Top 10 Directorial Debuts – The 00’s

Article by Zach Saltz

Posted - 11/6/09

Go to Top 10 Directorial List

The best directorial debut of the decade was Todd Field’s magnificent direction of In the Bedroom, but as I alluded to on the last list, In the Bedroom could theoretically enter the conversation for every top ten list I make for this decade (except for bad lists, like “overrated” and “Worst films set in India to win Best Picture excluding Gandhi”).  Thus, I have chosen only to focus on films which may otherwise be marginalized in a conversation of the overall best films of the decade. 

Two other notes.  The order of this list is just a little superfluous, since I couldn’t decide to rank the films according to how good they were or how impressive the rookie directing job truly was (I don’t think solely basing those films on either of those criteria makes sense here).  I suppose it’s somewhat of a mix of the two – maybe an unintentional ranking of each picture according to how difficult theoretically it would be to direct it.  The other note is that Alan Smithee does not appear on this list (just for you, Todd).

1. The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2007).  The only film of this list which will also be in my main “Top Ten Films of the Decade” list, words like remarkable and astonishing are too petty to be bestowed on von Donnersmarck’s debut feature.  It’s a film that simply gets better, richer, and more relevant in our world with each new viewing.  von Donnersmarck’s brilliantly manages to weave subtle motifs and themes (such as spectatorship, voyeurism, and alienation) without batting the viewer over the head with symbolism, and is aided greatly by amazing performances, a riveting screenplay that only gets better as the story moves along, and an era in history that has been tragically underlooked.  A political film that knows humanity is more important than rhetoric, The Lives of Others is an undisputed masterpiece that will live on for decades.

2. Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2009).  One of two films from this year that makes an appearance on my list, director McQueen is a tactile artist in the tradition of Julian Schnabel who is unremitting in his presentation of violence and brutality in Hunger.  The film features an unbelievable performance by Michael Fassbender, who went on a crash-course diet to portray IRA striker Bobby Sands, as he is forced to endure the horrific travails of Maze Prison in Northern Ireland in 1981.  Like The Lives of Others, the film has more soul than political opinions, and even though ideology is a key component of the film, McQueen remarkably veers away from discourse and soapbox rant, and the director must also be commended for maintaining such staunch viewer interest for a film that features virtually no dialogue (except for a stunning unbroken 17-minute exchange where the camera does not move). 

 3. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, 2007).  Some may accuse Gilroy of being a little like George Seifert with the 1989 49ers: When you’ve got a lineup of Montana , Rice, Craig, Young, Romanowski, and Lott, a three-year-old could coach this team to Super Bowl victory.  Likewise, with one of the top stellar ensemble casts of the decade (George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Sydney Pollack, and Tilda Swinton, in her well-deserved Academy Award-winning performance), it would have been hard for Gilroy to entirely disappoint.  But he deserves a high rank on this list because of the unorthodox choices he makes, such as developing Wilkinson’s and Swinton’s roles into unique personae rather than stock characters in another banal legal procedural.  A smart, sophisticated, taut drama that gets better as the story moves along, Gilroy showed tremendous promise in his inaugural (and certainly not his last) effort.

4. Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright, 2005).  Like Gilroy , some may call a period piece like this adaptation of Jane Austen’s masterpiece the type of film that eschews directorial originality and spontaneity and requires basic compulsory “Masterpiece Theatre” formalistics.  But Wright is somewhat of a risk-taker, and this is illustrated by the film’s striking rustic, bucolic façade, along with some very self-aware long takes (a hallmark of Wright’s, given this film and Atonement).  Keira Knightley makes the film shine, but without a memorable frame of view of her from the camera, Pride and Prejudice would be hardly as memorable.

5. Mean Creek (Jacob Aaron Estes, 2004).  Like David Gordon Green’s first feature, George Washington, Estes’ film examines a few days in the lives of bored teenagers, though their lives are a little more intentional here.  The film is a sort of take on Stand By Me, except instead of the youngsters realizing their need for one another as they enter the strange world of adulthood, the film emphasizes separation and isolation, as the characters learn truths about human nature and the inability to prevent tragedy.

6. The Assassination of Richard Nixon (Niels Mueller, 2004).  The real tour de force of this movie is Sean Penn’s astonishing performance (which continues to outshine both of his Oscar wins) as an obsessive, socially inept salesman who in a fit of rage fashions a bizarre plan to assassinate the President in 1974.  Mueller’s direction is taut, tense, and frightfully observant, especially in scenes where the Penn’s sociopathic nature is painfully realized.

7. House of Sand and Fog (Vadim Perlman, 2003).  This adaptation of Andre Dubus’ excellent novel is masterful right up until the last twenty minutes, when it gets bogged down in monotony and drags on too long.  But up until that point, Perlman (who first picked up the book in an airport mini bookstore) does everything right, creating fascinating, aggressive characters that reveal sorry truths about the nature of anger and pride without going over-the-top.  The feel of the film is cold, misty, and wonderfully evocative, and feels like the work of an established veteran rather than a foreign novice.

8. Sin Nombre ( Cary Fukunaga, 2009).  The second of the 2009 features on this list, Fukunaga’s film has the nitro-fueled energy of City of God and Amores Perros, but opts for a rather classical Hollywood narrative, in the same vein as It Happened One Night and even Titanic.  The movie is about illegal immigration but does not really make an argument one way or another; it is simply content to look into the lives of two desperate characters whose attempt to flee to America symbolizes the insurmountable poverty and tragedy that exists around them.  Their attempts to find solace in each other are riveting provide the movie with a superior flow.

9. Fateless (Lajos Kolta, 2006).  Kolta’s first feature is a remarkable account of a 14-year-old boy’s survival in the Auschwitz death camp during the Holocaust.  Like Pride and Prejudice, the film’s direction may on the outside seem rudimentary, but is actually quite detailed, made all the more remarkable by the apparent first-time mastery of the grim subject matter.  The film stays true to the source material (based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertész) and concludes with one of the most powerful final passages of any film of the decade.

10. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola, 2000).  Coppola was hardly an unknown prior to her debut, but this remarkable feature atones for all of her mistakes in The Godfather, Part III.  Equipped with a terrific cast of younger and older talent (Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito), Coppola’s approach to Jeffrey Eugenides’ nostalgic book is delicate and wrapped in emergent sexuality, though it is not in the least exploitive.  A strange, almost surreal film that understands the pains and mysteries of adolescence.