Name the worst of all living film-makers.

[barracuda]

Magnolia
...I found it to be one of the most unbearable movies of my life, and not in a good way. (Well, it is my philosophy that music should not drown a movie in pathos.)

It's not... going to stop...
...until you walk out.

And then he went on to take one of the greatest Bildungsromane from the 20th century and with it shoot a friggin' DLC commercial that the "Academy" could quickly give it's stamp of approval to.

Bah. Paul Thomas Anderson doesn't belong on this list. You don't like his movie, 'cause it didn't conform to your vsion of the book? That's a facile and pedestrian critique. You found Magnolia pretentious ansd unbearable, and didn't like the music? C'mon, if your going to criticise an artist's work, your criticism of that work had better rise to the fucking occassion. "I didn't like his last five movies cause they were crappy." Whatever.

[Nordic]

My goodness Nordic, we have found an area of overlap, the movie is amongst my top 50.

If I were to single out a female director for some scorn it might be Nora Ephron. The cuteness factor kills, it KILLS!
Although the now infamous "I'll have what she's having" scene has served some not insignificant social benefit over the intervening years, according to what I hear anyway.

Willow, if we can find more .... I love your artwork! Where did I see it? Somewhere around here. Really beautiful stuff.

And I'd have to say the female director who hits my gag reflex more than any others these days is Nancy Meyers! Ever seen "The Holiday?"

[Nordic]

Magnolia
...I found it to be one of the most unbearable movies of my life, and not in a good way. (Well, it is my philosophy that music should not drown a movie in pathos.)

It's not... going to stop...
...until you walk out.

And then he went on to take one of the greatest Bildungsromane from the 20th century and with it shoot a friggin' DLC commercial that the "Academy" could quickly give it's stamp of approval to.

Bah. Paul Thomas Anderson doesn't belong on this list. You don't like his movie, 'cause it didn't conform to your vsion of the book? That's a facile and pedestrian critique. You found Magnolia pretentious ansd unbearable, and didn't like the music? C'mon, if your going to criticise an artist's work, your criticism of that work had better rise to the fucking occassion. "I didn't like his last five movies cause they were crappy." Whatever.

Magnolia made me want to poke my eyes out.

IMO his only good movie was his first, "Hard Eight". It was great. I don't know what happened to him after that .....

[barracuda]

Nordic, you above all here should know - "I didn't like it" isn't film criticism.

[Nordic]

So we're all pretending to be film critics here?

Your standards are so high ....

Personally I wouldn't put Anderson on this list simply because of Hard Eight, and because he obviously has talent, even though he may not be using it wisely.

Just adding my two cents, which I didn't think was a faux pas on a lounge-style thread like this, ya know?

[barracuda]

No, it's fine, I just expect more from someone with credits on IMDB, bro.

[Nordic]

No, it's fine, I just expect more from someone with credits on IMDB, bro.

Hey, it's a sunday morning .....

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Magnolia
...I found it to be one of the most unbearable movies of my life, and not in a good way. (Well, it is my philosophy that music should not drown a movie in pathos.)

It's not... going to stop...
...until you walk out.
And then he went on to take one of the greatest Bildungsromane from the 20th century and with it shoot a friggin' DLC commercial that the "Academy" could quickly give it's stamp of approval to.

To what do you refer?

There Will Be Blood took its outline from Oil! by Upton Sinclair. The offense I take at this "loose adaptation" is too much for me to go into here. I would say you'd have to read the book and watch the movie and draw your own conclusions.

Interesting that Magnolia is a point of controversy on this forum. I was too new to be aware of it. And I'll admit that my placement of Anderson into the Worst of All category is socially/politically motivated. Otherwise I would have chosen another filmaker as the worst; a choice that no doubt would outrage his legion of followers in every corner: Gilliam.

[Laodicean]

but I was thinking of Paul Thomas Anderson, who even if he hadn't done Magnolia would qualify for what he did to Upton Sinclair's novel. One can climb no lower.

I disagree. I found this deleted scene from the film during the Gulf Oil Spill disaster. It hit home for me and a few others on this board during that time:



I thought the film was excellent. And I also liked Magnolia. Let the frogs rain down.

[justdrew]

So you're lobbying for a Ridley Scott loophole? He's got two very influential ones: Blade Runner and Alien. And James Cameron made The Terminator.

Ridley Scott is a brilliant filmmaker. Thelma and Louise? Someone To Watch Over Me? C'mon, that's four great films.

Yes, Thelma and Louise. Pathbreaking in its time, in a positive sense, but with a questionable ending, I must say. Glorious, but what does it look like 30 seconds later?

What? You've never seen Thelma and Louise 2: LA Knights? The car lands on the other side of the canyon and they keep going a la dukes of hazard. It turns out the car was an early KIT prototype, built by the Knight Foundation. Turbo Boost kicked in. Then they fade into the LA Underground, eventually hooking up with an aging A-Team for some major welding scenes. Harvey Keitel plays the voice of the car. Together, in what was considered one of the first TV/film crossover projects, they save the last family farm in LA County from greedy land developers trying to run a family off their land. thousands of rounds are fired, not a single person is hit. Then the president pardons them for their heroism and it's happily ever after

[Nordic]

I think Anderson pisses me off the most because he is obviously so talented. And I liked his early stuff a great deal. It seems like creatively he went way off into left field, like he started believing his agent's own bullshit about him or something. I can only speculate. It's so easy to fall into the "I'm super-gifted, so anything I come up with MUST be great!" trap.

[norton ash]

Paul Thomas Anderson has made only good films, and some of them are great.

And on Ridley Scott, I have to chime in with Gladiator and The Duellists, good films for very different reasons.

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Bah. Paul Thomas Anderson doesn't belong on this list. You don't like his movie, 'cause it didn't conform to your vsion of the book? That's a facile and pedestrian critique. You found Magnolia pretentious ansd unbearable, and didn't like the music? C'mon, if your going to criticise an artist's work, your criticism of that work had better rise to the fucking occassion. "I didn't like his last five movies cause they were crappy." Whatever.

My vision of the book? I would say that if you haven't read it, you probably wouldn't understand anyway. If you had read it, my summary... And then he went on to take one of the greatest Bildungsromane from the 20th century and with it shoot a friggin' DLC commercial that the "Academy" could quickly give it's stamp of approval to.... is just a tad more than a facile critique.

I disagree. I found this deleted scene from the film during the Gulf Oil Spill disaster. It hit home for me and a few others on this board during that time:
I thought the film was excellent.

Unless you can find me a slew of missing scenes which reinstall the basic premise of Oil!, I say he should have made his own damn film.

[norton ash]

Spiro, he did great with ASPECTS of the novel, and he didn't call it Upton Sinclair's Oil, fer chrissake.

Daniel Day Lewis wasn't worth the price of admission?

[Spiro C. Thiery]

Spiro, he did great with ASPECTS of the novel, and he didn't call it Upton Sinclair's Oil, fer chrissake.
Daniel Day Lewis wasn't worth the price of admission?

He bastardized aspects of the book. He changed the internal philosophy of the book. The only aspect that he did anything with was that which might rally the Dem faithful. In other words, he took an extremely radical tome by today's standards and turned it into propaganda on behalf of the status quo.

An indeed great performance by DD Lewis cannot change that for me. As a matter of fact, it only makes Anderson's crime that much worse.