Topic Question
Added 2021-05-28 03:57:52 +0000 UTCWho do you consider to be the most underrated director and why? Video to follow.
Comments
I love the presentation with this wide open long takes, often times just of mundane things like scrubbing a floor or having breakfast. It really sucks me into the world of the movie and I feel deeply immersed. I'm just so impressed with the way the technical proficiency is able to bring me into this country and its sights, sounds and smells with its camera moves and choice of focus. In terms of an emotional connection, I'm a big fan of movies that don't relate to me at all but have so much detail and richness to the way they're told that I understand them despite having no connection with that way of life. That's how I felt here. Cuaron is able to paint the canvas with such fines details that it feels familiar even though I no it's not. I also see the movie as this beautiful love letter to the women in one's life and how they can shape and help someone grow. That theme of the movie is really moving to me.
Tyler Shobe
2021-06-11 18:52:12 +0000 UTCCan you please explain why Roma is a masterpiece? I honestly don't mean to be snarky, I went to see it in a theatre because I felt the movie deserved it and felt like it was a giant waste of time. Which made me a little sad because I really wanted and tried to enjoy the movie, but I just couldn't hang on to anything. It almost felt like I couldn't relate because I did not grow up rich and I felt like the movie was kind of soulless. Did I get it all wrong?
Adam Gregus
2021-06-11 18:43:19 +0000 UTCBeen giving this some thought and I came up with Michael Curtiz, who directed what is arguably the most critically recognized film of all time, Casablanca. It competes with Citizen Kane on the AFI list. But who remembers this Hungarian-born director? Orson Wells, naturally, but Curtiz? He worked with everyone from Joan Crawford to John Wayne. Errol Flynn was among one of his favorite actors to work with (he made Flynn a household name). He directed everything from film noire to musicals (Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Jazz Singer and White Christmas are staples in western cinema). I would argue that Curtiz is among the most influential directors, as important as anyone in the medium. But we hardly mention his name.
Atticus Xey
2021-05-30 23:25:28 +0000 UTCI don't think Alfonso Cuaron is talked about enough in terms of the best of the best modern filmmakers. He's put out three movies I think are unequivocally great, two of which are masterpieces in my eyes (Roma and Y Tu Mama Tambien). And then even when he's tries his hand are more popular filmmaker, he makes Gravity, a technical and cinematic feat, and The Prisoner of Azkaban which is able to transcend all the other films in the Harry Potter franchise to reach the level of just great entertainment with its technical prowess and purposeful visual motifs. I'm glad he's gotten a reasonable amount of acclaim from critics when he puts something out but I think people are a little quiet on him during the conversation of best working filmmakers.
Tyler Shobe
2021-05-29 12:59:49 +0000 UTCI’m glad someone picked Schrader. He’s definitely one of the best screenwriters there ever was in film history, alongside people like Robert Towne. I always felt that Scorsese and De Niro got the lion’s share of the credit for Taxi Driver when in fact anyone who was familiar with Schrader’s filmography would recognize that Travis Bickle is very much in line with his other protagonists and therefore more his creation than anyone else’s. Affliction and Auto Focus are two of my favorites.
Bennett Oliver
2021-05-28 21:59:41 +0000 UTCPeter Weir. His films exist in a variety of genres (thriller, romantic comedy, adventure), but what unites them all is the beguiling sense of place and atmosphere he brings to them. Every film of his is a world unto itself (the humid, intriguing Jakarta in The Year of Living Dangerously, the serene Amish community in Witness, the brightly sinister “town” in The Truman Show), vividly evoked with a lyrical sense of wonder and a touch of the mystical. Even the most mundane settings—like the staid 1950s prep school in Dead Poets Society—are given a transcendent, ethereal quality that makes them seem not of this world. Weir is probably most lauded for his satiric media fable The Truman Show, but there are a host of underrated gems to be found (Fearless, Master and Commander, The Way Back). Oh, and he’s gotten career-best performances from Harrison Ford (The Mosquito Coast), Jeff Bridges (Fearless), and Jim Carrey (The Truman Show).
Bennett Oliver
2021-05-28 21:31:51 +0000 UTCPaul Schrader. Purely as a screenplay writer, he has so many greats under his belt: Taxi Driver, Last Temptation of Christ, and Raging Bull. Not to mention the films he has also directed: First Reformed, Mishima, and Hardcore. His films all tend to explore the archetype of God's Lonely Man but each of the films listed above are great to outright masterpieces.
Ryan
2021-05-28 14:43:51 +0000 UTCLarisa Shepitko. Twice hospitalized on the set of her films, then died for her last project. Told a story, in "Wings" that has no feasible basis in the West, about female war heroes coming home after WW2. "The Ascent" is pure dedication visualized.
Matt G
2021-05-28 10:55:47 +0000 UTCHe would've been my other choice on here. I also loved The Secret of Roan Inish.
Wolfman Brandon
2021-05-28 09:50:04 +0000 UTCJohn Sayles is one of my all-time favorite filmmakers and you don’t hear much about him. Matewan, Passion Fish, Eight Men Out are all fantastic and The Big Chill was basically a ripoff of Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus 7, which came out 2 or 3 years before The Big Chill. Lone Star is an absolute masterpiece. This is the one I always tell people to start with when introducing them to Sayles. I also love that fact that he funds his personal projects by taking writing jobs on more mainstream Hollywood films.
Shaeffer Holt
2021-05-28 06:02:06 +0000 UTCFrank Tashlin - A great satirist of his day, often using his background as an animator to make some of the funniest movies of the 1950s, mocking the media and the entertainment and advertising industries. My personal favorite from him is Artists and Models, probably his most surreal and wacky film. His other film with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Hollywood or Bust is also pretty good, along with his two movies with Jayne Maysfield, The Girl Can't Help It and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Stephen
2021-05-28 05:23:58 +0000 UTCFirst Man was good but it didn't have the same punch because he didn't write it.
Wolfman Brandon
2021-05-28 04:52:57 +0000 UTCDefinitely agree. Probably my favorite "new" director of the 2010s. Whiplash and La La Land get the most attention, but I'm also big on First Man.
Stephen
2021-05-28 04:46:36 +0000 UTCAlan Rudolph - Being a protege of Altman, a lot of Rudolph's films echo his style, utilizing ensemble casts, overlapping sound design, and camera zooms often creating worlds that seem dark, noirish, and otherworldly. His characters are often defined by either their criminal pasts or previous relationships with unresolved issues. Ironically though, unlike most "film noirs," a lot his movies have happy endings, were his characters grow and reinvent themselves. Trouble in Mind (1985) is my personal favorite and if you're a fan of Hitchcock, Remember My Name (1978) is a treat.
Stephen
2021-05-28 04:38:44 +0000 UTCDamien Chazelle. He's directed only four feature length films so far and yet two of those are Whiplash and La La Land. In an era full of soulless, corporate cash grabs, he shows so much energy, love and intelligence in the filmmaking craft and he shows this in his screenwriting too. I think film buffs recognize him but he deserves a much bigger audience because people like him are exactly what this industry needs more of.
Wolfman Brandon
2021-05-28 04:20:52 +0000 UTCJohn Carpenter is hands down the most underrated director! His classic films mainly became cult classics due to their poor box office, and negative reviews at the time of their releases. His films really transcended multiple genres and his style is still highly unmatched today!
Tony Moro
2021-05-28 04:12:29 +0000 UTC
