The guy has never made a bad film. Even his weakest piece of work, Insomnia, which Justin failed to mention, was still a very good flick that launched Nolan into the world of studio pictures. Plus it grossed a respectable $67 million dollars, which actually ranks it as the 780th highest grossing movie ever. Sure, Nolan now makes $67 million in a weekend, but for your first studio picture, a $67 million gross is not bad.
Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige, The Dark Knight and Inception are some of my favorite movies. If Nolan keeps up this pace, we'll be talking about him as one of the greatest directors ever - he might already be on the fringe of that discussion even with his brief resume. His ability to make high-concept films box office successes (even if two of them came in the form of a popular comic book franchise adaptation) is quite remarkable.
But I'm not ready to call him the best director of the 21st Century just yet. (Although I'm a lot closer to saying it after seeing Inception. Justin and I actually started this debate before the movie released.)
For me, I still think it is Martin Scorsese. He's made four theatrical movies, a documentary, a concert film/documentary, and a short film. Of the four theatrical films (what the focus of this debate is really on), three have been nominated for Best Picture: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed. The Departed won the award, and is one of the top films produced since 2000. Gangs of New York could have easily won - Chicago won that year, and The Aviator was right in the mix, losing out to Million Dollar Baby.
And to Justin, have you seen Shine A Light? Shine A Light documents a Rolling Stones concert with some interviews mixed in. For what it is, it's pretty impressive. I've seen a lot of concert DVDs (they are pretty much all my father watches), and Shine A Light is very, very well done. And while it frustrates me a little bit to see a talent like Scorsese do things other than theatrical films, he's still damn good at the other stuff.
Added to Scorsese's post-1999 resume is Shutter Island, a film I personally loved. It could continue Scorsese's run of Best Picture nominations with the field now expanded to 10, but it isn't a serious contender. Still a great movie to me.
I was kind of an Eastwood hater from the director side of things until I finally sat down and watched Mystic River. That movie is incredible. His resume since the turn of the century is phenomenal, and in many circles people would probably call him the best of the 21st Century.
A couple of other names to take a closer look at for this title.
1) Steven Spielberg. While his best work was probably done in the 1990s with films like Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park and even Hook - the re-imagining of Peter Pan - or in the 1980s with the first three Indiana Jones films, and E.T., Spielberg still put out some great films since 2000.
Munich, Catch Me If You Can, and Minority Report are all phenomenal films. If you don't believe me on Minority Report, go back and watch it again. I watched it about three months ago for the first time since it was in theaters and I was blown away. It is a spectacular film.
Even two of his critically panned films - War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - were still commercial blockbusters and further demonstrated Spielberg's ability to work with a vast amount of special effects in a film.
2) Lee Unkrich. I know what you just said....who?!?!?! Nolan, Scorsese, Eastwood, Spielberg, Unkrich?
Well, have you ever heard of Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3? This guy directed those animated gems out of Pixar Studios. Sure it is a lot different because they are animated movies and none of us civilians are really sure what the directoral process is like in an animated film, but the director is still responsible for the overall vision of a film, even if it is animated. And those three films are all impressive in their visions.
Just give him some slight consideration for this title. And there looks like there could be a strong chance of Toy Story 3 being named the Best Picture of 2010.
3) Ron Howard. Howard has a great mix of commercial and critical successes since 2000. He has How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons on the commercial end of things; and A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man and Frost/Nixon on the critical end of things.
His other film since 2000 is 2003's The Missing, which I haven't seen, and haven't heard much about.
That is an impressive list of films, and if you haven't seen Frost/Nixon, check it out. It's a great motion picture.
4)Ridley Scott. Scott has put out Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men and American Gangster. All great films to me, even though I haven't seen all of Black Hawk Down yet - but some movies you just know are good from the bits you catch on TV.
He also put out Hannibal, Kingdom of Heaven, A Good Year, Body of Lies and Robin Hood.
Scott had the un-envied task of taking on Hannibal. How can you live up to or surpass Silence of the Lambs when there was as long a break as there was between films? Plus, if you've ever read Thomas Harris' novels, Hannibal is a much tougher subject matter to tackle. Silence of the Lambs reads like a screenplay, and it checks in under 400 pages in paperback form. Hannibal is a 562-page monster that takes you all over the world and has entire chapters take place inside Hannibal Lecter's mind. I would not want to be the one responsible for adapting that story.
The only other film of this second list I saw was Body of Lies, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Scott obviously deserves to be in the discussion.
5) Quentin Tarantino. I think he must be mentioned sheerly for the genius of Inglorious Basterds. I didn't see that movie until after the Academy Awards were announced, and I was stunned it wasn't recognized for more than Christoph Waltz's turn as Hanz Landa.
Sure people say Tarantino rips off other directors. I've never seen the work they say is ripped off so I don't know how accurate that is. I know it isn't the dialogue in his films, which is still the most original dialogue being produced in Hollywood. The Kill Bill films are great too, not quite on the same level as Basterds, though. My only wish with Tarantino is that he would work a little more, but I understand the difficulties in writing and directing everything you do.
