Updated Two Favorite Films for Every Year List

Updated my list of two favorite films per year. There are certain years where I don't think I have a strong enough pool to draw from and I researched some films from those years that might be worth checking out. This will guide my viewing next time I have a classic film to pick:

2019 Two Popes (Fernando Meirelles)/Knives Out (Riann Johnson)

2018 Green Book (Peter Farrelly)/First Reformed (Paul Schrader)

2017 Florida Project (Sean Baker)/Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO (Martin McDonagh)

2016 Eye in the Sky (Gavin Hood)/La La Land (Damien Chazelle)

2015 Martian (Ridley Scott)/Spotlight (Thomas McCarthy)

2014 Gone Girl (David Fincher)/Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)

2013 Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)/American Hustle (David O Russell)

2012 Dark Knight Rises (Chris Nolan)/Flight (Rob Zemeckis)

2011 Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)/Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)

2010 Inception (Chris Nolan)/Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Edgar Wright)

2009 Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)/Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

2008 Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood)/FrostNixon (Ron Howard)

2007 3:10 to Yuma (James Mangold)/Lars and the Real Girl (Craig Gillespie)

2006 Little Miss Sunshine (Jonothan Dayton and Valerie Harris)/Departed (Marty Scorsese)

2005 The New World (Terrence Malick)/Junebug (Phil Morrison)

2004 The Aviator (Martin Scorsese)/Life Aquatic (Wes Anderson)

2003 Cold Mountain (Anthony Minghella)/Last Samurai (Edward Zwick)

2002 City of God (Fernando Meirelles)/Chicago (Rob Marshall)

2001 Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson)/Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff)

2000 Gladiator (Ridley Scott)/Wonderboys (Curtis Hanson)

1999 Three Kings (David O Russell)/Sweet and Lowdown (Woody Allen)

1998 Truman Show (Peter Weir)/Enemy of the State (Tony Scott)

1997 Titanic (James Cameron)/Good Will Hunting (Gus Van Sant)*.................................. Lolita, Full Monty, Devil’s Advocate

1996 Independence Day (Roland Emmerich)/Evita (Alan Parker)

1995 Apollo 13 (Ron Howard)/Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher)

1994 Ed Wood (Tim Burton)/Quiz Show (Robert Redford)

1993 Fugitive (Andrew Davis)/Pelican Brief (Alan Pakula)*….True Romance, Short Cuts

1992 The Player (Robert Altman)/A League of their Own (Penny Marshall)

1991 Terminator 2 (James Cameron)/Fisher King (Terry Gilliam)

1990 Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese)/Misery (Rob Reiner)

1989 Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir)/Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Stephen Spielberg)

1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Rob Zemeckis)/School Daze (Spike Lee)

1987 Good Morning Vietnam (Peter Weir)/Princess Bride (Rob Reiner)

1986 Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines)/Star Trek IV (Leonard Nimoy) *…Highlander, Labyrinth, Stand By Me, Space Camp

1985 Back to the Future (Rob Zemeckis)/Witness (Peer Weir)

1984 Amadeus (Milos Forman)/Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Stephen Spielberg)

1983 Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir)/Return of the Jedi (George Lucas)* …Outsiders, Local Hero, Silkwood Meaning of Life, Blue Thunder

1982 Verdict (Sidney Lumet) /ET (Stephen Spielberg)*….Tron, Fanny and Alexander, King of Comedy

1981 On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell)/Chariots of Fire (Hugh Hudson)

1980 Gods Must be Crazy (Jamie Uys)/Shining (Stanley Kubrick)*…Urban Cowboy, Xanadu, Flash Gordon

1979 Being There (Hal Ashby)/China Syndrome (Jeff Bridges)

1978 Badlands (Terrence Malick)/Every Which Way But Loose (Hal Ashby)*….Deer Hunter, The Boys from Brazil

1977 Star Wars (George Lucas)/High Anxiety (Mel Brooks) *…Smokey and the Bandit, Turning Point, Close Encounters

1976 Network (Sidney Lumet)/All the President’s Men (Alan J Pakula)

1975 The Man Who Would Be King (John Huston)/Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel)*…Nashville, Three Days in the Condor

