Massive project alert!
This is my 30th year of ranking films.
I started in 1996. It's 2025. That's 30 years.
Of course, I have only 29 previous #1s because this year is not yet over. But soon it will be an even 30.
So yes, I have some anniversary stuff on the brain this year. It isn't a sufficiently long amount of time since the last bit of ranking anniversary stuff I did, which was only at the end of 2022. That was a (sort of belated) year-long project to rewatch and then rank all my previous #1s, and it only happened three years ago because it celebrated the precise 25-year anniversary of when my first list was published in 1997 ... and not leading up to that anniversary, but after the fact.
Anyway, this is not the same project.
At some point recently, and I really can't remember what triggered it, I got the idea to see which director has fared best in my rankings over those nearly three decades of ranking movies. We're only looking at 29 actually completed lists, but that's okay. Look, you get the idea at a certain time, and you maybe don't want to wait a whole year to put it into practice.
But the actual compiling of this information very much seemed like it might take the better part of a year.
I'll try to explain what I did. (It's not that deep.)
So I took all my previous movie lists and loaded them into Excel, in order, though that didn't matter because I was going to re-sort them anyway. This was a total of 3,147 movies, if you want to know. Yes, that's a lot.
Just loading them wouldn't have been that time consuming, but then what I also did was add the director for each movie in its own column, as well as a column that computed what percentage this movie's ranking was out of the movies ranked that year. That would allow me to do more of an apples to apples comparison, because a movie ranked 37th in a year where I ranked 37 movies is a movie I liked much less than a movie ranked 37th in a year where I ranked 177 movies.
Anyway, this allowed each row of the spreadsheet to have a title, a director, a year, a flat ranking and then a percentage representing where that movie ranked out of all the movies ranked that year. And since each formula relied only on other information on the same row of the spreadsheet, it meant I could sort this information without messing up any of the formulas.
The goal would be to sort the spreadsheet by director, and then take an average of the ranking percentiles for all their movies to find out who did the best for me during these 29 years of ranking movies.
Of course there would have to be rules. The primary rule would be that a director had to have directed at least three movies during this 29-year period in order to qualify.
Why three? Does a standard of only one movie every ten years really mean a person is working frequently enough to be considered in an exercise like this?
Ah but I wanted this exercise to be inclusive, not exclusive, and possibly reveal preferences I couldn't have guessed before I started. And I thought that with the generous allowances of a three-movie minimum, I could capture both seminal directors who happened to have stopped making movies early on in this period, or directors whose contributions are relatively recent. Plus identify random working professionals I didn't already know that I loved.
Of course, allowing anyone in who had made three movies I saw fit to rank meant that the shortlist included ... carry the one ... 313 different directors or directing pairs. Which does not feel like exactly what I intended.
But then I told myself that I didn't have to list all of them (it remains to be seen whether I will or not), and that I'll feel it's more complete if I don't penalize the old greats who had the rudeness to go and die on us, or the newcomers who had the rudeness to be millennials.
After adding a director and copying the formula for all these 3,147 rows -- and I enjoyed a little game of seeing how many director names I could match to movies without having to look them up on IMDB -- I then sorted the whole list so all the directors' movies would appear together, and took an average that I then added in a separate worksheet in my spreadsheet, where I also included the titles. That took a while longer.
I realized pretty quickly that directors with fewer titles had a significant advantage. The more movies you have, the more likely you are to make one or even several duds. Some directors with only three films really lucked out in that I happened to have only seen the good films they made during this period, possibly never seeing some of their other efforts, or seeing them only after the ranking period was over. Remember, this is not all the films the director directed during the past three decades, only those that I actually watched in time to rank in the year they came out.
But because of this advantage held by directors with fewer titles, I decided I would also shine a spotlight on each director who had the highest average among directors who directed the same number of films they directed. So the two guys who directed 18 films in those 29 years -- now is the time to guess who they might be, before I reveal in a few minutes -- should get some sort of special treatment, just for making so many movies I thought were worth seeing.
Before we get into the surprise results the statistics tell us, I wanted to highlight some significant directors from this period who I was surprised did not meet the three-film threshold. (And by the way, I sorted directors alphabetically by first name, which explains the sequencing you are about to see.)
