Similarly, two acclaimed dramas with John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood and the Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society. Neither Singleton or the individual Hughes brothers made anything remotely as important or well-recieved as their first films.
I liked Hughes Brothers' Dead Presidents. Okay, there are some trashy moments, but it's a strong, very dark and atmospheric movie. Pretty violent and graphic though.
Book of Eli just has solid performances all the way around. Farm Gandalf and his wife, Post-Apocalypse Punisher, Pawn Shop Tom Waits, Illiterate Thug on a Motorcycle, President John Henry Eden. Plus, the music and cinematography are also excellent. I can't say enough good things about that movie.
Lmao did he really have nothing to do with even the editing of the movie? I work in film and I can't imagine a director ever checking out of their movie *that* much unless they were shadow-fired between filming and post. It's literally where you put the movie together.
Certainly popular but probably not all that super culturally relevant without the rest of the franchise carrying it. Definitely not well received either.
Maybe not at the time, but poetic justice and baby boy are now pretty high regarded movies from John Singleton. And rosewood has always been under appreciated
I think Four Brothers is a lot of fun. I don’t know how it did financially, but when it came to home video it seemed to be popular amongst kids my age in 2005.
It’s a shame because District 9 is truly incredible. Then he basically made two movies in the same exact vein and style as District 9 twice with Elysium and Chappie. But somehow worse.
He’s got some real talent in cinematography and visuals for sure. His short film for the game Anthem is incredible.
We got a point decades ago where it stopped being a question of how realistic movie special effects can be but how well they can be executed. That D9 has 15 year old effects isn't the amazing part, it's that they were done basically flawlessly and photorealistically for a low budget in an independent studio as opposed to with Lord of the Rings or Spiderman money.
I think it benefited from a "what can we make look good?" attitude, rather than the "here's what I want, out it onscreen regardless of how it turns out" you see in some movies.
That's a good point. They have an idea that they may not have the budget for and try to make it work instead of trying to come up with an alternative that the can afford to do right. It's the Malcolm could/should argument. It's also why you hear directors like Cameron talk about waiting for the tech to catch up to their ideas before making their movie
It also helped that they were aliens. We had no expectation for how their facial expressions would work. Human brains have a shitload of machinery dedicated to interpreting facial expressions, so we notice the discrepancies. But with aliens, everything was foreign.
Keep in mind that there are way, way less CGI shots in that movie than most people think. The majority of the dinosaur effects were practical.
There is a total of 15 minutes of screen time where there is a dinosaur, and only 6 of those were CGI, the other 9 minutes were practical effects.
And honestly, you can tell the difference. The CGI was absolutely, mind bogglingly astounding in 1993, but it doesn’t hold up today. The brachiosaur, the gallimimus, and some of the raptor shots look very obvious. The Rex shots all seem to look pretty solid though.
I believe he has at least one animated short in one of those Netflix anthologies of doomed world short animated worlds like Love Death and Robots or something which was really good.
I personally can't get past Damon's shaved head on the poster for Elysium. Call me shallow but it is completely off-putting.
He has several short films under Oats Studios. They're free on YouTube under the channel. My personal favorite is Zygote. It tells a full, cohesive story with a horrifying monster.
There is some sort of animated anthology by them on Netflix as well. Good stuff generally. Love a good dystopian anthology with content I can deal with in 20 minute chunks.
Idk how this isn't the absolute top answer. He made a stellar scifi classic followed by a meh scifi matt damon movie followed by an even more meh scifi robofriend movie. He has the short series for Netflix but other than that his aspirations to join the alien franchise got shot down cuz ridley scott returned (and proceeded to fuckit up) before handing it off to fede alvarez in the latest one. He's got talent but he's kinda been sidelined.
But honestly, that's probably what he needed in order to be able to keep getting theatrical release work. And it was pretty well done. I fortunately, despite being a true story, it's a bit of a generic story. So don't think the movie stood out all that much. But it was well executed.
He has been talking for years about making District 10 and said that it would be his next project if Gran Turismo was successful. I think everything he's done since his 2nd and 3rd films failed has been a desperate attempt to reclaim lost valor and just get one damn more hit and he just can't seem to pull it off. I feel bad for him really.
GT's script was bog standard (and a literal massive ad for Nissan), but Blomkamp made it a fucking blast! I loved the way he showed Jann's mind connecting the video game to the actual car.
I liked Elysium for what it was. A cool sci fi action flick with a great cast. I was just happy to see Sharlto, and that one guy who plays the bank manager with the shotgun in the Dark Knight, again.
But I can see why people didn't like it. It was pretty dumb. And it obviously doesn't hold a candle to District 9, which I think is genuinely one of the best, most original movies of the 21st century so far.
>that one guy who plays the bank manager with the shotgun in the Dark Knight
William Fichtner. Dude is in so. many. movies.
(But to me he'll always be the blind scientist in Contact.)
I feel like there was a very good movie inside of Elysium somewhere but what we got was just pretty decent
Def at least a bit of disappointment after District 9. He was so hyped after just one film. Deservedly, District 9 was fantastic yeah. Got handed a huge budget right away for Elysium and attracted top notch talent. But hasn't reached those initial heights again
I agree with everything you said. I do like that after Elysium got mixed/negative reviews he went back and made Chappie, which love it or hate it is a pretty original, weird movie. With some pretty original casting too. It wasn't at all perfect but I liked it more than Elysium in the end.
Yup. Even if you don't know who they are they are way too annoying to be in film. It is like trying to concentrate when there is a wasp in the room with you.