1974 Chinatown (Roman Polanski)/Murder on the Orient Express (Sidney Lumet)

1973 American Graffiti (George Lucas)/Three Musketeers (Richard Lester)

1972 Poseidon Adventure (Roland Neame)/Cabaret (Bob Fossee)*…Slueth, Deliverance, Discreet Cham of the Burgoisee

1971 McCabe & Mrs Miller (Rob Altman)/Live and Let Die (Terrence Young)*….Andromeda Strain, Straw Dogs, Klute

1970 MASH (Rob Altman)/Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson)

1969 Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah)/They Shoot Horses Don’t They (Sydney Pollock)

1968 Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey)/Odd Couple (Gene Saks)

1967 In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison)/Wait Until Dark (Terrence Young)

1966 Our Man Flint (Daniel Mann)/Walk Don’t Run (Charles Walters)

1965 Great Race (Blake Edwards)/Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein)

1964 Beckett (Peter Glenville)/Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton)

1963 It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (Stanley Kramer)/Great Escape (John Sturges)

1962 Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer)/To Kill a Mockingbird (Robert  Mulligan)

1961 West Side Story (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins)/Judgment at Nuremberg (Stanley Kramer)

1960 The Apartment (Billy Wilder)/Magnificent Seven (John Sturges)

1959 North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock)/Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder)

1958 Touch of Evil (Orson Welles)/Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock)

1957 Bridge on the River Kwai (David Lean)/12 Angry Men (Sidney Lumet)

1956 Searchers (John Ford)/Man Who Knew Too Much (Alfred Hitchcock)

1955 East of Eden (Elia Kazan)/Kismet (Vincente Minnelli)*….Blackboard Jungle, Desperate Choirs

1954 Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk)/Salt of the Earth (Herbert Biberman)

1953 From Here to Eternity (Fred Zinnemann)/Roman Holiday (William Wyler)

1952 Singing in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly)/High Noon (Fred Zinnemann)

1951 African Queen (John Huston)/Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise)

1950 All About Eve (Joseph L Mankiewicz)/Harvey (Henry Koster)

1949 The Third Man (Carol Reed)/Pinky (Elia Kazan)

1948 Key Largo (John Huston)/Treasure of the Seirra Madre (John Huston)

1947 Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles)/Bishop’s Wife (Henry Koster)*…Ghost and Mrs Muir,  Odd Man Out, Secret Life of Walter Mitty

1946 Big Sleep (Howard Hawks)/It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra)

1945 Detour (Edgar Ullmer)/Scarlett Street (Fritz Lang)*…Along Came Jones, Mildred Pierce, Blithe Spirit

1944 Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra)/Meet me in Saint Louis (Vincente Minnelli)

1943 Shadow of a Doubt (Alfred Hitchcock)/Miracle at Morgan’s Creek (Preston Sturges)*…Song of Bernadette, The More the Merrier, Five Graces to Cairo

1942 Sabetour (Alfred Hitchcock)/Major and the Minor (Billy Wilder)*... Ox-Bow Incident, Tortilla Flat, Talk of the Town, Now Voyager

1941 Ball of Fire (Howard Hawks)/Meet John Doe (Frank Capra)

1940 His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks)/Go West (Leo McCarey) *…Great McGinty, Phantom of Chinatown, Great Dictator

1939 Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir)/Mr Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra)

Updating my Top 100: 100-88

While top 10 lists are pretty attainable to keep in your head, it's near impossible to really keep a Top 100 although somewhere in my archives I did tackle the task of trying to create the top 100 films I've ever watched.

I decided recently to try redrafting it, since I've seen many more films and my take on films has changed as I've gone along. The first time I ever made a top 100 list was in 2003 (the cut was a much lowered bar: films like Cool Runnings and Aspen Extreme made it) and because a) it really is hard to squeeze all the new films into 100 and b) films need some time to age, I'm going to go with greatest films up to 2003. A lot of the newer films are just going to surface in the bottom ranks of the list just because comparing classic films and recent films are like apples and oranges.

This entry was tiring and I'm not sure if I'll make it all the way to one even though I have the list written out. Leave comments and click on my links and I might be inspired to continue!

100. Cider House Rules, 1999, dir. by Lasse Holstrom, starring Tobey MaGuire, Michael Caine, Jane Alexander, Charlize Theron, Kathy Baker, Paul Rudd
A beautifully shot coming-of-age period piece that my coworker at Blockbuster made fun of me for liking and that I'm still ashamed to say that I have a lot of reverence for. It's not necessarily a profound film and if Miramax succeeded in getting the film an Oscar win over Dreamwork's American Beauty (fresh off the heels of Saving Private Ryan vs Shakespeare in Love, the two were engaged in a fierce marketing battle) then there might really be reason to hate this film. Nevertheless, it is a good film.

