Top 10 Directors – The 00’s

Article by Terry Plucknett

Posted - 3/25/10

Honorable Mention – Marc Forster, Gus Van Sant, Joe Wright, Quentin Tarantino

10.  Ron Howard – Ron Howard finds his way onto my list simply for making two of my favorite films of the decade: 2001’s A Beautiful Mind and 2008’s Frost/Nixon.  These two films, along with 2005’s Cinderella Man, have become two of the best and most fascinating “based on a true story” films of the last decade.  You add to these films the Robert Langdon saga (The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons), and you have a versatile director that has grown over the decade into one of the most respected directors in the business.

Best film of the decade: A Beautiful Mind

9.  Sam Mendes – After ending the 1990’s with one of the greatest directorial debuts ever in American Beauty, few directors were expected to have a bigger decade than Sam Mendes.  Although none of his films over the last ten years reached the level of his first film (pretty impossible to eclipse those expectations), he put together a very solid and diverse set of films.  In the four films he made this decade, he made a crime drama (Road to Perdition), a war drama (Jarhead), a family drama (Revolutionary Road), and an independent comedy (Away We Go).  All of these films are very different yet very good in their own ways.  You add to all this the fact that his first film of the new decade will be the latest installment of the James Bond franchise, and you can easily see that Sam Mendes this decade went from being a one-hit-wonder to being a well respected director that will be around for a long time.

Best film of the decade: Away We Go

8.  Steven Soderbergh – This director has found the balance of blockbusters to small independent films better than anyone in the business.  He started off the decade with a bang by being one of the only directors of having the distinction of having two movies nominated for Best Picture in the same year in Erin Brockovich and Traffic.  He followed these up with the star-studded blockbuster that sparked one of the most successful franchises of the decade, Ocean’s 11.  Then came some smaller films that few people saw, but those that did praised their quality like Bubble, The Good German, The Girlfriend Experience, and the Che saga.  Separating these films were more commercially successful films like Ocean’s 12 and 13 and The Informant!.  He has shown versatility and the fact that he will make the film he wants to make no matter what it is.

Best film of the decade: Traffic

7.  David Fincher – After getting off to a great start in the 1990’s with some cult classics, David Fincher continued making films in his unique, dark fashion in the 2000’s.  With two highly underrated films in Panic Room and Zodiac (which may be the most underrated film of the decade), Fincher finally got the respect and recognition he deserved with 2008’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.  He is a director that has developed his own style and you can rely on for producing quality movies.  He also seems to always be getting better.

Best film of the decade: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

6.  Ang Lee – Ang Lee’s name appears on this list simply for two landmark, groundbreaking movies that he made in this decade.  First, there is 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which brought modern martial arts films to the mainstream and revived the genre.  Second is 2005’s Brokeback Mountain which, not even mentioning the controversial plotline, is one of the most beautifully shot films of the decade.  Most of the other films made this decade by Lee were mediocre (with the exception of Lust, Caution), but these two remarkable films prompt the mention of his name on this list.

Best film of the decade: Brokeback Mountain

5.  Christopher Nolan – Starting the decade with one of the most original films of all time (Memento) and ending it with the greatest and most successful superhero movie of all time (The Dark Knight), Christopher Nolan most likely had the best book-ends to a strong and successful decade out of anyone on this list.  We will forget he made The Prestige, which was terrible.  Aside from that, everything he touched in the decade turned to gold.  He resurrected a franchise in a new and real way and established himself as someone who, much like David Fincher, will always bring something unique and different.

Best film of the decade: Memento

4.  Peter Jackson – All you need to know to know why Peter Jackson belongs on this list is The Lord of the Rings.  He took on one of the greatest undertakings of any director since Victor Fleming took on Gone with the Wind and produced three epic classic that will be watched and studied for as long as films are being viewed.  Add to this the modern revival of King Kong (which was very well done in my opinion) and you have one of the greatest filmmaking minds of our time and has already started influencing other brilliant directors like Neill Blomkamp.

Best film of the decade: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

3.  Martin Scorsese – He has been one of the greatest directors for the last 40 years.  Why would this decade prove anything different?  This last decade, Marty made three feature films (should’ve been four) and two highly acclaimed music documentaries highlighting some of the greatest musical talents of the last 50 years in Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.  All three of his feature films (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed) were nominated for Best Picture and Director, with him winning both for the last one.  All three films added to his amazing legacy, and it should have been four films.  Shutter Island was set to come out in this decade, but was pushed back.  So instead of being the exclamation point on his amazing 00’s decade, it became the start of the upcoming legendary 10’s decade for Scorsese.

Best film of the decade: The Departed

2.  Coen Brothers – If you want a quirky yet quality film, look for the Coen brothers and you will find one.  Without fail, they make entertaining and original films year after year.  They finally got their Oscars for Director and Picture for 2007’s No Country for Old Men and received another Best Picture nomination for the very odd A Serious Man.  This decade, they made everything from the musical O Brother, Where Art Thou? to the bizarre romance Intolerable Cruelty to the amazingly random Burn After Reading.  The Coens are some of those filmmakers that create an event whenever they make a film.  They are also one of the few filmmakers that seem to make a film every year.  So we will have plenty of opportunities once again to see their brilliance this decade.

Best film of the decade: No Country for Old Men

1.  Clint Eastwood – Why did he wait so long to start making movies?  When thinking about this list, the first name that came into my head that had the greatest decade for directors was Clint.  Every filmmaker wishes for that one film that would be a career-defining performance.  Clint somehow was able to have a career-defining film almost every time he made one this last decade.  Invictus, Changeling, Gran Torino, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River.  All these films were absolutely brilliant in their own ways, and they were all in a row!  Normally a filmmaker will have an effort that was not quite up to the standards of the others (most of the other directors on this list had them).  However, Clint was able to keep the standards in the loftiest of high quality without taking a film off.  It will be a sad day when he stops making films, which makes me wish he would have hit his prime earlier in his career.  Either way, I will cherish the time we have left to enjoy one of the greatest men Hollywood has ever seen.

Best film of the decade: Letters From Iwo Jima