I was surprised that the following directors could not make the cut: Aaron Sorkin, Andrew Haigh, Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, Armando Iannucci, Bennett Miller, Benny & Josh Safdie, Bill Condon, Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, David Lynch, Errol Morris, Frank Oz, Gaspar Noe, Greta Gerwig, Harmony Korine, Harold Ramis, Jacques Audiard, John Lasseter*, John Singleton, Jonathan Demme, Jonathan Glazer, Mike Figgis, Mike Leigh, Nancy Meyers, Paul Greengrass, Paul Verhoeven, Paul W.S. Anderson, Richard Kelly, Taylor Sheridan, Ted Demme, Todd Solondz, Tom Tywker and Tony Scott.
* - If you include movies where the director is listed as a co-director with somebody else, Lasseter makes the cut. But I decided, probably arbitrarily, not to count such collaborations toward the person's solo filmography. If they always directed as a pair, they'd get credit that way.
Sure, the above group includes some directors who stopped early or started late within the period. The reason I find their exclusion significant is that many of these are directors I've done enough thinking about, in some cases even as the director of one of my #1 movies, that their relative absence in the movies I've ranked surprised me. (Plus, mentioning them here means you don't have to wonder about them.) In some cases, I saw their other movies, just not in time, perhaps due to them not releasing in Australia in time to meet my deadline. In others, perhaps I still haven't seen some of their films. But in each case, my eyebrows went up a little bit when I got to these names on the list and saw they did not have enough movies to qualify.
Okay, without any more dithering, let's get to the top ten, the bottom ten, directors honored by quantity of films ... and whatever else we have time for. I'll list them in reverse order for dramatic effect, and the number in parentheses indicates their average ranking percentile across all their films I ranked.
The ten best directors of the ranking era, according to my statistics
10. Asghar Farhadi (83.7%)
Films: 3 - A Separation, The Salesman, Everybody Knows
Comment: The films that bookend the titles above were a #1 and a #3 film, so you can imagine I wasn't a huge fan of The Salesman or else he might be the runaway winner. As it is, he'll have to settle for top ten. Farhadi's niche in the film industry is one I could not do without: the domestic social whodunnit.
9. Alfonso Cuaron (83.8%)
Films: 5 - Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Children of Men, Gravity, Roma
Comment: Three top ten films, my favorite Harry Potter movie and one film I find overrated. I'll let you figure out which is which is which. Anyway, a new Cuaron film is, for me, an event -- an event that happens all too rarely.
8. Jon M. Chu (84.3%)
Films: 3 - Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights, Wicked
Comment: A real newcomer in this period, Chu has two top ten films and then one I respect but don't love. This is just the type of result I wouldn't have thought of that makes this exercise worth having done, and I'll be sure to anticipate each new Chu film with extra zeal. (And hey look, we have the Wicked sequel coming out later this year.)
7. Ryan Coogler (84.9%)
Films: 4 - Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Comment: A #2 film and a #11 film, and then two Black Panther films, the second of which I actually like more than the first. Coogler would be even higher on this list if I did this exercise a year from now, as Sinners is currently my #2 of 2025.
6. Jordan Peele (86.6%)
Films: 3 - Get Out, Us, Nope
Comment: Another relative newcomer. Strangely, I don't like Get Out as much as most people do, and I thought my Us ranking was not likely to be a boon to his fortunes. But Peele benefits from existing at a time when I was ranking over 150 movies per year, and I thought his films were among the cream of the crop of those years.
5. Lynn Shelton (87.4%).
Films: 4 - Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, Outside In, Sword of Trust
Comment: Rest in peace. Shelton is the highest ranked director who is not still with us. I adore three of these films, and Shelton benefits from me not seeing in time two of her films from this period that I actively didn't like.
4. Mark & Jay Duplass (88.3%)
Films: 3 - Cyrus, The Do-Deca Pentathlon, Jeff Who Lives at Home
Comment: Pity that these guys appear to be done directing movies, as they brought something special to the screen each time out. All three of these movies were in my top 20 of their respective years. They join Shelton to prove that when done well, I really, really like mumblecore.
3. Bong Joon-ho (89%)
Films: 5 - The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer, Okja, Parasite
Comment: Bong movies are an event akin to new Alfonso Cuaron movies. Four top 20s and one other movie I like a fair bit. And if I'd done this exercise one year later, Mickey 17 would have sunk him like a stone.
