The best "working" American Filmmakers.

Inspired by the "Ten movies everyone should own" thread. I got to thinking about it, and there are a LOT of great modern American film directors. I'm going to have almost as hard a time with this as I did narrowing down the above mentioned "ten" movies.

1: Darren Aronofsky. Check this out. 1998-Now. Pi, Requiem For A Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler. I'm riding the hot hand until he falters.

2: Terrence Malick. I'd settle for lesser movies, if he made twice as many.
3: Steven Spielberg (Though I think he's past his prime)
4: David Fincher. Honestly, Alien3 wasn't his fault. After that, Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, Benjamin Button. More than solid.
5: Quentin Tarantino. I know its a controversial choice, but despite all his flaws, of which there are admittedly many, I think he is brilliant.
6: Martin Scorcese. I don't think I have to explain this. His recent stuff has been pretty meh though. I think he's declining.
7: Brad Bird. I know, a curveball, right? Animated movies are still movies.
8: Clint Eastwood. About a quarter of the movies he's directed, I find unwatchable. Then again, he actually got a little bit of acting out of Kevin Costner. An impressive feat.
9: Steven Soderbergh: Hit and miss. When he does either, he does it to the extreme. Dude works constantly, always tries new things. Innovates. He will make movies that most people will never see, just to make them.
10: Spike Lee. Kind of the same story IMO as Soderbergh. I hate his "misses" but I love his "hits".

Woody Allen!

I know you have a Connelly crush, but I found Requiem for a Dream unbearable. Same with Pi. Haven't seen The Fountain, but The Wrestler was good.

Um Coens x 1000000

Originally Posted by dusty

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Um Coens x 1000000

Yeah, seriously. Much better than any of the others on that list with the possible exception of Eastwood. I would've said Altman, but, uh, he be dead.

Originally Posted by dusty

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Um Coens x 1000000
+1

A couple other name for consideration:
Wes Anderson
P T Anderson
Ron Howard
Ang Lee
David Lynch
Sam Mendes
Gus van Sant

Malick is probably my favorite. The New World was the best thing I've seen the past few years.

Lynch, Paul Anderson, the Coen brothers, Tarantino, are a few more that consistently interest me.

Originally Posted by heli0x

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+1

A couple other name for consideration:
Wes Anderson
P T Anderson
Ron Howard
Ang Lee
David Lynch
Sam Mendes
Gus van Sant

Not American.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Woody Allen! I found Requiem for a Dream unbearable. Same with Pi. Haven't seen The Fountain, but The Wrestler was good.
You will probably not like it. BTW, I don't recall ever really liking a Woody Allen movie. Maybe it's an east coast thing. Always seemed like someone I would want to spend as little time around as possible.

Originally Posted by w.mj

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Yeah, seriously. Much better than any of the others on that list with the possible exception of Eastwood. I would've said Altman, but, uh, he be dead.

How's that crack you are smoking?

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

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You will probably not like it.

BTW, I don't recall ever liking a Woody Allen movie.

That's because Woody Allen is crap. Although I do remember seeing a film of his as a kid and thinking it was funny. It was some sort of goofy sci-fi type send up, the production of which had to have included several pounds of good weed.

no love for harmony korine?

Originally Posted by wmmk

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no love for harmony korine?
I've only seen Kids once. Gummo once. Wanted to see Mister Lonely but don't really care enough to remember. I dunno. He just strikes me as sort of a clear second-tier dude. Maybe I'm not giving him a fair shake. The reason I wanted to see ML was because it sounded like maybe it actually had a narrative thread. I'm hoping for a larger sample size from Spike Jonze. I like his stuff a lot.

I'm not big on movies, but I've enjoyed Sofia Coppola's stuff so far.

I would most definitely take Spielberg off that list. Yeah, he's had some great movies, but more often than not he takes a perfectly good plot and schlocks up the ending so badly that I just slap myself in the forehead.

I'd add the Coens and Howard.

coens, todd solonz, pt andersen, eastwood, aronofsky IMO