99. You Can Count on Me, 2000, dir. and written by Kenneth Longorean, starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, John Tenney
This character piece is about how little of an adult you feel like when you're in the presence of your adult sibling. Laura Linney plays a "responsible" single mom and Ruffalo (in his breakout role) plays the "irresponsible" brother coming for a visit. Both characters are full of doubt about themselves in different ways that creates a meaningful contrast that serves as the soul of the film. I watched this for the first time when I was a high school senior and apprehensive about the concept of adulthood itself so it has a somewhat curative effect on me to see such a truthful image of these adults as goofballs. Matthew Broderick also provides ample comic relief and serves as a foil of sorts.


98. 25th Hour, 2002, dir. Spike Lee, starring Ed Norton, Rosario Dawson, Barry Pepper, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin
It's been a somewhat frustrating experience originally liking and championing this film when it first came out and then watching it get praised in retrospect for all the wrong reasons. When publications such as The AV Club, RogerEbert.com, Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine and others came out with Best Films of The Decade list* 25th Hour seemed to come at the top of many of these lists because a lot of people wrongly hailed this film as the definitive cinematic artifact of 9/11. In truth, its connection to  9/11 is more relegated to behind-the-scenes minutia (Spike Lee filmed it in New York right after when other filmmakers wouldn't) and subtext that isn't universal to every viewer (the symbolism of the skyline without the Twin Towers). Instead, it's best to appreciate 25th Hour as a film with a superb premise and a great sense of dramatic tension. The story takes place over a single night as protagonist Ed Norton enjoys one last night of freedom with his girlfriend, father, and two friends at a seedy bar. Taking us miles away from the early works in Lee's repertoire stylistically (it works more as a commercial film), Lee's works in the 198

*I don't have the time to look up specifically which ones named it so high. I believe AV Club had it listed at #2 and Roger Emerson of Roger Ebert ran a poll in which 25th Hour placed pretty high for the wrong reasons.

97. Sunshine State, 2002 dir. John Sayles, starring Angela Bassett, Alan Rickman, Mary Steenburgen, Edie Falco, Timmothy Hutton, James McDaniel, Gordon Clapp, Jane Alexander

I love good ensemble films and I love films that have a great sense of place. There's also no place I love more than Florida which is what this film is about. It's about a seaside town is an unrealized slice of paradise to a lot of people. The beachside town has historical significance for the black residents because it represented a civil rights victory enabling them to get a "piece of the beach." From that subpopulation, a woman forced into exile through a teen pregnancy (Bassett) and the much more succesful ex-NFL player who impregnated her are both returning to town because a decision has to be made as to whether to sell their land to make way for a new development. In the meantime, there's a seaquarium mermaid entertainer who's bored to death of living in the same town too long (Falco) and a tightly wound spokeswoman for the new development freaking out that no one's sharing her enthusiasm (Steenburgen) and failing to notice that her husband is repeatedly attempting suicide (Clapp).

96. Our Man Flint, 1966, starring James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, Gila Gollan

It's difficult to quantify just why this is a great film except by the measure that I've watched it over and over and over and still enjoyed it. It's camp, which I previously wrote (in my post about Glee and the 1960's Batman show) is something you enjoy because it's consciously bad. The film is a parody of James Bond films that is played straight in a way, but is ultimately very silly and I find the film both hillarious and very classy. The actor, James Coburn (Great Escape among other films), was a very slender actor who stood out for me in the films I saw him and like the actor who played James Bond he won an Oscar well after his superhero days. He won in 1998 and was a very pudgy old man when he appeared on the podium to accept*.

*I saw his acceptance speech only in retrospect

95. Birth of a Nation, 1915, dir. by DW Griffith, starring Lillian Gish
This film prompts an interesting debate: It's undoubtedly a historic artifact, being the first major epic, the first silent film to tell a story, the first movie that approached feature length, and a number of other firsts. It's also a very racist and misguided film that helped launch the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan. I omitted this film the last time I made my list but I recently reconsidered because the film has great historical value. More importantly, there's just a certain magic existent in it: you're watching the experience of right and wrong change right from under your eyes.