2. Ben Affleck (89.3%)
Films: 3 - The Town, Argo, Air
Comment: This was probably my biggest surprise, though maybe it shouldn't have been. Affleck is a really good director, and is helped by the fact that I missed (what I assume is) the mediocre Live by Night, though if I'd seen Gone Baby Gone that would have boosted him back up. He might be the walking epitome of the notion of what makes a good movie: Four great scenes and no bad ones. If there was a bad one, I missed it.
1. Spike Jonze (92.5%)
Films: 4 - Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are, Her
Comment: If I'd really thought about it, I probably could have guessed Jonze would take this top spot. He has a #1, a #2, a #6 and a #21. Jonze likely also benefits from quitting while he was ahead, as he's had more than a decade to follow up my least favorite of these films and yet he has not, so I guess maybe he's just done. Shame.
I'm quite proud of the diversity of this list, if I do say so myself. On this list we have three foreign language directors (from three different parts of the world), two Black directors, one Asian-American director and, yes, one woman, leaving only three regular white guys. (Or four, since you have to count the Duplass brothers as two guys.) If I had been coming up with this list with an eye toward political correctness, I could not have done better. The fact that these preferences were revealed through a scientific process is gratifying as it means I didn't have to cheat to look good. (Whether you agree with my tastes is, of course, another matter.)
This exercise did not only reveal the good. It also revealed the bad.
The ten worst directors of the ranking era, according to my statistics
10. Mark Steven Johnson (21.3%)
Films: 3 - Daredevil, Ghost Rider, When in Rome
Comment: Speaking of Ben Affleck, I don't think I actually hate any of these movies and I have some low level affection for Daredevil. But without any truly good films, Johnson approached rock bottom. I couldn't have matched this director's name to any of these movies or tell you anything about him at all.
9. Jeff Wadlow (21.1%)
Films: 4 - Kick-Ass 2, Fantasy Island, The Curse of Bridge Hollow, Imaginary
Comment: The Curse of Bridge Hollow was actually at the 46th percentile of its year, and made for a fun viewing experience with my family. That tells you just how negatively I feel about these others, including one that made my bottom five of last year.
8. Gareth Edwards (20.6%)
Films: 3 - Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Creator
Comment: This one might really surprise Rogue One fans, and I do like that film better after a second viewing -- but only a little bit. The other two were way overrated for me, even though this is supposed to be "the good Godzilla." (If Roland Emmerich's was "the bad Godzilla.")
7. Garry Marshall (19.9%)
Films: 4 - Runaway Bride, The Princess Diaries, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Valentine's Day
Comment: Marshall made some really enjoyable films earlier in his career, but that's not the period covered by these three decades. I do like the original Princess Diaries pretty well.
6. Chad Stahelski (17.9%)
Films: 3 - John Wick Chapter 2, John Wick Chapter 3 - Parabellum, John Wick Chapter 4
Comment: So I am not a huge fan of the John Wick sequels, as you can probably tell, or the John Wick Universe in general. Stahelski would have been helped if I'd seen the original, which I do like, in time to rank it.
5. D.J. Caruso (17.3%)
Films: 3 - Taking Lives, Disturbia, Mary
Comment: I think I liked Disturbia? A little? Not a lot. Mary was in my bottom five films last year.
4. Terry Gilliam (15.8%)
Films: 3 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Zero Theorem, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Comment: How the mighty have fallen. Gilliam directed some of my most cherished films of all time, and in fact, 12 Monkeys was one year before I started ranking. But this period? Blecch. There seems to be a moral justness to this as well, as Gilliam has revealed himself as a politically backwards jerk in recent years.
3. Adam Shankman (14.8%)
Films: 4 - A Walk to Remember, The Pacifier, Rock of Ages, What Men Want
Comment: When I think of an example of a hack director, I think of Adam Shakman, though perhaps that has to do with his name. As a director, he shanks a lot of movies indeed. Rock of Ages should have, could have, been good, but it did not work for me.
