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With the release of Clash of the Titans staring all of us in the face (and the inevitable 3-D backlash that's right behind it), the A-List could talk about great films about Greek myths, the wonder and excitement conjured up by special-effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, or the various actors who've tried and failed at doing what Sam Worthington appears to be doing (which is starring in lots and lots of huge movies, despite not being any more talented than any other young actor). However, the movie's been making me about as excited as...well, as excited as I am for the latest installment in Miley Cyrus attempting to be a movie star, which is not very at all. So, today, I'm going to highlight a topic far more all-encompassing: the best directors working today.

Recently, Entertainment Weekly released, on its Web site, a list of the 25 greatest active directors and, though I couldn't really criticize a lot of the names chosen for the list, the placement troubled me. Here is a list where Darren Aronofsky and Paul Thomas Anderson are battling it out with Zack Snyder and Tim Burton; the bad news is that the former two gentlemen both placed behind the latter two. I won't argue with those who love 300, Watchmen, or Alice in Wonderland, but let's be honest: There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, The Wrestler, and Requiem for a Dream are...shall we say, a little more ambitious, exciting, and stunning to be placed behind the man who helped unleash Gerard Butler on America. Thanks, Zack Snyder; yes, I blame you for The Bounty Hunter.

In short, I'd like to provide a few names of my own; I'm not saying that these names will be different. I've already mentioned one of the directors who will show up in the A-List, and it's hard to argue. Of course, this list is not ranked, so if it makes you happy, each of the names on this list is a winner. Two names that won't show up are those of James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. The former because he's done so little work in the past 15 years that's so invested in being spectacle more than anything else that I can't fully get behind him; the latter because, though Bigelow's work in The Hurt Locker was indeed Oscar-worthy, she's also responsible for Point Break and K-19: The Widowmaker. It's about a body of work. And so, check out this week's A-List; feel free to spew vitriol against me afterwards.

Martin Scorsese

It's honestly hard to argue by saying that rank or otherwise, Martin Scorsese is the best working director today. There are plenty of people (I would include myself among them) who aren't as thrilled that his sole Best Director Oscar came for his 2006 film The Departed. The film was fine, sure, but it was more than obvious that the Academy, by having Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola bestow the award, knew that they were just making up for ignoring such classics as Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, and GoodFellas. That said, he's managed, unlike those three men, to remain fresh and important, as much so as directors half his age. While Coppola tends to his wine, Lucas works on projects that may yet ruin someone else's childhood, and Spielberg talks a big game without producing anything, Scorsese is still a vital and important director.

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