The 80th Best Director of All-Time: Charlie Chaplin
Chaplin. Chaplin’s filmography suggests a much better fate than where I’ve got him at here– sitting at #80. . I’m lower on most of his films than the TSPDT consensus so that’s one thing. Even
The 79th Best Director of All-Time: Clint Eastwood
Eastwood. Eastwood’s filmography is stronger than he is as a stylistic director. Still—at slot #79 here—we have a director with 4 films in the top 500 with similarities in the visual design and persistent narrative
Inglourious Basterds – 2009 Tarantino
Another major feather in Tarantino’s capThere’s so much to praise here, the Leone-esque Chapter 1, the trademark dialogue, but chief amongst them is the cinema as metaphor reading of the film—there’s so much to unpack
The 78th Best Director of All-Time: James Cameron
Cameron. Cameron is a tricky one for me because he only has 7 archiveable films and doesn’t have a big glaring heavyweight masterpiece. Usually someone like that wouldn’t make my top 100 director list. However,
The 77th Best Director of All-Time: Nicholas Ray
Nicholas Ray. “The cinema is Nicholas Ray” is Godard’s famous, fabulously superior statement. It has been met with a good deal of ridicule over the years, for good reason. He’s not one of the best
Hello, Dolly! – 1969 Gene Kelly
A messy film—weak in some areas (narrative, casting issues, throwaway songs) but there is much to praise as wellThe opening freeze-frame (in 1969 with Butch Cassidy- a big year for freeze-frame)—beautiful with the color-tinting changesShot
The 76th Best Director of All-Time: John Cassavetes
Cassavetes. Cassavetes not only has 2 top 500 films but is rightly known as grand forerunner of independent American cinema. His films have a definite atmosphere and authenticity about them that isn’t just a stagey
The 75th Best Director of All-Time: Erich von Stroheim
Von Stroheim. Before I get going- I love that he added his own “von” to his name to make himself sound more distinguished and aristocratic. Haha. For a silent director, von Stroheim had a limited
The Hunt for Red October – 1990 McTiernan
It doesn’t have the haunting claustrophobia of Das Boot but it’s a superb thrillerStrong Tom Clancy source material – the plot actually rides pretty closely to Dr. Strangelove without the comedy of course It’s better
Glory – 1989 Zwick
Zwick is a gifted photographer—he’s made some well-photographed epics (Legends of the Fall, Blood Diamond, Courage Under Fire)—this is no different and Zwick benefits from selecting James Horner for the score (very moving) and strong
Midsommar – 2019 Aster
With this and 2018’s Hereditary as his debut, Aster has announced himself as one of the preeminent auteurs in cinema, genre artist or otherwise Starts with a beautiful montage of Winter and the foundationary long
Toy Story 4 – 2019 Cooley
Flawed but some very notable peaks as well here to make this one archiveable like the previous three filmsIt’s largely a love story (and a good one) between Tom Hanks’ Woody and Annie Potts’ Bo