2. David Cronenberg (13.1%)
Films: 4 - A History of Violence, Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars, Crimes of the Future
Comment: A possibly shocking result for cinephiles reading this. But I dodged ranking the good Cronenberg films from this period (Existenz, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method) and hit only the bad ones. I'm famously way lower than most people on A History of Violence, and Crimes of the Future is the only other of these that works even a little bit. Cosmopolis was my worst film of its year.
1. Stephen Sommers (10.5%)
Films: 4 - The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Odd Thomas
Comment: If you had given me 50 guesses about who would take this spot, I wouldn't have come up with the name Stephen Sommers. Especially since I feel like I sort of like the first Mummy and Odd Thomas, and definitely do not reserve special hatred for the other two. But statistics are statistics and I'm not going to argue with them.
What do you know. Ten white guys. I think that says more about the proliferation of white guys in the film industry than their innate talents as directors. However, this is another passive result that makes me sort of proud.
Best directors at each number of films
18 films
Steven Soderbergh (67.5%)
Overall ranking: 72nd
Beats out: Steven Spielberg (50.5%)
Comment: To be able to make an average of more than a film every two years during this period, and still be in the top 100 overall, is pretty good. With Soderbergh, there are only a few big highs (Traffic and Erin Brockovich, both top ten of 2000), and a few big lows (High Flying Bird, Haywire) while most of the rest are solid B+s. I'll mention Spielberg too. His greatest period of creative success is prior to 1996, in my opinion, and some movies I really did not like, such as War Horse, dragged him down to completely middle of the road.
Big dropoff after their 18 films!
13 films
M. Night Shyamalan (31.9%)
Overall ranking: 275th
Beats out: N/A
Comment: Poor Night. We know it's been 30 years as a punching bag. However, this inescapable fact exists: Despite my low opinion of most of his films, I have only missed ranking one film he's released during this period, though having ranked Glass would not have helped him here. That is really saying something and worth acknowledging. Obviously my optimism for his potential remains undaunted.
12 films
Richard Linklater (70.1%)
Overall ranking: 51st
Beats out: Woody Allen (51.2%), Ridley Scott (49.3%)
Comment: I avoided many of the "inessential" Linklater films from this period (eg. Bad News Bears, which is still one of my few Linklater blind spots) so the overall average of this great director is quite good, even for this many films. He's also had three top ten films during this period (Waking Life, Before Midnight, Boyhood). Always a must-see director.
11 films
Christopher Nolan (69.1%)
Overall ranking: 57th
Beats out: Zack Snyder (31.7%), Michael Bay (26.5%)
Comment: Eleven films seems to be the magic number for giant spectacle movies, right? Snyder's and Bay's have been mostly bad, but Nolan's are (almost) always a huge success. Take out my negative reaction to Dunkirk and my middling response to Tenet and you'd have a top ten overall director, who may be the event moviest director we have working today. (Outside of Quentin Tarantino maybe.)
10 films
Wes Anderson (66.9%)
Overall ranking: 77th
Beats out: Robert Zemeckis (64.6%), Joel & Ethan Coen (55%), Ron Howard (51.4%)
Comment: If I had seen probably my favorite Anderson film from this period, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, in time to rank it, he'd be even higher. Obviously I largely like Anderson, though some movies I dislike (The Darjeeling Limited, The French Dispatch) drag down an otherwise stellar record. Huge names he's beating out here, all of whom have a dud or two that cut into their average percentage.
9 films
Noah Baumbach (66%)
Overall ranking: 77th
Beats out: Danny Boyle (60.6%), Clint Eastwood (59.5%), James Mangold (49.5%), David O. Russell (48.5%)
Comment: At the start of this period, Russell was shooting for top ten overall status but his last, er, nearly 15 years have not been great. I always think of Baumbach as one of "my guys," though he too has let me down a bit with movies like Mistress America and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). That tells you how strongly I feel about his other films.
8 films
David Fincher (70.2%)
Overall ranking: 50th
Beats out (top five listed): Peter Jackson (69.7%), Adam McKay (69.1%), Martin Scorsese (67.2%), Jason Reitman (63.7%), Doug Liman (48.6%)
Comment: Like Nolan, a Fincher film is an event. I think of them as the two most interesting and challenging prestige directors of this period. Though Fincher does sometimes miss with me, as with The Killer. Otherwise, rock solid.
