A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
I'd say the Coen brothers are the most consistently good filmmakers.
There's absolute bangers like Fargo and True Grit. Even their lesser known ones like The Ladykillers and Hail Caesar are worth a watch.
There's O Brother Where Art Thou, and Barton Fink, which are their most underrated in my opinion.
I don't think they put out a single stinker, and most are A or A+.
I’m a Tarantino fan. He doesn’t have a massive collection of movies, but you could teach an entire college course on just the few movies he’s put out with all the interesting things he does.
There’s something with his approach to directing that just makes me believe the story so well, even if it’s outrageous.
Kill Bill is my personal favorite.
Agreed on Kill Bill… a lot of people say their favorite of his are other movies but I think the Tarantino fans agree about Kill Bill. It is campy and melodramatic but epic.
It is such an interesting movie I think because it skates a unique line between ridiculous Hollywood summer blockbuster spectacle and a traditional story of revenge. The world he creates is saccharine/artificial but the story is something so simple and basic but we connect with on primal level. Going from a tragedy to overcoming incredible odds through skill she gets everything she wants in the end.
The emotions are so basic almost any viewer can connect with them. Binding those two elements together feels disjointed visually but also natural internally. There is magic in film when a director can do that in an elegant and graceful way. On top of all that the visual style, camerawork, sets, music, film grain, pacing, special effects, sound effects, lighting, casting are all excellent.
My only issue with the movie is how at the end during Bill’s Superman speech, he says that Superman is the only true superhero. He is Superman first and Clark Kent second, whereas other heroes are normal people with superhero alter-egos. He then specifically calls out Bruce Wayne/Batman. Not true, Batman thinks of himself as Batman, Bruce Wayne is the fake persona. It is what make Batman and Superman such great frenemies, they are two sides of the same coin, one of hope and one despair but still deciding to be good. They both have legacies their parents put on them that they are responsible for living up to without their parent’s guidance.
It’s a small thing but it bugs me every time.
Probably Sam Raimi's movies. Just the right amount of cheese.
Christopher Nolan's gotta be up there
Denis Villenueve has not made a bad movie yet. At worst, he has had mid films, but not actual bad movies.
The undisputed king of actors is John Cazale. His total body of work is:
As horrible as this is to say, dieing young really helps the legacy. Also see James Dean.
When it comes to their entire body of work for Directors no one tops Spielberg for me.
Alan Parker’s total body of work is pretty incredible:
Mel Brooks is also pretty incredible.
When it comes to TV shows the king of producers is Norman Leer.
When it comes to sound track composers entire body of work the tops is John Williams.
I believe the undisputed king of actors is Daniel Day-Lewis myself.
Dudes not done an awful number of movies and has so many accolades. Mainly the only actor to win three academy awards.
Edit: To clarify. The only actor to win three academy awards for best actor.
Lewis is spectacular this is no argument here,
Jack Nicholson has three academy awards and 12 nominations.
Walter Brennan has three academy awards.
Kathleen Hepburn has four academy awards.
Keep in mind the OP’s topic. Total body of work. Cazale was only in those five movies. He wasn’t in any other movie.
My bad, I should have specified “Best Actor” academy awards.
Akira Kurosawa
Lord of the Rings
Stephen Chow's action comedy movies. Phenomenal stuff. Some of the earlier films are steeped in Chinese folk lore in a way that doesn't really work for me since I didn't grow up hearing that, but the rest of em are just stellar, barring a few jokes that haven't aged well.
Anything Guy Ritchie, other than that Madonna travesty.
Tarantino & Nolan already got shouts in the thread, so:
John Carpenter for some of the best practical effects in cinema history
You've also got the likes of Stanley Kubrick & David Lynch, of course
Talking of Davids, David Fincher feels like he has enough good to make the list
I feel like you could go on a great journey through 80s-00s cinema with films having either Bill Murray or Arnold Schwarzenegger in the cast
There's probably a lot I'm forgetting
John Cassavetes, Akira Kurosawa, Pedro Almodovar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Bong Joon Ho, Stanley Kubrick...
The Chris Farley Collection. Truly unique man.
Terry Gilliam, although he's dropped off a bit lately. The Fisher King is amazing, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is an all-time favourite.
Can we include TV shows and music? If so, Jemain Clement.
See other posts
Denis Villeneuve