New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Now, one could argue (in this case, one is me) that some of his most recent directing work is uninspired, to say the least (if you saw all of The Da Vinci Code without falling asleep, you are far better than me). Though Frost/Nixon was a good movie, it's not really a film that many people will remember years from now. Also, many people consider A Beautiful Mind to be a great film (I'm not one of them), but the year before, Howard helmed the misguided adaptation of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas, starring a made-up Jim Carrey. Still, with entertaining films such as Ransom and Apollo 13, it's hard to discount the fact that Howard is a confident, consistent, and crowd-pleasing director.

Clint Eastwood

There had been persistent rumors that Clint Eastwood's most recent film as director, Gran Torino, will be his last. I am sincerely glad it's not true (he's directing this winter's Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela), not only because Eastwood has been behind such classics as Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, but because Gran Torino is easily one of the worst films I've seen in the last few years. Moreover, the film he directed before that, last fall's Changeling, was a well-meaning but uninspired and sometimes laughable period drama. I don't mean to choose Eastwood here to make fun of him; far more of his work is worth celebration, from a movie as recent as Letters from Iwo Jima. Still, it should come as no surprise that Eastwood is a director of some quirk, even if it doesn't come across on screen.

Eastwood is well-known for being the kind of director to work very quickly on his sets; that's why he's able to have two films ready for release within two months (as he did with Changeling & Gran Torino and Letters from Iwo Jima & Flags of our Fathers). Of course, it's rare to find directors who can work so quickly with actors as varied as Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, and Kevin Costner. Still, this quality, along with the style of his films (no frills, no flashy camerawork, and the like), makes Eastwood an outstanding director, one who is confident in his abilities and the films he makes...even if it might help for him to do one or two more takes on the set or with the script.

George Clooney

From a director whose films are quirk-free to a director who embraces quirkiness we go. Clooney, still one of the most popular people in the world, has only made a few films, but when one of them gets nominated for a Best Picture (in a year when it should have taken the prize, despite being a small-ish film), it's worth sitting up and taking notice. Sure, Clooney has only directed three films (and we can probably just ignore Leatherheads, which certainly wasn't a bad film, but...well, I feel like I was one of only about 100 people who actually sat through it and still didn't get my money's worth), but the promise of his first two makes another film directed by this suave lothario something worth hoping for.

Continued:       1       2       3