7 films
Denis Villeneuve (78.8%)
Overall ranking: 19th
Beats out (top five listed): Taika Waititi (60.3%), Matthew Vaughn (57.8%), Bryan Singer (50%), Kevin Smith (47.5%), Francis Lawrence (47.2%)
Comment: Highest ranked director overall with as many films as he has made, though there are two directors with six films who are higher (as we will see in a moment). When Villeneuve misses, it's not by much, and he doesn't have any film lower than 55th percentile among that year's films (which was the first I ranked, Prisoners). Possibly the most exciting large-scale director to come on our radar in the last 15 years.
6 films
Quentin Tarantino (83.4%)
Overall ranking: 11th
Beats out (top five listed): Darren Aronofsky (80.3%), Paul Thomas Anderson (73.8%), Alexander Payne (73%), Judd Apatow (72.3%), Sam Raimi (72.2%)
Comment: Of course. Tarantino just misses the top ten overall, and only because Django Unchained and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood managed only in the high 70s percentile those years. The list of runners up is like a murderer's row here. Aronofsky, the only director who has been my #1 twice, hasn't been as prolific during this period as I thought, due to a long layoff after Requiem for a Dream. If I had ranked The Fountain he would be lower.
5 films
Bong Joon-ho (89%
Overall ranking: 3rd
Beats out (top five listed): Alfonso Cuaron (83.8%), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (79%), Hirokazu Kore-eda (78.4%), Baz Luhrmann (71.2%), Todd Haynes (71%)
Comment: Already talked about Bong and Cuaron above, so no need to repeat myself, but I did want to comment on some of these others. Inarritu has gone missing lately but has made some excellent films that maybe have not all aged as well as they could have. Kore-eda is another "my guy" who I think of as an heir to Ozu. And I have a soft spot for the "jazz hands filmmaking" of Luhrmann.
4 films
Spike Jonze (92.5%)
Overall ranking: 1st
Beats out (top five listed): Lynn Shelton (87.4%), Ryan Coogler (84.9%), Alex Ross Perry (82.3%), Cristian Mungiu (78.9%), Pete Docter (78.6%)
Comment: I'll just mention Perry and Mungiu. Perry's films continue to challenge me and he has made my top ten twice. Mungiu has a #1 and a #2, a feat equalled by Jonze and beaten only by Aronofsky, but Graduation and R.M.N. did not work for me as well as 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days or Beyond the Hills.
3 films
Ben Affleck (89.3%)
Overall ranking: 2nd
Beats out (top five listed): Mark & Jay Duplass (88.3%), Jordan Peele (86.6%), Jon M. Chu (84.3%), Asgar Farhadi (83.7%), James Cameron (82.1%)
Comment: Cameron is the only one I didn't mention previously. I guess he is the ultimate event movie director as he averages about a movie every ten years these days, meaning that a new James Cameron movie is a rare event indeed. A personal note that my friend and director Matthew Saville misses the five runners up by only three spots with his 77.1%, as only Curtis Hanson and Kevin Macdonald snuck in between him and Cameron.
Okay, am I really going to list you the whole 313?
No I am not. It's too much. Even I can't delude myself that this is worthwhile reading for you.
However, I will finish by going down the list and mentioning a number of additional notable directors who have not been mentioned so far, their overall ranking, and possibly any films worth mentioning as to why they ended up higher or lower than you might expect.
I ended up going a little crazy, so you can just scan through and read the names you're interested in.
#22 Jean-Pierre Jeunet - 4 films (77.9%) - Too few movies from this talent. Micmacs is his only miss.
#29 Alex Garland - 4 films (74.8%) - Take out Men and you have a huge contender here.
#42 Sean Baker - 4 films (72.2%) - Red Rocket keeps this guy out of the top ten overall.
#48 Guillermo del Toro - 6 films (70.5%) - Solid stuff from one of the icons of the period.
#60 J.J. Abrams - 6 films (67.9%) - Directed movies in three franchises that have at least eight movies, and made good versions of all of them.
#71 David Lowery - 6 films (67.7%) - Have to mention my Ghost Story director here. Love A Ghost Story.
#83 Michael Moore - 4 films (65.3%) - A discussion of this period wouldn't be complete without a mention of its most confrontational documentary director.
