Favorite Directors

[Tyler Smith]

Everybody has a director that has changed the way they look at film. Who are some of your favorite directors and why?

[alexk]

I wanna shout out Alex Cox, for sure. Dude has made some great movies (Repo Man, Walker, Sid & Nancy) and some dogs (Straight to Hell, Revengers Tragedy) but his movies always win or lose based on ambition and energy. When it works, it's visceral and real and punk fuckin' rock.

[Dr Handsome]

I've only seen Repo Man but I can absolutely see what your saying about energy. It's not a perfect movie but it's still exciting and unusual and different. It's these kinds of movies that make me want to go out and just film something, anything.

[Tyler Smith]

I love "Repo Man" and have been meaning to see "Walker" for a long time.
I'm reminded of something my old theatre teacher used to say: "If you're going to fail, fail big."

[andyharwood]

I think Terry Zwigoff is very underrated. Crumb, Ghost World and Bad Santa are all great and Art School Confidential is one of my favourite films ever (I'm an art school drop out which might be colouring my perceptions a bit)

[Dr Handsome]

I had a thing for Ghost World back in high school. I honestly haven't seen it in a very long time so I'm hoping it holds up. I also forgot about Crumb and I'm adding it to my Netflix queue right... now!

The only Netflix tags for Crumb are "quirky" and "raunchy" because who doesn't want to see something that's both erotic and weird!

It also says it's recommended based on my interest in Psycho and The Office. If I didn't already know I wanted to see this movie I'd want to see it now.

[Tyler Smith]

Ghost World holds up, but for different reasons. When you're in high school or college- as I was when I first saw it- you find yourself in sympathy with Enid. However, as you get older, you relate much more to Seymour (Steve Buscemi). The film will always be somehow relevant to your life, just in the most depressing way imaginable.

[Dr Handsome]

Mar 10, 2010 17:55:27 GMT -5 Tyler Smith said:

The film will always be somehow relevant to your life, just in the most depressing way imaginable.

What a glowing recommendation.

They should think about printing that on the back of the DVD case.

[alexk]

I found Art School Confidental kind of weak when I saw it in theatres, but still love Ghost World and Crumb dearly. Add in Bad Santa, and dude has a definite vision of middle class america that doesn't get a lot of play elsewhere in the movies.

[andyharwood]

I mentioned that I liked R Crumb in one of my art school interviews and the guy interviewing me said that he couldn't sit through Crumb because he hated him so much. I find Crumb really likable in that film (much more so than in American Splendour). I think it shows that he's a remarkably well-adjusted guy (considering where he came from) who uses comics to work through his demons.

ASC is one of the funniest films I've ever seen but the jokes are so specific to art school that I can see how it wouldn't mean much to non-art students.

[Dr Handsome]

Would you actually call "Art School Confidential" a neo noir movie because if the posters next to me (Veronica Mars and Brick) are any indication I loves me a good neo noir.

[andyharwood]

I wouldn't really call it neo noir but it does have a big tonal shift where it goes from being a relatively light-hearted comedy to a very dark murder-mystery.

[mike]

The directors that changed the way I looked at films are all old school 70s guys: Coppola, Scorsese, Altman, Mallick, Lumet, Nichols etc.
I love the way they dissected movies, commented on them without making them abstract or losing the story. They had these intensely personal stories even though they were genre films. They were, or could be political without being alienating.
And the directors I love right now carry on that kind of tradition - they are certainly influenced by those film makers. Paul Thomas Anderson and Tarentino are the two that come to mind, but I would also say the Coen Bros come from that same 70s' linage.
Then there are the 'new millenium' directors that I love such as Michael Gondry, Spike Jonze, Sophia Coppola, Darren Arnofsky. They seem to be the products of the Internet and music videos as much as films.

[dancarin]

Hal Ashby had one of the best decades of film director history in the 70's. He made The Landlord in 1970, which is really funny and sad. Harold & Maude in 1971 which is easily his best movie, very weird and very heartwarming. Then he made The Last Detail with Jack Nicholson in 1973, Shampoo with Warren Beatty in 1975 (which is his least Hal Ashby film), then he made two amazing dramas, Bound For Glory in 1976 and Coming Home in 1978. He made his second best movie, maybe his best, with Being There in 1979, with Peter Sellers and Shirley McClaine. All seven movies he made in those ten years were great and he really influenced how I watched movies.