94. Catch Me If You Can, 2002 dir. by Stephen Spielberg, starring Leo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Amy Adams, Martin Sheen, Jennifer Garner, Ellen Pompeo
I thought it was a great time capsule and one of many great examples of how Spielberg's films are always solid stories that rarely dissapoint. Beware, there are always a lot of Spielberg haters out there.
Link to a review

93. X-Men 2, 2003, dir. by Bryan Singer, starring Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Famke Jannsen, Hugh Jackman, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Halle Berry, Shawn Ashmore, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Kelly Hu, Rebecca Rojmain

I wasn't a comic book geek growing up. Of the few superhero series I was exposed to as a kid, X-Men was one of my enthusiastic favorites and I was delighted to see the cartoon (or rather the comic) translated cinematically so well. X-Men 2 was superior to the first in working the kinks out. I've enjoyed the scientific bent, the realistic modern tone, the sleek visuals and the great special effects. Most importantly, the cast is incredible.

92. Evita 1996 dir. Alan Parker, starring Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Jonathan Pryce

I remember watching this in a movie theater when I was in 8th grade. I was in my third year of Spanish and I have always had an interest in Latin Ameircan culture and history (I later took courses on Latin American history and geography in college) but I was dissapointed with this film because they almost never spoke. I didn't know the difference between a musical (songs interspersed with dialogue) and an opera (all songs) back then. This film has grown a lot more on me in subsequent viewings. One of the few Non-Disney musicals to be made in the 25 or so years prior to the genre's return with "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago", this film wins me over for its great musical numbers and because it's rich in historical context. Although it's merely song and dance, the film has almost as much to say about the period as a history textbook.


91. To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962 dir. Robert Mulligan, starring Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford

I was struggling with placement here and whether to put this at all. The film is ranked 58th on imdb and it's on the AFI top 100, so others haven't hesitated to list this as a classic. My brief conflct, aside from taking up a space on the list, was that the book (which I've personally read) itself is a masterpiece. Is this just something to watch if you're too lazy to read the book? I think in this case, the performances elevate it. Gregory Peck competed against Peter O'Toole of "Lawrence of Arabia" and won at the Oscars, and it was because he took an iconic figure and made it his own (O'Toole did the same thing too, to be fair). I also do like a good courtroom drama (even though I detest lawyers and being in court).

90. Master and Commander, 2003 dir. Peter Weir, starring Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany
In a way, this movie is the best historical epic I've ever seen because even though it doesn't serve the story, it serves history. For example, in a story set in the Napoleonic Wars on the high seas (where every minute of this film takes place) we would naturally be looking forward to seeing exciting naval battles amd while we do get our share of exciting naval action, we mostly experience the HMS Surprisespending their time waiting and trying to maintain their sanity so that when a battle actually does come, you realize the magnitude of it. The human element of the movie, the multi-layered friendship between Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, doesn't disspaoint either

89. Wait Until Dark, dir. Terrence Young, starring Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin

Audrey Hepburn is such a sweet, precious concoction that it's hard to imagine her in a thriler. That is, it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to kill her. In "Charade" (which also makes my list), the villains are so quirky and (even cute in a Looney Tunes kind of way) that you never really feel like she's in danger. Wait Until Dark is a great thriller that really does push that line. The film is also very minimalist in its use of space. Audrey Hepburn plays a blind women and the film takes place almost entirely in her apartment. As the audience, we are privy to more than she is and are given the point of view of the villains. A pair of thieves willing to kill for a valuable stash of trafficked drugs in Hepburn's possession. With their mark being blind, they set up their ruse in our plain sight. It's a brilliantly suspenseful film


88. Gangs of New York, 2002 dir. Marty Scorsese, starring Leo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, Jim Broadbent, John C Reilly, Brendan Gleason, Gary Lewis
Review Here

Judging best directors in the off-years

A quick informal post judging the merit of directors who got nominated for directorial nods without a Best Picture Oscar Nomination:

1998-Peter Weir: The Truman Show-I tend to think of Weir's strength as delicately structured epics with sweeping visuals. "The Truman Show" was certainly a shift for Weir but he's a great director, brought great performances in his cast, and this is one of the best films of 1998 period. With snubs for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, I'm glad this film got rewarded somewhere.
Grade: B+


1999-Spike Jonze: Being John Malkovich is more of a Charlie Kaufman film than a Spike Jonze film. This was earlier in Kaufman's career, so the Academy probably wasn't aware that Kaufman was the genius who made it happen. It's also unfortunate that Frank Darabont got snubbed here for a film that's still highly regarded and when one considers that he also got snubbed for "The Shawshank Redemption." If they were going to snub "Green Mile", I would have preferred the Academy have gone with "Talented Mr. Ripley" and Anthony Minghella.
Grade: C-