#85 Robert Altman - 3 films (65.1%) - This is the kind of guy I was thinking of when I thought about directors who died during this period, and the three-film threshold would allow me to include them. Directed my #1 of 2001, Gosford Park.
#96 George Lucas - 3 films (62.1%) - You had to want to know where the prequels ended up, average percentage wise, on my overall rankings, didn't you?
#99 Guy Ritchie - 4 films (61.8%) - The most notable thing about Ritchie is the number of his films I skipped during this period, at least in the year they came out -- far more than half the ones he made. I liked the ones I did rank, though.
#113 Michael Mann - 5 films (59.8%) - I think of Mann as a good director but a few of his films have disappointed me. Would be lower if I'd ranked Miami Vice.
#116 Yorgos Lanthimos - 6 films (59.3%) - Another iconic director from the second half of this period, Lanthimos was hurt by my comparative disappointment in Alps and Kinds of Kindness.
#119 Kelly Reichardt - 6 films (58.9%) - There are actually eight female directors ranked higher than Reichardt, but each of them has only three films -- more of a comment on the film industry in general than anything else. Reichardt has been among the most prolific women in this period (we'll get to another later) with only one film I don't really like (Showing Up).
#121 Nicole Holofcener - 6 films (58.8%) - Ha, this is not even the one I was referring to in the discussion of Reichardt. Only two spots behind Reichardt overall, and one spot behind her for the title of preeminent female filmmaker who directed a half-dozen films that I ranked.
#125 Sofia Coppola - 6 films (58.3%) - This is the one! Funny how these three are clustered all together. I adore Coppola and think of her as my favorite female director, but I can't deny that three of her films from this period have underwhelmed: Somewhere, On the Rocks and Priscilla.
#126 Michel Gondry - 6 films (58%) - Started so strong with Eternal Sunshine, then offered steadily diminishing returns.
#129 Ari Aster - 3 films (57.3%) - If not for Beau is Afraid ...
#134 Spike Lee - 6 films (56.8%) - There is always going to be some variability with the quality of films from a director like Lee. Some you're going to like, some aren't going to work for you. He probably wouldn't have it any other way.
#148 Robert Eggers - 4 films (54.6%) - Unforgettable filmmaking style, imperfect results.
#152 Rian Johnson - 5 films (54.3%) - I don't like Brick, The Last Jedi or Knives Out as much as most people do.
#155 Oliver Stone - 6 films (53.1%) - There was a time when he was considered one of our greatest working directors, but that was largely before the last three decades. Now he is almost perfectly middle of the pack out of my 313.
#159 Cameron Crowe - 6 films (52.5%) - Crowe had two films in my top ten of the 2000s (Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky) but it was all downhill from there. Really it was just an excellent 2000 and 2001, though of course Crowe was excellent before then as well.
#163 Ang Lee - 6 films (52%) - One of the most versatile directors we've ever seen has a couple misses that knock him down overall. What even was Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk?
#165 James Gunn - 5 films (51.6) - For all the grousing I've done about James Gunn over the years, I think favorably of him now, so I was a little surprised by this lowish ranking.
#173 Joe Wright - 6 films (50.7%) - Barely cracking the middle of my rankings in average among qualifiers, Wright is a study in extremes: the great Atonement and Darkest Hour, the terrible Pan and The Woman in the Window.
#177 Tarsem Singh - 3 films (50.2%) - I will always think of this as sort of a "my guy" due to my love for The Cell. But the rest of his films are ... not The Cell.
#185 Edgar Wright - 6 films (48.8%) - Wright was once flying high, but I really don't like his last two films. Like, at all.
#199 Peter & Bobby Farrelly - 7 films (47%) - Really hot at the start, then really cold the rest of the way, with the exception of Hall Pass, which I unaccountably love.
#205 Lars von Trier - 6 films (45.8%) - For all the ability he has to make unforgettably good films, more of his films are unforgettably bad, not to mention problematic.
#209 Luca Guadagnino - 4 films (45.6%) - None of Guadagnino's four films I've ranked has worked for me as well as the general consensus, though I suppose there are a lot of people who don't think much of his Suspiria remake.