[lennart]

Personally I've found I enjoy the films of Kim Ki-duk a lot. I must admit I know very little of film beyond plot, dialogue, and aesthetics, but I really just seem to like the 'feel' of his films a lot. They are at times cringe-worthy, at times touching, and more often than not, both at once. In a paradoxical sense I find his films can be so incredibly real while still fantastical. What I think I mean is that his characters, though perhaps possible of slightly superhuman feats (i.e. the male protagonist in "3-Iron") or living in slightly unbelievable ways (c.f. "Time"), are still very real and true to their emotions and ideas. Perhaps I'm just naive and any lack of dialogue strikes me as ingenious, but I really do enjoy his films.
As well, though I can't say I've seen as many of his films, Hirokazu Koreeda's two films "Nobody Knows" and "Still Walking" are just phenomenal. I was particularly struck by "Still Walking"'s stark reality. You know how in films, a cliched/false moment (per se) is when a character tells their feelings very openly? The traditional solution among better films is to abstain from such idiocy, which is good, but they often tend to do so in a similar way. In this way, similar methods of abstention from the cliche/unrealistic moments create a new, subtler cliche in a way. "Still Walking," I felt, avoided both cliches excellently and took an unknown, yet (for the characters) completely natural and realistic path. I was just awe-struck when it ended; I was proud just to be among the same species as people who could create something so good.
Maybe that was more of a film review than a favourite director, but perhaps there is some overlap there.... I hope...

[maarow]

I hate to be conventional, but I think the director who's had the single greatest impact on how I understand and love film is Tim Burton. From watching Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice at a young age on local Chicago station WGN I learned that movies can be weird, abstract, emotionally symbolic funhouse extravaganzas that speak the language of the unconscious if they're allowed to. I think my love for silent films, German expressionism, horror, fairy tales, and all manner of the offbeat and esoteric blossomed from those childhood Sundays in front of the television trying to comprehend The Penguin's grotesque yet strangely moving funeral in Batman Returns or the reality of a corpulent claymation spectre in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

[Tyler Smith]

Aug 1, 2010 0:43:28 GMT -5 maarow said:

I hate to be conventional, but I think the director who's had the single greatest impact on how I understand and love film is Tim Burton.

My own misgivings about Burton aside, I don't think there's anything wrong with citing him as one of your favorites. I agree with you; his contribution to our generation's understanding and appreciation of German Expressionism cannot be overstated. While I don't like most of what he's done in the last ten years (with the exception of Sweeney Todd), there's no denying that, for a few years there from the late '80s to the mid-90s, Tim Burton was a truly exceptional and fascinating director.

[Dr Handsome]

I honestly thought I replied to that comment and now I'll only be echoing what Tyler said: there's nothing wrong with calling Tim Burton a great director. He may have lost his way in the past decade but there was a point where he was doing some really fantastic work. It bothers me, the joy people seem to take in being the first to hate something and this tendency to dismiss a directors entire career the moment the community agrees it's okay to hate them.

It's not that I don't think we have every right to criticize a director or his work but at times it doesn't seem like anyone actually wants the Tim Burton's of the world to make another good movie.

[siege121]

I'll be the bad guy and say I don't feel like Tim Burton is a great director. I feel like that title really only applies to directors who consistently put out good movies and Burton just doesn't do that for me. I have only enjoyed Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, and Beetlejuice and everything else just didn't do it for me.

However, he is someone who I consider an important filmmaker working today. He definitely has vision but when he repackages the same vision in every movie it gets tiresome. I don't hate him, I just get frustrated when I see another Burton/Depp collaboration. His work with Depp has really left a bad taste in my mouth whenever I see either of them in a project even when not together. Just so much wasted talent.

[Tyler Smith]

I have liked the following Tim Burton films:

BEETLEJUICE
BATMAN
BATMAN RETURNS
ED WOOD (people often forget this one)
SLEEPY HOLLOW
SWEENEY TODD

The Batman movies may not be the best, but they're certainly memorable and original. The others I truly feel are interesting movies.