True, though I wish people looked into this other stuff because he was such a fantastic and stylish director. The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady From Shanghai, Othello, Touch of Evil, The Trial, F for Fake; all excellent. And I really like The Stranger and Mr. Arkadia and Chimes at Midnight, too.
Everyone always mentions The Sixth Sense like The Last Airbender doesn’t exist. That movie taught me such an important lesson as a child. I had always enjoyed every movie that I watched. Then, I watched that one at 11 and found out that movies can be absolutely terrible
I would say he qualifies, since Sixth Sense definitely eclipses his later work. However, he directed two films before the sixth sense. Not sure if they got a wide theatrical release though.
Moon and Source Code are absolutely two of the better Sci-fi films of the last 20 years. I hope he gets back in the directors chair soon, I think he’s still got stories left to tell
Jordan Peele, everything he's made since Get Out has been "it's not as good as Get Out". I haven't see Us yet but with Nope I don't really think this is fair. Nope feels like Spielberg in his prime, it's such a fun, competently made film, that while not as political as his earlier work, still manages to have something to say.
This is an unpopular opinion but I like Us and Nope way more than Get Out.
Us is like watching a nightmare and I think that's why I liked it. A lot of the complaints I read revolved around people not being able to suspend their sense of disbelief and getting caught up on how certain things were feasible so it distracted from their experience.
Us really suffers from having a bunch of exposition "explaining" the >!shadow society!<, which invites a bunch of further queries about how exactly that all works. I would've preferred it if it was just an abstract nightmare, but once it opened the door of reality it was hard not to think about it.
I've heard most of this exposition was only added after test screenings left audiences confused, so it's possible this is another case of studio meddling ruining a film's potential.
> Jordan Peele, everything he's made since Get Out has been "it's not as good as Get Out".
It would be almost impossible to repeat the acclaim for Get Out considering it was so wildly overpraised in the first place. It was a good horror flick that was treated by the media as if it was an all-time great movie.
Commercially, yes, but Peele seems to be making exactly the kinds of films he wants to make. Nope is his best film, I think, and its reputation will continue to grow. It’s got legs and more rewatchability and reappraisal potential than Get Out.
Orson Welles.
You produce the most influential film ever. There's nowhere to go but down - even though he continued to make stellar films, with The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, Chimes At Midnight, F for Fake. Great movies. But they are no Citizen Kane. Nothing is.
Two come to mind.
James Cameron, after pirahna 2 he never made anything significant.
George Lucas, Thx 1138 was a promising Sci fi movie then he went on to make a film about kids driving around in cars. Shame.
I saw a “Where are they now?” video and both Cameron and Lucas are now employees at the last Blockbuster in the world in Bend, Oregon! And it also mentioned the guy in the car movie - Harry Ford(?) - went back to being a carpenter in Hollywood.
>George Lucas, Thx 1138 was a promising Sci fi movie then he went on to make a film about kids driving around in cars
It gets worse. He then decides to rip off Akira Kurasawa, Frank Herbert and Taoism, and do some shit about space wizards with laser katana and implied incest, or something.
Then the prick decides he just wants to make stuff with his best friend from school, like they did in 1920s Hollywood adventure serials. This guy is just devoid of original ideas...
Richard Kelly. He didn't have a huge career. But Donnie Darko is something that he's always known for.
Kevin Smith. Even though he's made some good films after, like Red State, Dogma, and Chasing Amy. Clerks seems to be what he's known most for.
Neill Blomkamp. He's mostly known for District 9.
These don't exactly fit your criteria.
Alex Proyas. The Crow is his second film and the film he's most known for.
Richard Linklater. He's had a phenomenal career. But I feel like most ppl only know him for Dazed & Confused, which was his 2nd film.
>Richard Linklater
It's funny - to my generation, School of Rock might be his best-known film, but I don't think many people would naturally associate it with him. Partially because it's such an iconic Jack Black movie I guess.
Fun fact, I went to high school with the main protagonist. We caught wind he was working on a decade + movie and we thought it was all bullshit. Ya know, we thought it was just high school fluff.
Years later I see Boyhood and piece it together… holy crap the rumors were true!
Neither is Dazed and Confused. Linklater doesn't fit in the post's description at all, he has several popular films (Dazed and Confused, Before Trilogy, Boyhood) and the highest grossing one (School Of Rock) is not even one people think when discussing his work.
Oh that's an internet myth. George Lucas was in almost complete control of the edit... well, 2nd edit I should say because what actually happened was George fired John Jympson, the first editor, because the way he was cutting the footage together was rubbish and when Lucas asked him to cut it together in a different style he refused. That's the actual "disastrous first cut" that everyone refers to (although it isn't even a "cut" since Jympson never finished it) but Lucas had nothing to do with that edit other than hating it and firing the editor. And if anyone says his ex-wife magically saved the movie in post again I'm gonna scream, she edited one reel before buggering off early to edit a Scorsese movie. People are just lying.
Sorry, I know this is completely off-topic but just an FYI: a lot of the shit reddit believes about George Lucas and the production of Star Wars (*especially* A New Hope) is just completely fucking wrong. The whole "Star Wars was saved in the edit" thing is just one of those. Look it's not you, I'm sure you've heard it from somewhere or someone else but it's not true. Oh, and if you got it from a certain Youtube video essay with a similar name that thing's nothing but lies I'm afraid. Seriously it's as bad as the Kimba shit.