2000-Stephen Daldry: Billy Elliot- I'm not too opposed to Lasse Holstrom getting snubbed since he got nominated the year prior and "Chocolat" is very much Oscar-bait film of the least deserved BP nom of the decade. But why Daldry? Rob Zemeckis, who's always quite innovative even if he's not recognized very widely for it, made "Cast Away" ring with great intensity despite the fact that it was a one man show. Cameron Crowe made a very personal picture in "Almost Famous" as well. The Oscars love Daldry as evidenced by "Hours" and "The Reader"'s accolades. On the other hand, "Billy Elliott" wasn't yet at a point where Daldry started getting overly sappy.
Grade: C+


2001-David Lynch: Mulholland Drive and Ridley Scott: Black Hawk Down: Both great directors who deserve nods so no complaints here. Still, it's too bad Todd Fields wasn't nominated for "In the Bedroom."
Grade: A-

2002-Pedro Almodovar: Talk to Her: This nod baffles me the most. First, I would have thought foreign film enthusiasts might have gravitated toward Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" or "Monsoon Wedding" or at the very least, there would have been a foreign film bote split. However, Alexander Payne, who was 3 for 3 with critical hits at the time, however should have been a strong contender for a directorial nomination, Then there's Todd Haynes' Sirk send-up "Far From Heaven", Sam Mendes' "Road to Peridtion" or critical darling Spike Jonze's juggling of two Nicholas Cages with a great ensemble in "Adaptation" and Alfanso Cuaron himself. I might be able to imagine Pedro Almodovar's body of work being rewarded but it was such a competitive year. The nomi
Grade: B

2003-Fernando Meirelles truly deserves a nomination but I was just baffled by the year in which it came. "City of God" was nominated for the Golden Globes, a BAFTA and the Broadcast Film Socety in 2002. How many voters would even assume it was still eligible the following year?
Grade: B+

2004-Mike Leigh already had a nomination for "Secrets and Lies" and while "Vera Drake" had a deserving accolade it seemed like not much more than a biopic. In the meantime, Bill Condon (Kinsey), Michael Mann (Collateral) or Mike Nichols (who's Closer was somewhat of a comeback) were waiting in the wings
Grade: D

2006-Paul Greengrass: United 93: This was was a pretty good pick for the alternate slot since he's Australian (not exclusively foreign-language), chopped his teeth with the Bourne Supremacy and made a hit picture out of an ensemble (not a single star in the United 93 cast)
Grade: B+

2007-"Julian Schnabel for the Diving Bell and the Butterfly": Another instance in the 2000's where the last slot went to a foreign director. This is a fairly good entry for a genre that's vastly overrewarded (see: "My Left Foot", "The Sea Inside", "Elephant Man", "I Am Sam"). There were a few other directors like Sidney Lumet, Ridley Scott, and  Tim Burton who would have been nice to see in this category as opposed to Schnabel who was essentially a newbie.
Grade: B-

