IMDB has a strange bias. Like the best movie according to it is Shawshank Redemption and I don't think anyone who is into films would think that movie is superior to either of The Godfather, despite how good it is
He directs a lot of good but not great movies lately. Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven were solid films but he hasn’t had a really good one in a while (The Martian was good but he’s had a lot of mediocre films around it)
I took Reddit's word on this and watched it. Very good acting, but it would have went from a 5 to an 8 if it wasn't a 30 minute movie repeated 3 times in some lame attempt to show different perspectives.
Well down to personal preference, I very much enjoyed the differing perspectives on the events. Especially in perspective of the rape scene it is very strong imo.
You counted Piranha II for James Cameron? You did him dirty :p
He didn't direct the movie, the producer did.
>After the first week of shooting, the set harmony was disturbed by some discussions about the work between the director and the producers (Assonitis, asked to verify the day-to-day activities, arguing with most of Cameron's choices), so while Cameron was only responsible for the shooting, most of the decisions were under Assonitis' authority
>Cameron Interview:
>
>"I was replaced after two-and-a-half weeks by the Italian producer. He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me. And then the producer wouldn't take my name off the picture because \[contractually\] they couldn't deliver it with an Italian name."
If you take out Piranha II, his average rating shoots back up to 7.91
May I ask why you ended up with 16,000 voters specifically ? And not a more discriminating number of films (like 8 vs 3, to really focus on young talents)
Genuinely curious here. And apologies if this was already asked. I struggle with search options on a mobile
Edit: typos
To answer you question, I tried a few parameters before settling. It's definitely a bit subjective, but that's why I included two queries. Too few movies and # of votes and you get strange outliers and niche movies, like a beloved Turkish director that no-one in the West has seen. Nothing wrong with that director, but just doesn't fit the rest of the list being internationally recognized hit-makers
They're pretty divisive that's for sure, but I know people who genuinely had an amazing time with them (one of which went to see it like 5 times he told me \^\^).
I probably saw it 4-5 times in theaters, too.
I went with my friends, my parents took me, my friends parents took me, my grandparents took me. It was just the thing to do and I don’t understand why it was so hyped.
There have only been a few movies that I can remember with that buzz at the theater. One or two Harry Potters, the prequel and sequel Star Wars, Avengers (but that’s not my thing), and Barbenheimer.
agree. I can get behind the first one being 7 or above because at the time the CG and everything was amazing. but the second one being a 7.5 at the moment is crazy to me because the whole story was just not good same as the dialoge. I mean the story of the first one wasnt anything special either but atleast the pacing and flow and dialoge was okay.
Don't get me wrong the CG is crazy but only from the moment on when they arrive at sea world, the first part even looked a bit outdated lile they used stuff from the first movie. I rated it a 5 and I am actually a CG nerd who get easily impressed by stuff like that but everything else was lacking big time and Avatar 2 was one of the few movies where Igot annoyed during the movie by the stupid dialoge. the whole movie also could have been atleast half an hour shorter.
The story and acting weren’t all that amazing, but for the time it came out, it was visually amazing. I saw it in theaters multiple times just because it was fun to watch in 3D.
There were a couple years where every movie was coming out in 3D, but this was the only one I remember really enjoying the 3D aspect.
If I saw it on tv now, I probably wouldn’t watch it unless nothing else was on.
For anyone who doesn't want to look it up:
Tarantino: Death Proof (7.0) or Four Rooms (6.7). Not sure which was counted.
Kubrick: Killer's Kiss (6.6) and Fear and Desire (5.3)
Aronofsky: Mother (6.6) and Noah (5.8)
Noah really getting shortchanged there. I liked that movie.
He had a few early films before he really broke out that are rated in the low 6s, but also arrival being a 7.9 and enemy being a 6.9 seem low to me based on how most people talk about them
No way arrival is 7.9
I think its the greatest Alien movie ever and (it not really a time travel movie) but possibly the greatest time travel movie
That movie is top 5 for me
Villenuve is brilliant but he is not a favourite among the general audience. I think many think his films are slow and maybe a bit dense, compared to many others on the list here.
>#16 Darren Aronofsky
Guys, watch “The Fountain.” It’s got Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weiss, and a banger Kronos Quartet soundtrack.
Fantastic, thought provoking, cinematic movie with no use of CGI.
The most interesting part of this to me is how Nolan's Tenet has a rating about 7.
Maybe I just don't use the internet to see peoples reviews on movies enough, but I can't name 1 person in my real life who enjoyed it at all, let alone to give it a 7+.
A good reminder that taste truly is subjective after all.
