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Alan Parker

Alan Parker’s name is perhaps not that recognizable to you; of the five men on this list, he’s working least in show business. That said, he’s a director like Michael Apted: a fellow Brit who works steadily and solidly on a variety of films. Parker’s best known for directing films such as Evita, Mississippi Burning, and Midnight Express. There’s a musical, a historical drama, and a movie about drugs. Parker’s one of the great journeyman directors, someone who’s able to jump from genre to genre without breaking a sweat. If he’s associated with one genre of film, however, Parker would absolutely be associated with the musical, or the subversion of the musical. Evita was his last musical film, and arguably one of the more popular thanks to Madonna playing the title character.

However, he also worked on The Commitments, Bugsy Malone (a mob musical, yes), Fame, and Pink Floyd The Wall. That he was able to jump over to a film like Mississippi Burning (featuring one of the great Gene Hackman performances) shows how talented he is. His last film was the 2003 drama The Life of David Gale, which wasn’t exactly a winner with critics (I still remember Roger Ebert’s extremely vitriolic review from its release), but his career flourished for about 25 years. Parker’s career wasn’t full of major classics (I do like Evita, but the film’s no better than most other musicals), but he’s responsible for some iconic films, such as Fame. Right now, there’s no news on him working on a comeback film, but it’s always possible; for a unique take on the musical, he’s your man.

Matthew Vaughn

After the one-two punch of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch, you’d think that of Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn, it’s Ritchie who’d take the world by storm. Certainly, over the past decade, Ritchie’s become more well-known, but that’s mostly for marrying Madonna. These days, sure, he’s got the Sherlock Holmes franchise to boost his cred, but it’s Matthew Vaughn who’s become a rising star in Hollywood. In 2004, his first film as director, Layer Cake, was released. He followed it up with Stardust, an underrated fantasy starring Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert De Niro, but it was Kick-Ass, the superhero satire from April, that put him squarely in the sights of every geek in the country. Vaughn is now working on a new X-Men movie, X-Men: First Class. For me, this is a snooze, but it’s still a famous property and has big stars attached.

Vaughn’s sensibility is that he can do anything. Yes, his two most recent films will be superhero flicks, but he’s just as adept at fantasy and mobster sagas as he is at costumed fighters. What’s more, he’s good at working with big stars, or people who are about to become big stars. He’d clued in on the charisma and charm that oozes from Daniel Craig before Craig ever became James Bond; he’s worked with De Niro, coaxed out a good performance from Nicolas Cage, and is now working with such young talents as James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. Vaughn’s track record isn’t completely perfect (I liked Kick-Ass, but did not love it like most people my age did), but he’s a fresh, interesting, and flexible director who seems to be as at home with gross-out comedy as he is at fighting, as comfortable with romance as he is with violence. I’m excited to see what he does next.

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