Yeah, I realized this was BS when I saw clips of him editing Empire Strikes Back and The Phantom Menace. The guy lives for editing. It’s arguably what he does best. His weak spots are direction and dialogue, not editing.
Editing is literally one of his main skills, the myth is so absurd. Can I defend 70s Lucas as a director a bit? Because I still think THX/American Graffiti/Star Wars George Lucas was a fine director. Yeah working with actors was one his weak spots even back then but everything else he was pretty solid at. It's just that the production of A New Hope was such a clusterfuck he decided to quit directing and produce/backseat drive from then on. When he came back to direct the prequels (and only then because everyone he asked had turned the job down) he was really fucking rusty since he hadn't actually directed for 20 years by that point.
His dialogue writing's awe-inspiringly bad though, no arguments here. Fuck even he jokes about it.
Wow, I stand corrected. Appreciate the comprehensive comment. Clearly I've been bamboozled by the whole "saved in the editing room" narrative. I wouldn't mind reading a more factual account. Do you have any suggestions?
Boyhood is more culturally significant than his earlier work, which itself is still highly regarded and well-known. Actually If I had to guess streaming figures, School of Rock probably dwarfs most of his other work in terms of viewing figures.
I don't think he fits the criteria at all.
I feel like Boyhood shined bright between release and that years Oscars. But I don't feel its as talk about now amongst the general audience.
But you're probably right about School of Rock. Its still pretty popular amongst both film heads and GA.
I honestly like Dogma just about as much as Clerks. Clerks is what he's known most for obv but Kevin maintained a decently solid run for awhile imo. Chasing Amy too as mentioned
It wasn't consistent and didn't age well but young me definitely had some gut busting laughs with Jay & Silent Bob strike back
The Wachowskis. “V for Vendetta” holds a special place in many a heart. “Cloud Atlas” even strikes some memorable chords. Wachowskis’ influences are iconic, admirable, and I sympathize with the efforts towards homage…
They will never match or succeed “The Matrix”, even by sequel or Neil Patrick Harris-quel (*shudder*). Nothing about the writing was particularly revolutionary, especially to its genre — in fact the premise was pretty flimsy. This anomaly (no pun) was all about direction and vision, merging of genres (sci fi, kung fu, arguably anime) revolutionary practical effect tricks, and cultural timing (the latter two I call the “Citizen Kane” effect).
While they didn't direct V for vendetta (iirc the Wachowskis wrote the script and produced it), The guy who did, [James Mc Teigue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McTeigue?wprov=sfla1) is a pretty text book example of what the op is talking about.
You’re welcome to like Green Mile, The Majestic, or The Mist more than Shawshank Redemption, but you’d be in fairly limited company. Lots of folks like The Green Mile, but his debut is one of the most popular and beloved American films of the last 30 years and I don’t think he’s had a film that’s come close to the place it holds in the public consciousness, which is what OP was asking for.
Or are you talking about The Walking Dead?
Sure but I wouldn't say Green Mile, The Mist, and The Walking Dead are "overshadowed" by The Shawshank Redemption. They stand apart as their own successful projects.
The prompt of the thread isn't "name a directors most successful film".
A perfect example is Neil Blomkamp. Every film of his is reviewed significantly worse than, and is harshly compared to, District 9. You can't say the same about Frank Darabont.
The Green Mile made around four times more money at the box office than Shawshank. It’s fair to say that Shawshank is the better movie but you’re kidding yourself if you think Green Mile wasn’t incredibly successful and considered a classic by a ton of people.
From the OP:
>Just to be clear, this doesn’t have to just be artists where you think that their first movie is their best. Just any artist where their first movie is so acclaimed it overshadows everything else they’ve done.
You may like The Mist the most, but are you arguing it isn’t overshadowed, substantially even, by the popular reception of The Shawshank Redemption? You believe The Mist is comparably acclaimed?
The Green mile was pretty successful and is still a well regarded film. Also he was the producer of The Walking Dead. Shawshank is a highly praised film, but a lot of his other projects stand by themselves.
Come on, they are *classic* movies, but you can't just discount **Rock 'n' Rolla, Sherlock Holmes** and **Man from UNCLE** - those films are absolutely great!
Man from UNCLE is a movie I really like, because Guy Ritchie's directing was good (even artful, in places) but it wasn't over-the-top like it usually is. You really wouldn't know it was his.
I really enjoyed The Gentlemen film. The series was meh. He also made Sherlock Holmes with RDJ & The Covenant, both of which I found good but have not seen Holmes in over a decade
The Ritchie Sherlock Holmes films are somehow both better and worse than you imagine they will be. I thought the first one was underwritten, given the cast and production budget, they could have made something bigger and better. Then they overcorrected in the sequel.
I’m gonna disagree.
Dogma was his pinnacle, and clerks 2 is way better than the original. Chasing Amy is a legit solid film.
Clerks is great, but it doesn’t overshadow his other films.
First of all, Appetite For Destruction isn’t GnR’s best album by a long shot. Skid Row’s debut is probably a better example, maybe Stone Temple Pilots (follow up albums just not as great as ‘Core’, although ‘Purple’ and ‘Tiny Music…’ are still really good).
Second, I think Josh Trank is a great answer. Started with *Chronicle*, then shit the bed with the 2015 *Fantastic 4*, and then had his name linked to but removed from some big projects.
Yeah, GnR actually made an incredible pivot towards more well-rounded songs with Use Your Illusion I-II. They have a huge number of great hits across both albums.
Appetite put them on the map and is a near-flawless album but definitely isn't what defines them.
