police dog who turns himself around in "The Good German Shepherd"... given all the dog movies lately, I'm sure it's in the works...

And BTW, Traffic was terrific.

Almost everyone on those directors deserve except for Ang Lee that guys has only done 1 good film [Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon] and the rest of his work has been shit so i dont know why he's on the lis but a very good list for the most part.

1. Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List)
2. Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings)
3. Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
4. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)
5. Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)
6. Ridley Scott (Gladiator)
7. Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction)
8. Michael Mann (Heat)
9. James Cameron (Titanic)
10. Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
11. Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy)
12. David Fincher (Fight Club)
13. Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd)
14. Judd Apatow (Knocked Up)
15. Sam Raimi (Spider-Man)
16. Zack Snyder (300)
17. Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler)
18. Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
19. Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby)
20. Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind)
21. Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)
22. Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
23. Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum)
24. Pedro Almodovar (Volver)
25. Jon Favreau (Iron Man)

I actually think it is a very good list. Sure, Jon Favreau is a little premature, but Iron Man was a huge breakout success, which would make him very in-demand. As NSpan said, those terms are not synonymous, but as a combination of the terms, I think that this list is pretty accurate. I'd arrange the order differently but I think they did a good job.

A_Roode wrote:

numbersix_99 wrote:Soderbergh shouldn't be on the list. Che was barely picked up by a distributor, and isn't exactly setting the arthouse scene alight. He has made a string of ignored indie pics over the last few years, and I've yet to meet someone who has actually seen The Good German. His position is only based on the Oceans films which are throwaway at the very most, and realistically I consider them to be feature-length ads.

*raises hand in shame* I've seen 'The Good German.' The kindest thing I can say is that the book wasn't too bad...

Me too. Although I kind of liked it.

The list is okay but there are some missing although I think every one mentioned my additions. But I was only thinking about good directors and I wasn't including "in-demand" which would drop Linklater although he is brilliant.

I think it is cool than Boyle and Arronovsky are getting recognition for there newest films since I think they are two of the best working today.

Last complaint. The Coens at 11. Fuck that! I wouldn't put them any lower than 4. Genius. Ranked lower than Cameron or Mann is BS. Cameron hasn't done anything of note since Titanic in 97 (and that isn't of note) but I guess he was included for Terminator Salvation. There is no guarantee this movie will be good however. But more in demand than the Coens is ludicrous (not to be confused with the sub-par rapper and way sub-par actor). Mann has only 2 good movies this decade and 3 good movies in the 90s. 5 movies of note in 20 years and most of that was erased with Miami fucking Vice. Sure he did Heat and Colateral but he directed Miami Vice!!! He is not allowed to make any best directors list until I see Public Enemies and it is genius and the foul taste of that terrible movie is erased from my mouth with the sweet goodness of a Bale and Depp double team.

And that sounded very gay and dirty and I will leave you with that...

Donte, I'm pretty sure Cameron was included for Avatar, not Salvation. He didn't direct Salvation. That and for his awesome talent.

Oops you are correct Geez. He is directing Avatar but he wrote Salvation. Good catch. My argument however still stands. While T2 was good he hasn't done much else since the 80s when he did Aliens, Terminator and The Abyss.

silversurfer19 wrote:EW has recently published its top 25 filmmakers out there today, claiming that these 25 are the most talented, and most in-demand directors around. What does everyone else think?

I'm really surprised that Boyle is ahead of Eastwood. Maybe he is losing some luster or something but I didn't think so. I was totally turned off Changeling and sorely disappointed by Gran Torino but there can't be any argument to his box office success and ability to achieve Academy awards for his actors. I thought he would be an easy top 5.

Donte77 wrote:Oops you are correct Geez. He is directing Avatar but he wrote Salvation. Good catch. My argument however still stands. While T2 was good he hasn't done much else since the 80s when he did Aliens, Terminator and The Abyss.

He didn't write Salvation, he just created the characters and scenario of the original. I'm pretty sure nothing in T4 was written by Cameron besides what they take from T1 and T2

Donte, your reason for omitting Mann is fairly weak. Yes, you didn't like Miami Vice, but he has done enough in his career to warrant his place as far as I'm concerned. Especially considering the directors you think are some of the most talented (the Coens) of the field have had their own fair share of awful films. Until No Country For Old Men, the Coens had produced nothing of merit this century. The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty are easily on a similar par to Miami Vice, maybe even worse. However, I do acknowledge the Coens brilliance. They do have the ability to produce something astonishing, and for that they definitely deserve their place on the list. As does Mann.

I wasn't too fond of The Ladykillers myself, but you can't argue that the Coens are always original...and whether you like their movies or hate them, you can never mistake who made them. And I actually enjoyed Intolerable Cruelty quite a bit.

I don't deny the Coens originality and occasional genius, but they do make their fair share of duds, as do most directors. So to suggest that Mann does not deserve his place on the list because of a sub par Miami Vice is a bit unfair. He has easily done his fair share of very good and influential cinema. Just think without Mann, and Heat, The Dark Knight may never have turned out the way it was.

As much as I dislike Mann, except Colateral, I guess you have a point. The cohens have yet to have as big an impact on future filmmakers as most of the rest of the guys on the list. And I think that is ultimately the deciding factor. It's not necessarily the quality of individual works that makes a great director, it's the impact of their body of work on the future generations of moviemakers.

Case in point: I absolutely DETEST Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with a passion and I couldn't possibly care less about Panic Room and Alien3, and have yet to see Zodiac. I believe that David Fincher's only really GOOD complete film was Seven, but it's impossible to deny the impact he's had over the last decade or so.

And I mean, James Cameron has made, what?, 6 legit movies, (not one in the past 12 years) and not a single one of them stands the test of time besides T2, but he's still considered a great filmmaker...That might be more out of fond nostalgia than anything, but he has almost single-handedly pushed the limits of special effects in movies and is still helping them move forward. If he's not exactly an auteur, he's definitely an innovator. The Cecil B. Demille of our time.

IPKI$$ wrote:As much as I dislike Mann, except Colateral, I guess you have a point. The cohens have yet to have as big an impact on future filmmakers as most of the rest of the guys on the list. And I think that is ultimately the deciding factor. It's not necessarily the quality of individual works that makes a great director, it's the impact of their body of work on the future generations of moviemakers.

i think the Coens (along with Wes Anderson) have already drastically changed the face of cinema... these directors could stop making movies today, and their impact will be felt indefinitely nonetheless

I guess that could be argued, but I think the coens immediate impact is more subtle. Although Pinapple Express is just pretty much The Big Lebowski.