First things first, obviously very happy to find this place. I thought it’d be good to have an initial director discussion thread.
Personally David Fincher and Darren Aaronofsky — I can watch their films time and time again. I’m currently watching The Whale for the second time and I think it’s one of the most powerful movies I’ve ever seen.
Looking forward to hearing from the community.
I have a deep fondness for David Lynch. The relationships he cultivates with staff and talent seems admirable, and more than his surrealism, I appreciate his ability to take mundane, or rote scenes and inject something new. For example, in twin peaks the straight lace fbi main character’s “rally the forces scene” has him revealing he has a literal belief that he is a physic, or the introduction of the police office having the decorative deer head collapse on the table. It’s just little visual and conceptual additions which subvert the viewers expectations and gets you reconsidering the scene. You can tell he’s having fun.
Additionally, I think that kojima studios work on death stranding actually scratches the same itch, though not a film. I love the little emotional beats Norman Reedus’ character takes whenever people insist on shaking his hand (he is phobic of touch), and the more earnest, sudo comedic scenes, like when you meet a character who dies and is revived every 23 minutes in his house without any preparation or context are welcome diversions which capture the magic of the weird while delivering essential exposition.
Lynch is definitely someone I want to watch more of, I watched his Masterclass on creativity, he’s an interesting character.
I just watched Lost Highway yesterday, and like every other Lynch project, I feel like it cracked my brain in ways I won’t be able to quantify for a very long time.
Lunch can be hit or miss but Mulholland Drive is such a masterpiece for sureealism
Satoshi Kon. It’s unfortunate his filmography is short but he’s made some of the best Japanese animated films.
Man… Paprika is one of my all time favourite animated films, absolutely unbelievable. I’ll have to check his others out.
I really like Jeremy Saulnier. He did Blue Ruin, Green Room, Hold the Dark and Murder Party. The way he shows violence is so abrupt and visceral. It’s as far from glorification as it gets. Well, except for Murder Party, that was just fun and hilarious.
Green Room was great, loved how it held the tension all the way through. Murder Party sounded interesting but could easily be terrible, I didn’t realize it was the same guy. I’ll have to check it out.
Murder Party is about a guy who answers a flier for a Halloween party but it turns out the people who put out the flier are crazy art students that want to murder someone. It has the same kind of vibes as Ready or Not. It’s very comedic which is a big departure from his other work like Green Room where everything is bleak and realistically violent.
I actually haven’t heard of him or watched any of his films, which is exciting — thanks for your recommendation!
I am in love with the style of Edgar Wright. To me, he is the best director. Not only because I enjoy his work, but also because in my eyes, he is one of few directors who understand the medium movies, and use that knowledge with every frame.
He is one big reason, why I began to look at movies as an Art form.
Edgar Wright is a really good choice. He has such a distinctive style, lots of hits in his filmography
Christopher Nolan blew my mind with his films
Very much looking forward to Oppenheimer, agreed — Tennet received a mixed response but I thought the subject hadn’t been tackled in that way before.
Yeah Tenet I think had a very cool concept but it was just hard to follow with all the audio issues and the super fast pacing taking you from scene to scene with various one off characters
Did they fix the audio issues? I remember in the cinema not being able to hear things properly. I think the fast pacing was on purpose, probably hard to follow on purpose?
I don’t think they ever fixed it since it would mean having to remix the audio to balance it well. If I rewatched it I’d rely on the subtitles.
Regarding the pacing maybe so? I just felt like I needed more time to have some of the concepts sink in a bit. I think inception did a much better job of doing that than tenet but idk
Not the biggest movie buff in recent years but always interested in what Villeneuve and Aranofsky are up to. Always fun to check in on Wes Anderson, but in smaller doses.
Ah I didn’t realise Villeneuve directed Prisoners, I loved that movie — the others (Dune, Blade Runner etc.) I definitely have to be in that kind of mood to watch them.
Also not the biggest movie buff but Wes Anderson’s movies scratch an itch that nothing else does. I love all the ones I’ve watched.
First two directors I used to be into but no longer:
I loved Tarantino’s work but I feel that I’ve “outgrown” it. I’m just not that interested in ultraviolence anymore.
Similarly, big fan of Wes Anderson, especially Moonrise Kingdom, but the incredible whiteness (both in cast and settings) of the majority of his movies has me longing for something more diverse (again, in both literal casting and in thematic backgrounds).
And now, who I’m still excited for:
DANIELS - I really enjoyed Swiss Army Man, tho it was flawed. I was hyped for Everything Everywhere and it delivered and then some. Can’t wait to see what they do next if that was just their second one.
Makoto Shinkai - All of his work is so achingly beautiful. Love it.
Jordan Peele - Loved Get Out of course. Us was interesting but didn’t stick as much. Even NOPE was flawed but still very unique and intriguing. I want to see what else he has.
Ari Aster - Hereditary was good, and Midsommar was amazing. I heard very little at all about Beau is Afraid (which is almost worse than hearing bad things), and I haven’t seen it yet. Still intrigued to see what’s next.
Kubrick. But for rewatch-ability, lately I really like Rian Johnson.
Hi!
Well, I am kinda oldschool when it comes to movies, actors, director and so on, I really like directors like Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino and the list could go on…When I first watched 2001, I couldn’t believe it was that old of a movie, I’m sad I missed the Kubrick exhibition in London not long ago.
Mel Brooks
Christopher Nolan. Inception and (specially) Interstellar remain some of my favorite movies.
Tarkovsky, and lately I’ve also enjoyed Charlie Kaufman
I haven’t seen some of his earlier movies, but Denis Villeneuve has made some of my favorite recent movies, including Arrival
I also am a huge fan of the Wachowskis, loved Cloud Atlas, Sense8, and Speed Racer. Only movie i didn’t really enjoy was Jupiter Ascending, but even then, there were aspects i still liked
Jupiter Ascending and Cloud Atlas are both great examples of my general rule that I’ll take an interesting but imperfect movie over an uninteresting but well made movie any day. As long as you’re exploring some new ground, I’ll get something out of it.
Totally. I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I really enjoyed The Matrix 4 for this reason.
The movie had some significant issues (wtf was that Merovingian fight?), but I loved the world building both in the matrix and in the real world.
Agnès Varda. Céline Sciamma.
I will watch anything Alexander Payne does. I think he has such a good grasp of the American zeitgeist. I have been a fan since Citizen Ruth.