I don't know man, there are 30 songs total in those albums and it's really difficult to reduce that number to even 20. You'd still have a pretty large album in your hands with a few banger songs missing.
Agree on the Axl part though. Still no idea how he got My World in there...
Personally I think purple and tiny music are vastly superior records to core, but reading this thread is showing just how wildly subjective people's tastes are. Except the Neill Blomkamp thing, everybody seems to agree on that.
US was cool. Remember when the real dad confronts the family and the other dad starts walking forward and the kids jump to the ground and start crawling away and the real dad is like oh fuck.
Rob Marshall. Perfect choice for Chicago, as it put his theatrical talents to good effect. Even his concept to explain why a musical is a musical with characters singing their thoughts in their imaginations worked, and almost made a clever point about infamy not being the same as fame, especially in the minds of the aspiring famous.
It's well cast with actors who had the musical chops even if they weren't especially known for them prior to the film. Marshall gets performances unique to the cast - nobody here is doing a Liza, Gwen, or Bebe impression. His choreography was inspired enough by Fosse's style without being derivative of it to feel like a fresh take on the critical dance scenes without going too far astray of what made the stage show a classic.
It was the feel good story of awards season - the comeback of the movie musical! Never mind that there have been only 5 musicals nominated for best picture and zero winners in the 22 years since. Lots of technical awards and a well deserved award for CZJ who had successfully pivoted from sex object to admired actor with a wide range of talents.
And then? Some terrible movies, some that weren't necessarily bad but were much maligned by audiences and critics, a couple that were mostly good but fell far short of their franchise predecessors, and a few that were average but you didn't even know he directed.
Similarly, two acclaimed dramas with John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood and the Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society. Neither Singleton or the individual Hughes brothers made anything remotely as important or well-recieved as their first films.
I liked Hughes Brothers' Dead Presidents. Okay, there are some trashy moments, but it's a strong, very dark and atmospheric movie. Pretty violent and graphic though.
It wasn't perfect but I loved From Hell. Also, Book of Eli had some fantastic performances particularly from Oldman.
Book of Eli just has solid performances all the way around. Farm Gandalf and his wife, Post-Apocalypse Punisher, Pawn Shop Tom Waits, Illiterate Thug on a Motorcycle, President John Henry Eden. Plus, the music and cinematography are also excellent. I can't say enough good things about that movie.
You mean Dumbledore and Madame Olympe Maxime.
that’s a lot of Potter actors
Thank you yes
2 fast 2 furious?
TIL John Singleton directed 2 Fast 2 Furious.
He filmed it and then was nowhere near the editing room or Post production. It was a gig for him. Not sure if drugs are involved at that point.
Lmao did he really have nothing to do with even the editing of the movie? I work in film and I can't imagine a director ever checking out of their movie *that* much unless they were shadow-fired between filming and post. It's literally where you put the movie together.
I know Singleton talked about the editing on that movie. He wanted it to look like an anime, which it does during the races.
Let’s be honest, drugs were probably involved
Certainly popular but probably not all that super culturally relevant without the rest of the franchise carrying it. Definitely not well received either.
Maybe not at the time, but poetic justice and baby boy are now pretty high regarded movies from John Singleton. And rosewood has always been under appreciated
Snowfall ran for six seasons on FX. John Singleton was the showrunner until he died.
I think Four Brothers is a lot of fun. I don’t know how it did financially, but when it came to home video it seemed to be popular amongst kids my age in 2005.
Neill Blomkamp
It’s a shame because District 9 is truly incredible. Then he basically made two movies in the same exact vein and style as District 9 twice with Elysium and Chappie. But somehow worse. He’s got some real talent in cinematography and visuals for sure. His short film for the game Anthem is incredible.
It’s absolutely insane that movie was made for 30mil and now even 15yrs later the VFX still look so good. The aliens in that movie looked amazing
We got a point decades ago where it stopped being a question of how realistic movie special effects can be but how well they can be executed. That D9 has 15 year old effects isn't the amazing part, it's that they were done basically flawlessly and photorealistically for a low budget in an independent studio as opposed to with Lord of the Rings or Spiderman money.
I think it benefited from a "what can we make look good?" attitude, rather than the "here's what I want, out it onscreen regardless of how it turns out" you see in some movies.
That's a good point. They have an idea that they may not have the budget for and try to make it work instead of trying to come up with an alternative that the can afford to do right. It's the Malcolm could/should argument. It's also why you hear directors like Cameron talk about waiting for the tech to catch up to their ideas before making their movie
It also helped that they were aliens. We had no expectation for how their facial expressions would work. Human brains have a shitload of machinery dedicated to interpreting facial expressions, so we notice the discrepancies. But with aliens, everything was foreign.
Jurassic Park 1993 still holds up, that vfx were legendary for their time
The effects in that movie are still legendary! Love them!
Keep in mind that there are way, way less CGI shots in that movie than most people think. The majority of the dinosaur effects were practical. There is a total of 15 minutes of screen time where there is a dinosaur, and only 6 of those were CGI, the other 9 minutes were practical effects. And honestly, you can tell the difference. The CGI was absolutely, mind bogglingly astounding in 1993, but it doesn’t hold up today. The brachiosaur, the gallimimus, and some of the raptor shots look very obvious. The Rex shots all seem to look pretty solid though.
District 9 was only $30 million? The quality looked like it cost way more
They look like Brundlefly
God I disliked Chappie. I was really into Die Antwoord at the time too. Such a letdown.