10 Current Directors worth following

10 Directors to acquaint yourself with: We all know Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas when it comes to blockbusters, Oliver Stone when it comes to controvoursey, Woody Allen for comedy but there are a lot of directors that the average filmgoer might not know of who are doing great work in the 21st century. Being familiar with these names of mostly up-and-coming directors will help you make a safer bet next time you’re in the movie theater line or videostore.
1. Fernando Meirelles: “Stick to your village and you’ll appeal to the whole world,” is the philosophy Meirelles preaches to global filmmakers trying to make it in the global era and one he perfected in the landmark 2002 film City of God, a gripping tale of a young photographer trying to make the most of a short-lived existence in the slums of Brazil. His follow-up which transported the Brazillian filmmaker to the shantytowns of Kenya in an adaptation of The Constant Gardener was received just as well this past year. In an ever-increasing global network of film, Meirelles is paving the way for third world filmmakers hoping to import a brand of filmmaking that retains their local flavor.
2. Wes Anderson: Anderson’s films are a delicately textured feast for the eyes and ears. Unique touches like David Bowie songs translated into Portuguese are infused into eclectic film scores and he pays equal attention to visual tones. His films often feature a central character surrounded by a colorful group of characters and by sorting out the kinks in the relationships in his life, he comes to the conclusion that love them or hate them, be greatful for all the people in your life because they come in handy someday.
3. Sam Mendes: His first film, American Beauty, struck a chord with the American public in capturing the depression of suburban conformity and won an Oscar. His second film Road to Perdition, didn’t get quite as acclaim as the first but still had its admirers (including myself, it’s a personal favorite of mine), while three times did not prove a charm for Jarhead, a film injected with just a bit too much testosterone to be effective. Still, traces of his distinct style are noticeable in all three films: Mendes tends to work from the outside in. In three entirely different settings, the Persian Gulf, The Mob Scene in Depression-Era Chicago, Mendes does a wonderful job, first and foremost, of portraying a world and the characters who inhabit it and the story takes off from there.
4. Stephen Sodebergh: First off, I have to admit that it’s kind of irritating how for such a self-proclaimed champion of independent filmmaking, it seems like the sole purpose of some of his movies is to give his friends Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney something to do. Faults aside, Sodebergh is a very innovative filmmaker whose never-ending desire to experiment makes it so that even if he comes up with a dud like Ocean’s 12 or Full Frontal, you have to give him credit for at least trying something new. When he gets it right, like in Traffic, the results can be classic
5. Rob Zemeckis-Stephen Spielberg’s lesser-known protégé has made some of the most memorable classics of the last 20 years showing great range and innovation. He has explored both the fun and serious sides of the sci-fi genre with the Back to the Future trilogy and Contact respectively. His wacky ideas include infusing the gangster film with animated cartoons in Who Framed Roger Robert and (along with co-writer Tom Hanks) basing an entire film on a marooned castaway befriending a volleyball in Cast Away and surprisingly both worked.
6. Kevin Smith-His humor is admittingly low-brow, but as crude humor goes, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more intelligent filmmaker than Smith. To treat his landmark film, Clerks (and now Clerks II) as representative of his work would not be giving him enough credit for his range. Chasing Amy is considered by some to be an insightful take on relationships (personally, I didn’t like it but others do), Dogma is probably one of the best religious satires ever made. While bashed by some, I found Mallrats is a great send-up to adolescent aimlessness. It’s moral is priceless: that the best things in life are the little joys (a new type of pretzel, a signing at the comic store, etc) that are found at your neighborhood mall. And that’s what it comes down to for Smith. Is there anything in life more serious than that?
7. Bryan Singer-Working with small budgets as shown with The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer demonstrated his ability as a great storyteller. With bigger budgets and biggest casts, Singer has still retained the human element but great special effects were added. He has done much to resurrect the superhero summer blockbuster with X-Men and Superman Returns (my review of Superman Returns was bad, but I think that Singer did a good job with what was given to him), by bringing realism to the genre. I’m not certain of this but it’s a good bet that pretty much everything from The Hulk to The Fantastic Four to Batman Begins took cues from him.
8. Peter Weir-For the 1985 hit film Witness, one of the very few films to use Pennsylvania’s Amish country as its setting, Australian Peter Weir was brought over to Hollywood for the project because they wanted someone with an outsider’s sensitivity and that has been one of his trademarks. Weir shows extroadinary attention to detail in his films, which helped make 2003 sea epic Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, set during the Napoleanic Wars, one of the best period pieces to date. He also has a great track record of single-handedly transforming the careers of leading actors he has worked with: Harrison Ford in Witness, Robin Williams in Dead Poets’ Society, and Jim Carrey in Truman Show
9. Alexander Payne-Payne is a UCLA Film School grad who studied abroad in Europe during his undergrad days. It was there where he picked up a fondness for Italian neorealism and he is now basically this generation’s answer to The Bycicle Thief. His last two films, About Schmidt and Sideways have both won multiple accolades, and his first two Citizen Ruth and Election, a high school comedy made with MTV films have developed cult followings. Schmidt and Sideways are marked by brilliant casting choices and a humor that comes from the subtleties and joys of life and they are emotionally affecting in a way few movies are.
10. Edward Zwick-With Glory, Legends of the Fall, The Last Samurai and the upcoming Blood Diamond, Zwick is most at home making the epic. He is great at period pieces, capturing time and place, and the quality of the art direction in his films (The recreation of 19th century San Fransisco for the opening of Last Samurai, for example) gets taken for granted all too often. He infuses films with wonderfully intense action scenes, and for making his films borderline action/period piece hybrids rather than period pieces, he is often overlooked by the academy, although he did win an Oscar as producer of Shakespeare in Love.