by Jason Cox
In the best films section, films are listed chronologically, classics and masterpieces are in bold.
1. Martin Scorsese
Recurring Elements: syndicate crime, tribalism, the decline of eras, food, accelerated motion
Best Films: Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed
Comment: Each and every one of his 17 feature films are kinetic, interesting, and worth seeing. His upcoming Wolf of Wall Street appears to stay in that vein. The only knock: his great films all have "mafia ties"; "civilian" films are all lesser Scorsese.
2. The Coen Brothers
Recurring Elements: dark comedy, dismemberment, kidnapping, regional colloquialisms
Best Films: Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, A Serious Man
Comment: Through most of their career, by title Joel has been the director and brother Ethan Coen is the writer, while in reality the Coens share both responsibilities equally. Always a top tier choice for sardonic humor in the 80's and 90's, their films since the turn of the century have shown more complexity and craft.
3. Paul Thomas Anderson
Recurring Elements: surrogate families, bombast, ensemble casts, channeling Scorsese
Best Films: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood
Comment: Though his last two films have had a cryptic element they'd be better off without, PTA has as impressive a track record as any director through his first 6 films. His resume is like a roller coaster that never goes down.
4. Steven Spielberg
Recurring Elements: children in peril, man vs. fill in the blank, slapstick action, peaceful aliens
Best Films: Jaws, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan , Minority Report, Lincoln
Comment: The man, the myth, the mogul. Although E.T. isn’t aging well, Munich was muddled, and Oscar baiting is his new norm, he’s still the safest bet for your blockbuster admission dollar. One prediction I will offer is that long term Spielberg will be remembered for the more serious Minority Report and AI brand of sci-fi than his previous efforts in the genre.
5. Christopher Nolan
Recurring Elements: corruption, betrayal, dying damsels, anti-hero protagonists
Best Films: The Prestige, The Dark Knight, Inception
Comment: Everything has come up golden so far for Nolan; since The Dark Knight trilogy, all superhero films seem flacid in comparison. Expect more high-concept sci-fi with Interstellar in 2014.
6. Quentin Tarantino
Recurring Elements: stylized violence, pop culture, vengeance, homage, actor resurrection
Best Films: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair
Comment: With Jackie Brown, The Bride, and Shosanna Dreyfus, Tarantino has written great heroine roles, which is surprising considering the brutish debut of Reservoir Dogs in 1992. I would bet QT gets near his Pulp Fiction peak again in his career, but he will had to shed the tired revenge plot point and minimize the "send-ups" (to put it nicely).
7. Richard Linklater
Recurring Elements: passionate/apathetic foil characters, extended dialogue, left wing politics
Best Films : Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, Before Sunset
Comment Though the scope is sometimes limited, and most projects tend to be personal if not solipsistic, Linklater maximizes every production he’s involved in. It’s ironic how, in many ways, the Before trilogy is the anti-trilogy, yet the second, as per usual, is the best.
8. Wes Anderson
Recurring Element: dysfunctional families, slow motion, dead dogs, pervasive quirkery
Best Films: Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Moonrise Kingdom
Comment: No director is as devoted to his own personal tone and style more, sometimes to a fault. Anderson has never made a bad film, though if he fails to branch out of his comfort zone of offbeat irony, it will happen one of these days.
9. Kathryn Bigelow
Recurring Elements: non-political war movies, adrenalin junkies, flawless action scenes
Best films: Point Break, The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty
Comment: The beginning of Strange Days still thrills 20 years later. Bigelow has serious misses on her ledger (Blue Steel, K-19: The Widowmaker), but no one on this list has gained more momentum from their last two films than she has.
10. Woody Allen
Recurring Elements: life in NYC, relationships, odes to Ingmar Bergman, neurosis,
Best Films: Annie Hall, Manhattan, Bullets Over Broadway, Matchpoint, Blue Jasmine
Comment: Theres two dozen or so Woody Allen films that are interchangeable, but the other two dozen and especially the five above are stand-out hallmarks. The last decade has been flush with good Allen films (#'s 40-48), and his latest Blue Jasmine takes a backseat to none.