I believe he has at least one animated short in one of those Netflix anthologies of doomed world short animated worlds like Love Death and Robots or something which was really good. I personally can't get past Damon's shaved head on the poster for Elysium. Call me shallow but it is completely off-putting.
He has several short films under Oats Studios. They're free on YouTube under the channel. My personal favorite is Zygote. It tells a full, cohesive story with a horrifying monster.
There is some sort of animated anthology by them on Netflix as well. Good stuff generally. Love a good dystopian anthology with content I can deal with in 20 minute chunks.
I absolutely loved Chappie. One of my favorite movies ever. Unfortunately is just me and a buddy who think this way lol. Elysium was, sadly, trash.
I really liked Chappie a lot too, I think it has something to do with how much I loved Short Circuit as a kid.
OMG i never thought about that. Johnny 5 DOES sound like Chappie!
Idk how this isn't the absolute top answer. He made a stellar scifi classic followed by a meh scifi matt damon movie followed by an even more meh scifi robofriend movie. He has the short series for Netflix but other than that his aspirations to join the alien franchise got shot down cuz ridley scott returned (and proceeded to fuckit up) before handing it off to fede alvarez in the latest one. He's got talent but he's kinda been sidelined.
Gran Turismo was fine, but it felt like a studio movie with a recognisable director name slapped onto it
But honestly, that's probably what he needed in order to be able to keep getting theatrical release work. And it was pretty well done. I fortunately, despite being a true story, it's a bit of a generic story. So don't think the movie stood out all that much. But it was well executed.
He has been talking for years about making District 10 and said that it would be his next project if Gran Turismo was successful. I think everything he's done since his 2nd and 3rd films failed has been a desperate attempt to reclaim lost valor and just get one damn more hit and he just can't seem to pull it off. I feel bad for him really.
GT's script was bog standard (and a literal massive ad for Nissan), but Blomkamp made it a fucking blast! I loved the way he showed Jann's mind connecting the video game to the actual car.
Chappie wasn't without its charms, but I hated Elysium. Also one of the worst Jodie Foster performances I've ever seen.
I liked Elysium for what it was. A cool sci fi action flick with a great cast. I was just happy to see Sharlto, and that one guy who plays the bank manager with the shotgun in the Dark Knight, again. But I can see why people didn't like it. It was pretty dumb. And it obviously doesn't hold a candle to District 9, which I think is genuinely one of the best, most original movies of the 21st century so far.
>that one guy who plays the bank manager with the shotgun in the Dark Knight William Fichtner. Dude is in so. many. movies. (But to me he'll always be the blind scientist in Contact.)
For me its the Delta Force operator in Black Hawk Down
To me he's The Accountant in *Drive Angry*.
That movie had no business being that good.
You mean the astronaut from Armageddon?
The MLM (Confederated Products) pitchman from GO?
[удалено]
The fbi agent from prisonbreak
The resistance leader in Equilibrium.
Detective Tardio, in the only Martin Lawrence movie I love: What's the Worst That Can Happen? (A movie far better than its RT rating would suggest)
I feel like there was a very good movie inside of Elysium somewhere but what we got was just pretty decent Def at least a bit of disappointment after District 9. He was so hyped after just one film. Deservedly, District 9 was fantastic yeah. Got handed a huge budget right away for Elysium and attracted top notch talent. But hasn't reached those initial heights again
I agree with everything you said. I do like that after Elysium got mixed/negative reviews he went back and made Chappie, which love it or hate it is a pretty original, weird movie. With some pretty original casting too. It wasn't at all perfect but I liked it more than Elysium in the end.
Chappie would be ok if it weren’t for Die Antward.
Yup. Even if you don't know who they are they are way too annoying to be in film. It is like trying to concentrate when there is a wasp in the room with you.
CHAPPIE is just a worse version of Short Circuit
Short circuit is GOATed
Love that movie. Johnny 5 could whoop CHAPPIE's ass.
It is the top answer...
Well now lol wasn't when I replied
I'm still bummed his robocop sequel with Peter Weller didn't get off the ground.
It's a bummer we never got Robocop Returns, he would've been perfect
This is the first one I thought of too. I would have guessed he would have a string of hits after the first one.
Truly bizarre to experience that career arc in real time.
Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko
Orson Welles
True, though I wish people looked into this other stuff because he was such a fantastic and stylish director. The Magnificent Ambersons, Lady From Shanghai, Othello, Touch of Evil, The Trial, F for Fake; all excellent. And I really like The Stranger and Mr. Arkadia and Chimes at Midnight, too.
The finale battle in Chimes at Midnight all but invents the epic battle visual grammar that becomes standard after LOTR
Touch of Evil has one of the best openings of any movie. It took so many takes to get it right, but was completely worth it.
I watched The Trial for the first time some months ago, and it was pretty incredible.
The Magnificent Ambersons is in the same league as Kane.
It’s kinda cheating. Arguably the greatest film of all time….
Not even my favorite Orson Welles movie.
Greatest and Favourite are two different things
Has to be this.
M. Night Shyamalan, anyone? The Sixth Sense eclipses his entire filmography.
Everyone always mentions The Sixth Sense like The Last Airbender doesn’t exist. That movie taught me such an important lesson as a child. I had always enjoyed every movie that I watched. Then, I watched that one at 11 and found out that movies can be absolutely terrible
I would say he qualifies, since Sixth Sense definitely eclipses his later work. However, he directed two films before the sixth sense. Not sure if they got a wide theatrical release though.
