Tag: director

• Perfect Directors: Robert Altman

  

  I am an American. That is to say, I was born in, and have spent my entire life, in the United States of America. Everything I know about the world–if not reality itself–is filtered through my experiences and understanding from the sliver of time I’ve been alive from the late 20th to early 21st century […]

  Mike Gray

  September 6, 2020

  American culture, cult, culture, film

  3 Women, analysis, Brewster McCloud, California Split, commentary, director, director Robert Altman, essay, film, Gosford Park, MASH, Nashville, O.C. and Stiggs, Perfect Directors, Popeye, Robert Altman, Short Cuts, The Long Goodbye, The Player

• Perfect Directors: Jacques Tati

  

  Directors don’t need to have a long list of movies on their resume to be considered great; in fact, it seems the more movies once heralded filmmakers make, the more likely they are to sully their own good fortune and reputation, living long enough to become the villain–or at least retroactively wreck their own reputation. […]

  Mike Gray

  September 2, 2020

  culture, film

  director, film, French, Jacques Tati, Jour de fete, Mon Oncle, Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Parade, PlayTime, Trafic

• Worst to Best Gus Van Sant Films

  A sort of American Andrei Tarkovsky, Gus Van Sant’s films are characterized by long tracking shots, stretches of unbroken silence, and drifting dream-like cinematography that makes seemingly everyday events something unique and special. Often depicting characters that live on the edge of society–either due to their sexual orientation, a purposeful defiance of norms, or from […]

  Mike Gray

  July 11, 2018

  culture, film

  director, drugstore cowboy, Elephant, even cowgirls get the blues, filmography, finding forrester, Gerry, good will hunting, Gus Van Sant, Last Days, Mala Noche, milk, my own private idaho, Paranoid Park, Queer Cinema, review, The Sea of Trees, to die for, worst to best

• Ridley Scott Films from Worst to Best

  

  Ridley Scott is one of the most successful directors of all time: combined, his films have grossed nearly $2 billion theatrically alone, while his work in the science fiction and historical drama genres have set the standard for generations of filmmakers. Having directed sci-fi masterpieces like Alien and Blade Runner, to historical epics like Gladiator […]

  Mike Gray

  March 28, 2018

  culture, film

  Alien, American Gangster, Blade Runner, director, film, Gladiator, list, Ridley Scott, The Martian, worst to best

• Perfect Directors: David Cronenberg

  

  Cerebral, dark, oddly humorous, and obsessed with the inextricable relationship between the body and the psyche, David Cronenberg’s work is difficult to describe. Is he a sci-fi director obsessed with body horror? A dramatist that uses horror as a way to externalize inner turmoil? Or are all of his films horror stories– whether they be […]

  Mike Gray

  November 28, 2017

  culture, film, Uncategorized

  A History of Violence, Cosmopolis, Crash, David Cronenberg, Dead Ringers, director, Eastern Promises, eXistenZ, film, Naked Lunch, perfect director, Scanners, The Brood, The Dead Zone, The Fly, Videodrome

• Perfect Movies: Terrence Malick’s First 5 Films

  Terrence Malick is one of the most interesting directors of both the 20th and 21st century. For decades known as a reclusive auteur who rarely made a film–and when he did they were universally hailed for their meditative tone and brilliant cinematography–Malick abruptly broke away from the rarity of his releases and within the past […]

  Mike Gray

  July 13, 2017

  culture, film

  Badlands, Days of Heaven, director, film, filmography, Perfect Movies, Terrence Malick, The New World, The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life

• Perfect Directors: Martin Scorsese

  

  If there’s one unifying element to Martin Scorsese’s films, it’s alienation. Specifically, the alienation of his male protagonists: whether successes (Howard Hughes in The Aviator, Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, or Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino), failures (Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy, Frank Pierce in Bringing Out the Dead, and […]

  Mike Gray

  June 15, 2017

  culture, film

  director, film, Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese, Perfect Directors, Taxi Driver, The Wolf of Wall Street