11. Spike Lee
Recurring Elements: breaking the fourth wall, classical score, racial conflict, corrupt officials
Best Films: Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, 25th Hour, When The Levees Broke
Comment: Big time directors willing to take risks like Lee will always be controversial, though agenda filmmaking like Bamboozled will always have its flaws. 25th Hour is the rare joint that gets better with age and reflection.
12. Darren Aronfrosky
Recurring Elements: disturbing images, hallucinations, obsession, masochism
Best Films: Pi, Requiem For A Dream, The Wrestler, Black Swan
Comment: Aronfrosky would crack the top 10 if it weren’t for The Fountain and some queasy, seasick feelings of trepidation for the upcoming Noah's Ark. The question remains if he can make a great film without creeping everyone the hell out.
13. Clint Eastwood
Recurring Elements: period pieces, reluctant heroes, patriotism, curmudgeondry
Best Films: Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Letters From Iwo Jima, Gran Turino
Comment: Still one of the best and most dedicated directors, also the first and only of his kind to make a beautiful and poetic war film from the enemy's POV (Iwo Jima). While he may be getting to the final stages of his career, 2014’s Jersey Boys plus another film or two after that is a reasonable assumption.
14. Alfonso Cuaron
Recurring Elements - classism, journeys, lost innocence, self-sacrifice
Best Films - Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men, Gravity
Comment - one of the hardest premium directors to pin down artistically. Cuaron has a grab bag full of good to great films under his belt, including Prisoner of Azkaban, the best film in the Harry Potter octology. With this year's Gravity and the dystopian scorcher Children of Men before it, Cuaron is leaning more and more to the sci-fi genre. Here's hoping he never takes 7 years between film releases again.
15. Terrence Malick
Recurring Elements: naturalism, voiceover, heartbreak, proprietary film syntax
Best Films: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life
Comment: Should have the same notoriety as Spielberg and Scorsese but is marginalizing himself and rapidly becoming more obtuse, rigidly making the same movie 4 times in a row now with varying degrees of success. We will see if he can right the ship with the upcoming Knight of Cups and Lawless (working title).
16. David Fincher
Recurring Elements - new noir, counterculture, testosterone, s/m violence
Best Films: Seven, The Game, Zodiac, The Social Network,
Comment: Having never directed a "bad movie" in our estimation, Fincher has an impressive resume but gets knocked down a few pegs as he is not involved in the writing process for his films. Fincher’s name is on some of the most gratuitous mainstream entertainment of the last 20 years, therefore he would do well to put spec scripts about ponies and dandelions on the top of the pile.
17. David O. Russell
Recurring Elements: mental illness, family matters, happy endings
Best Films: Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees, The Fighter, The Silver Linings Playbook
Comment: The man who got into fisticuffs with George Clooney on the set of Three Kings may only need to look inward for his stories of psychosis and pathological behavior. Russell is great with dialogue and has many of the most repeatedly watchable films on this list. Also, give I Heart Huckabees another try.
18. Sofia Coppola
Recurring elements: wayward youth, upper class malaise, celebrity worship
Best Films: Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides
Comment: given her background, stories about the pitfalls of the rich and famous probably come fairly easily, and that’s only a half dig at the recent films of her father. Hopefully, Coppola branches out of this comfort zone soon, as The Bling Ring was too stuffy and not nearly as fun as it could have been.
19. Jeff Nichols
Recurring elements: southern gothic narrative, economic strife, failing parents, Michael Shannon
Best Films: Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter, Mud
Comment: The endings of each of Nichols' three films are each film's weakest link, especially in Mud, where so much momentum was lost in the final few moments. Also, he can't quit Michael Shannon.
20. Sarah Polley
Recurring Elements: honest sexuality, love's limitations, decaying relationships
Best Films: Away From Her, Take This Waltz, Stories We Tell
Comment: the girl from Go! always gets great performances from her actors, including her father (actually both of them) in Stories We Tell. As she's only 34, expect to see much more from her.