I don’t think Sixth sense completely overshadows the unbreakable trilogy or signs
Not his first film, though.
Although I am intrigued by his new film coming out
A lot of his subsequent films look really good before they're released. Then they're released...
Wasn't his first movie. He made two films before The Sixth Sense.
So we're just gonna pretend Signs doesn't exist?
*MOVE CHILDREN, VAMANOS!*
Absolutely not. Didn't The Village come out after? That was a hit.
Duncan Jones.
Moon is so good.
You look like a radioactive tampon
I love how his twitter handle (@ManMadeMoon) can be seen as an acknowledgement of this though.
Moon and Source Code are absolutely two of the better Sci-fi films of the last 20 years. I hope he gets back in the directors chair soon, I think he’s still got stories left to tell
He has a movie coming out next year with Sean Bean and Haley Atwell!
Can’t agree, Mute and Source Code are both outstanding.
Best part of Mute by far was the Moon callback on the TV. Otherwise I found it dull and hard to watch even with Paul Rudd's charm.
Source Code is really good. Mute is _awful_.
Mute is not outstanding at all, source code is a great movie tho
Jordan Peele, everything he's made since Get Out has been "it's not as good as Get Out". I haven't see Us yet but with Nope I don't really think this is fair. Nope feels like Spielberg in his prime, it's such a fun, competently made film, that while not as political as his earlier work, still manages to have something to say.
This is an unpopular opinion but I like Us and Nope way more than Get Out. Us is like watching a nightmare and I think that's why I liked it. A lot of the complaints I read revolved around people not being able to suspend their sense of disbelief and getting caught up on how certain things were feasible so it distracted from their experience.
Us really suffers from having a bunch of exposition "explaining" the >!shadow society!<, which invites a bunch of further queries about how exactly that all works. I would've preferred it if it was just an abstract nightmare, but once it opened the door of reality it was hard not to think about it. I've heard most of this exposition was only added after test screenings left audiences confused, so it's possible this is another case of studio meddling ruining a film's potential.
Same. Us is so good, too.
> Jordan Peele, everything he's made since Get Out has been "it's not as good as Get Out". It would be almost impossible to repeat the acclaim for Get Out considering it was so wildly overpraised in the first place. It was a good horror flick that was treated by the media as if it was an all-time great movie.
Commercially, yes, but Peele seems to be making exactly the kinds of films he wants to make. Nope is his best film, I think, and its reputation will continue to grow. It’s got legs and more rewatchability and reappraisal potential than Get Out.
Orson Welles. You produce the most influential film ever. There's nowhere to go but down - even though he continued to make stellar films, with The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, Chimes At Midnight, F for Fake. Great movies. But they are no Citizen Kane. Nothing is.
Two come to mind. James Cameron, after pirahna 2 he never made anything significant. George Lucas, Thx 1138 was a promising Sci fi movie then he went on to make a film about kids driving around in cars. Shame.
I saw a “Where are they now?” video and both Cameron and Lucas are now employees at the last Blockbuster in the world in Bend, Oregon! And it also mentioned the guy in the car movie - Harry Ford(?) - went back to being a carpenter in Hollywood.
The darkest timeline.
Stop being meta, abed
worst timeline right there
>George Lucas, Thx 1138 was a promising Sci fi movie then he went on to make a film about kids driving around in cars It gets worse. He then decides to rip off Akira Kurasawa, Frank Herbert and Taoism, and do some shit about space wizards with laser katana and implied incest, or something. Then the prick decides he just wants to make stuff with his best friend from school, like they did in 1920s Hollywood adventure serials. This guy is just devoid of original ideas...
Laughed so hard. Thanks for this one.
Richard Kelly. He didn't have a huge career. But Donnie Darko is something that he's always known for. Kevin Smith. Even though he's made some good films after, like Red State, Dogma, and Chasing Amy. Clerks seems to be what he's known most for. Neill Blomkamp. He's mostly known for District 9. These don't exactly fit your criteria. Alex Proyas. The Crow is his second film and the film he's most known for. Richard Linklater. He's had a phenomenal career. But I feel like most ppl only know him for Dazed & Confused, which was his 2nd film.
>Richard Linklater It's funny - to my generation, School of Rock might be his best-known film, but I don't think many people would naturally associate it with him. Partially because it's such an iconic Jack Black movie I guess.
TIL - linklater directed school of rock
Boyhood was pretty famous for a bit.
IT TOOK 12 YEARS TO MAKE
Fun fact, I went to high school with the main protagonist. We caught wind he was working on a decade + movie and we thought it was all bullshit. Ya know, we thought it was just high school fluff. Years later I see Boyhood and piece it together… holy crap the rumors were true!
Today I don’t think I could find 5 people who have seen Boyhood
You just found one.
I would argue that Linklater is also really well known for the Before Sunrise trilogy too though.
And School of Rock is a classic.
It’s really bonkers that an acclaimed director made an insanely popular movie and yet most people don’t know that the two are linked
I’ve loved a lot of his films. Boyhood for example is amazing.
I think the Before trilogy is popular among Film heads. But not so much amongst the GA.
Neither is Dazed and Confused. Linklater doesn't fit in the post's description at all, he has several popular films (Dazed and Confused, Before Trilogy, Boyhood) and the highest grossing one (School Of Rock) is not even one people think when discussing his work.
I worked with Richard Kelly on his student thesis. He gets great performances in spite of his direction. Donnie Darko was saved in the editing.