#210 Paul Feig - 6 films (45.3%) - One of the more prominent comedy directors of this period started out very strong with Bridesmaids and Spy, but slipped considerably on his next four.
#211 Michael Winterbottom - 8 films (44.5%) - Winterbottom made more than just The Trip films during this period, but that did account for half of the eight films I ranked. The others were mostly disappointments.
#213 Rob Marshall - 5 films (44.1%) - Our most prominent director of big-scale movie musicals did not make any nearly as good as Chicago, my #2 of 2002.
#222 James Gray - 6 films (42.3%) - When Gray is good, he's really good (Two Lovers, The Lost City of Z), but when he's bad, he's more bad than the amount he is good (The Immigrant, Ad Astra).
#226 Park Chan-wook - 3 films (41.9%) - Remember when Park was the best South Korean director?
#230 Osgood Perkins - 3 films (40.7%) - The Blackcoat's Daughter? So good! Longlegs? So bad! Gretel & Hansel? Closer to Longlegs than Blackcoat's.
#233 Nicolas Winding Refn - 3 films (40.2%) - Remember when this enfant terrible was on all our lips for a while? Unfortunately, the middle of the three I ranked is just terrible, that being Only God Forgives, which I ranked last that year.
#237 Paul Weitz - 7 films (39.7%) - Busy working director who made a number of interesting films and some not so interesting, but in any case, it was not where I expected the director of American Pie to end up.
#237 Sean Penn - 3 films (39.7%) - If not for Into the Wild, this would have been a disastrous period for Penn.
#244 Terrence Malick - 5 films (38.9%) - Totally his own kind of director, and suddenly prolific during this period after a couple decades of inactivity, but he quickly became a parody of himself.
#250 Wachowski Sisters - 7 films (38%) - My favorite film of theirs, Bound, was something I discovered later, so only The Matrix is a great film among these seven. And me ranking The Matrix Resurrections last that year really hurt them.
#259 Tyler Perry - 6 films (36.9%) - There was a period when I made a semi-regular habit of watching Perry's movies and I semi-liked them. I've kind of lost track in the past five years.
#265 Mel Gibson - 3 films (35.4%) - Remember how good Apocalypto was?
#266 Jon Favreau - 6 films (35.1%) - My complicated relationship with Jon Favreau ranges from considering Elf an all-time top 50 movie for me to thinking Chef is one big portrait of a defensive asshole.
#269 Roland Emmerich - 8 films (33.7%) - Emmerich's output is generally terrible, but I loved Anonymous (top ten that year) and I don't mind 2012.
#271 Eli Roth - 4 films (33%) - Hostel was awesome. But maybe he should stick to acting. (Wait, he's not very good in Inglourious Basterds.)
#273 Duncan Jones - 4 films (32.4%) - Moon was my #1 of 2009. The other movies? Yeesh.
#277 Robert Rodriguez - 5 films (31.5%) - I feel in my mind that Robert Rodriguez is better than this. He probably isn't.
#279 John Woo - 4 films (29.7%) - Remember when John Woo was even good? We'll always have Face/Off.
#285 Christopher Guest - 6 films (27.8%) - I remember when I thought the thing Christopher Guest brought to the movies was irreplaceable and hilarious. By the time of For Your Consideration and Mascots, that was long gone.
#289 Ivan Reitman - 4 films (25.7%) - Clearly this was after Reitman's prime. My Super Ex-Girlfriend, anyone?
#293 Todd Phillips - 5 films (23.9%) - After tickling us with the first Hangover, Phillips curdled quickly.
#295 Ruben Fleischer - 5 films (23.8%) - I thought this guy might be bottom ten material because of how I loathe 30 Minutes or Less and Venom, but Zombieland props him up.
#296 McG - 7 films (23.7%) - One of the most hilarious monikers of this period works a lot but doesn't make many good movies. My favorites of his are two films I didn't see in time to rank them: the original Charlie's Angels and We Are Marshall.
#297 Joel Schumacher - 5 films (23.4%) - And I even think of myself as a bit of Schumacher apologist, but the numbers obviously don't bear that out. (Still really like A Time to Kill though.)
Okay, exhale!
This exercise was long and fun (for me anyway), and it has indeed made me aware of some true feelings about the working filmmakers of the last three decades. And that's reason enough to do anything.