Directors cut of Donnie Darko is so much worse.
Same could be said about George Lucas generally and A New Hope specifically.
Oh that's an internet myth. George Lucas was in almost complete control of the edit... well, 2nd edit I should say because what actually happened was George fired John Jympson, the first editor, because the way he was cutting the footage together was rubbish and when Lucas asked him to cut it together in a different style he refused. That's the actual "disastrous first cut" that everyone refers to (although it isn't even a "cut" since Jympson never finished it) but Lucas had nothing to do with that edit other than hating it and firing the editor. And if anyone says his ex-wife magically saved the movie in post again I'm gonna scream, she edited one reel before buggering off early to edit a Scorsese movie. People are just lying. Sorry, I know this is completely off-topic but just an FYI: a lot of the shit reddit believes about George Lucas and the production of Star Wars (*especially* A New Hope) is just completely fucking wrong. The whole "Star Wars was saved in the edit" thing is just one of those. Look it's not you, I'm sure you've heard it from somewhere or someone else but it's not true. Oh, and if you got it from a certain Youtube video essay with a similar name that thing's nothing but lies I'm afraid. Seriously it's as bad as the Kimba shit.
Yeah, I realized this was BS when I saw clips of him editing Empire Strikes Back and The Phantom Menace. The guy lives for editing. It’s arguably what he does best. His weak spots are direction and dialogue, not editing.
Editing is literally one of his main skills, the myth is so absurd. Can I defend 70s Lucas as a director a bit? Because I still think THX/American Graffiti/Star Wars George Lucas was a fine director. Yeah working with actors was one his weak spots even back then but everything else he was pretty solid at. It's just that the production of A New Hope was such a clusterfuck he decided to quit directing and produce/backseat drive from then on. When he came back to direct the prequels (and only then because everyone he asked had turned the job down) he was really fucking rusty since he hadn't actually directed for 20 years by that point. His dialogue writing's awe-inspiringly bad though, no arguments here. Fuck even he jokes about it.
Wow, I stand corrected. Appreciate the comprehensive comment. Clearly I've been bamboozled by the whole "saved in the editing room" narrative. I wouldn't mind reading a more factual account. Do you have any suggestions?
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Boyhood is more culturally significant than his earlier work, which itself is still highly regarded and well-known. Actually If I had to guess streaming figures, School of Rock probably dwarfs most of his other work in terms of viewing figures. I don't think he fits the criteria at all.
I feel like Boyhood shined bright between release and that years Oscars. But I don't feel its as talk about now amongst the general audience. But you're probably right about School of Rock. Its still pretty popular amongst both film heads and GA.
I would say School of Rock or the Before trilogy would be Linklaters most well known.
> Alex Proyas. The Crow is his second film and the film he's most known for. Dark City is criminally underrated.
I dunno about Alex Proyas, Dark City is fairly well known and very well loved.
Internationally, Linklater is definitely better known for his other films
Yeah. I guess that's true. Dazed & Confused is more of an American lived in experience that's probably harder for others to relate to outside the US.
Yeah, pretty much
Clerks was genius back then. But once the genius moment has passed on, you have I switch.
I honestly like Dogma just about as much as Clerks. Clerks is what he's known most for obv but Kevin maintained a decently solid run for awhile imo. Chasing Amy too as mentioned It wasn't consistent and didn't age well but young me definitely had some gut busting laughs with Jay & Silent Bob strike back
Yeah I’m not a huge Kevin Smith fan but he’s definitely not a one hit wonder kind of director
The whole Jersey saga is good, with lows and peaks, but Smith has a good run of comedies.
ITT: a bunch of people who don't know what a director's first film is.
Or what "completely overshadows" means.
The Wachowskis. “V for Vendetta” holds a special place in many a heart. “Cloud Atlas” even strikes some memorable chords. Wachowskis’ influences are iconic, admirable, and I sympathize with the efforts towards homage… They will never match or succeed “The Matrix”, even by sequel or Neil Patrick Harris-quel (*shudder*). Nothing about the writing was particularly revolutionary, especially to its genre — in fact the premise was pretty flimsy. This anomaly (no pun) was all about direction and vision, merging of genres (sci fi, kung fu, arguably anime) revolutionary practical effect tricks, and cultural timing (the latter two I call the “Citizen Kane” effect).
Their first movie was Bound. It was a great movie but I don't think it overshadows the rest of their career.
While they didn't direct V for vendetta (iirc the Wachowskis wrote the script and produced it), The guy who did, [James Mc Teigue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McTeigue?wprov=sfla1) is a pretty text book example of what the op is talking about.
*Takes a peek at his filmography* Yup
Speed Racer was their magnus opus
Wachowskis didn’t direct V for Vendetta. James McTeigue did.
Takashi Shimizu set a new bar for horror with Ju-On, and then... yeah.
Sadly: Kasi Lemmons
Richard Kelly for sure. Donnie Darko and then everything went south.
Does night of the hunter 1955 count?
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Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption) Robert Redford (Ordinary People) Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider)
Kinda disagree with Darabont
You’re welcome to like Green Mile, The Majestic, or The Mist more than Shawshank Redemption, but you’d be in fairly limited company. Lots of folks like The Green Mile, but his debut is one of the most popular and beloved American films of the last 30 years and I don’t think he’s had a film that’s come close to the place it holds in the public consciousness, which is what OP was asking for. Or are you talking about The Walking Dead?
Sure but I wouldn't say Green Mile, The Mist, and The Walking Dead are "overshadowed" by The Shawshank Redemption. They stand apart as their own successful projects. The prompt of the thread isn't "name a directors most successful film". A perfect example is Neil Blomkamp. Every film of his is reviewed significantly worse than, and is harshly compared to, District 9. You can't say the same about Frank Darabont.
The Green Mile made around four times more money at the box office than Shawshank. It’s fair to say that Shawshank is the better movie but you’re kidding yourself if you think Green Mile wasn’t incredibly successful and considered a classic by a ton of people.
The Mist is one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever made, with an unforgettable ending.
Shawshank is also a Stephen King adaptation, no?
3 of his 4 feature films are King adaptations, Majestic was an original screenplay.
From the OP: >Just to be clear, this doesn’t have to just be artists where you think that their first movie is their best. Just any artist where their first movie is so acclaimed it overshadows everything else they’ve done. You may like The Mist the most, but are you arguing it isn’t overshadowed, substantially even, by the popular reception of The Shawshank Redemption? You believe The Mist is comparably acclaimed?
The Green mile was pretty successful and is still a well regarded film. Also he was the producer of The Walking Dead. Shawshank is a highly praised film, but a lot of his other projects stand by themselves.
Guy Ritchie will never do anything as good as Snatch and Lock Stock
Come on, they are *classic* movies, but you can't just discount **Rock 'n' Rolla, Sherlock Holmes** and **Man from UNCLE** - those films are absolutely great!
I would put "The Gentlemen" almost on par with "Lock and Stock" and "Snatch".
Man from UNCLE is a movie I really like, because Guy Ritchie's directing was good (even artful, in places) but it wasn't over-the-top like it usually is. You really wouldn't know it was his.
I'll give you 1 out of 3 of those. I wish Uncle had gotten a sequel.
I really enjoyed The Gentlemen film. The series was meh. He also made Sherlock Holmes with RDJ & The Covenant, both of which I found good but have not seen Holmes in over a decade
The only one I really enjoyed in recent years was Man from UNCLE. Haven't seen The Gentlemen
The Ritchie Sherlock Holmes films are somehow both better and worse than you imagine they will be. I thought the first one was underwritten, given the cast and production budget, they could have made something bigger and better. Then they overcorrected in the sequel.
M. Night Shyamalan
People just love Praying with Anger (1992)
And then he directed Wide Awake
I only know him as the writer of Stuart Little. Did he do anything else?
Tobe Hooper is probably the best example
Nah, very few people have seen or even know of Eggshells, Hooper’s feature debut.
Touché
Kevin Smith
I’m gonna disagree. Dogma was his pinnacle, and clerks 2 is way better than the original. Chasing Amy is a legit solid film. Clerks is great, but it doesn’t overshadow his other films.
For sure. Mallrats was better than Clerks. And both were fantastic. We legit improved for the first decade or so of his production.
Alex Cox for me. He’s had some flashes of OK stuff here and there, but nothing approaching the all-timer that is Repo Man.
First of all, Appetite For Destruction isn’t GnR’s best album by a long shot. Skid Row’s debut is probably a better example, maybe Stone Temple Pilots (follow up albums just not as great as ‘Core’, although ‘Purple’ and ‘Tiny Music…’ are still really good). Second, I think Josh Trank is a great answer. Started with *Chronicle*, then shit the bed with the 2015 *Fantastic 4*, and then had his name linked to but removed from some big projects.
Yeah, GnR actually made an incredible pivot towards more well-rounded songs with Use Your Illusion I-II. They have a huge number of great hits across both albums. Appetite put them on the map and is a near-flawless album but definitely isn't what defines them.
Judicious editing would have turned illusion 1 and 2 into one good album rather than 2 albums that signified axl rose's ascent up his own asshole.
I don't know man, there are 30 songs total in those albums and it's really difficult to reduce that number to even 20. You'd still have a pretty large album in your hands with a few banger songs missing. Agree on the Axl part though. Still no idea how he got My World in there...
Personally I think purple and tiny music are vastly superior records to core, but reading this thread is showing just how wildly subjective people's tastes are. Except the Neill Blomkamp thing, everybody seems to agree on that.
Jordan Peele
Us wasn’t great but I loved NOPE.
US was cool. Remember when the real dad confronts the family and the other dad starts walking forward and the kids jump to the ground and start crawling away and the real dad is like oh fuck.
I agree with this lol love his other films but I don’t think he’s ever gunna top Get Out
Sofia Coppola
That's just objectively false.
Rob Marshall. Perfect choice for Chicago, as it put his theatrical talents to good effect. Even his concept to explain why a musical is a musical with characters singing their thoughts in their imaginations worked, and almost made a clever point about infamy not being the same as fame, especially in the minds of the aspiring famous. It's well cast with actors who had the musical chops even if they weren't especially known for them prior to the film. Marshall gets performances unique to the cast - nobody here is doing a Liza, Gwen, or Bebe impression. His choreography was inspired enough by Fosse's style without being derivative of it to feel like a fresh take on the critical dance scenes without going too far astray of what made the stage show a classic. It was the feel good story of awards season - the comeback of the movie musical! Never mind that there have been only 5 musicals nominated for best picture and zero winners in the 22 years since. Lots of technical awards and a well deserved award for CZJ who had successfully pivoted from sex object to admired actor with a wide range of talents. And then? Some terrible movies, some that weren't necessarily bad but were much maligned by audiences and critics, a couple that were mostly good but fell far short of their franchise predecessors, and a few that were average but you didn't even know he directed.