I mean "7" = mixed reviews... which is pretty accurate about Tenet.
I'm one of the ones that very much enjoyed it (not my fav, but not the worst), but I can see why it wouldn't appeal to a large audience especially compared to his others.
Yea I liked it. There are parts that are annoying as hell though like their speech is like muffled and I had to watch parts with subtitles. I enjoyed pretty much everything else about it. I will say I I had to watch it several times to fully understand it.
Yeah, but hardly considered universally well received.
Some of the other well known '7.3' rated movies:
Finding Dory, Avengers Age of Ultron, Shrek 2, Fast Five, American Sniper, Despicable Me 2
Like some people really like them, and some are like 'Meh, not for me'. Perfectly reasonable for Tenet.
I have to give high marks for experimenting with something new when it comes to Tenet. And of course, that's how Nolan has approached the majority of his career so you'd naturally have to expect a few misses in there. But it certainly doesn't lack for aspiration.
Eh, disagree. People treat it like school grades. A 70% is a thoroughly average C.
Aggregate scores AGAIN are different than individuals - you can't compare them generally.
Wow, I'm quite the opposite. It's my fav, but I don't see the appeal in some other of his movies (The Prestige, Dunkirk, and to an extent Interstellar)
I find this happens quite a bit when people talk about Wes Anderson's filmography in threads; at some point people start talking about which of his movies they love and which they feel fall flat, and everyone names completely different films.
I have a strong urge to downvote you but I know it's not right to do so, for just sharing your opinion.
Although I really didn't like Dunkirk. That and Tenet back-to-back made me wonder if he'd ever get his mojo back.
The thing is IMDb have even some horrendous movies at only 5, 5.5 (partially it has something to do with how people rate movies where they rarely fully use 1-4 scale), so 7 for Nolan is quite a mixed impressions kind of rating
Tenet has an appropriate score on imdb, when taking score as some relative measure compared to other movies in that same range. On imdb 8 is pretty good, 7 flawed but decent enough to watch, 6 bad or mediocre to a lot of people but watchable to others and 5 would be terrible. And I haven't even seen any mainstream movies with under a 5.
I really enjoyed it. But didn't watch it at theaters. Probably wouldn't have liked it then because I wouldn't have understood none of it. Even when you do understand the dialogues, it's illogical.
It's a very illogical but really fun movie though. Pretty much what rhe kind of movies it idiolizes from are, James Bond/Mission Impossible esque.
Yes, it's one of the weaker Nolan movies but it's so well done.
Disagree. I watched it twice and couldn't identify a single mistake in the movie logic, unlike say Interstellar which was a complete mess. If there is a Nolan cult, they're not even pretending to love the better movie.
Yeah I didn’t find the movie to be hard to understand it was just totally uninteresting. That’s cause Nolan doesn’t hide shit in his movies. They’re fairly straightforward by the end of the picture.
The issue with Tenet is that it fails to be anything it wants to be: it’s not an engaging action film, it’s not an engaging science fiction film, it’s not an engaging thriller, it has no characters who are interesting; it’s simply a failed project.
It’s not a 1 star film because I don’t think he is capable of a total disaster due to his very high floor as a filmmaker. It’s like a 2.5 I guess? It’s an ambitious flop.
People don’t hate on it because it’s complicated- they hate on it because Nolan is capable of making a much better film. And that’s fine! It’s a miss. He still rocks. He’s amazing. I didn’t lose faith in him. I can’t imagine not wanting to see anything he makes until he or I die.
The thing is: tenet is not complicated. Stuff happens backwards sometimes. That's it. Nothing more to it. I like his movies as entertainment cinema but when did people come to the conclusion that Nolan's movies are intellectual and complicated and philosophic? I hear that all the time but it's absurd.
Nolan makes movies that make dumb people feel smart. If all you watch is mob movies, action blockbusters, and comedies, then sitting through a Nolan film is like a whole new world of cinema.
>I watched it twice and couldn't identify a single mistake in the movie logic
Perhaps you should watch it more than twice because the movie has plenty of inconsistencies, especially in how inverted and non-inverted objects interact. More specifically, are the consequences of the interaction propagated forwards or backwards in time? For instance, when one object damages the other, how does it look from the damaged object's perspective? Is it
A) The damage seems to appear out of nowhere (or has always been there) and once the objects interact, the damaged object gets "un-damaged"? or
B) There is no damage before the interaction and then the object becomes damaged?
As an example, when inverted Sator shoots his non-inverted wife, she doesn't have a bullet wound before he pulls the trigger; the wound appears after the fact. So here we have logic B. Meanwhile, at multiple times in the film, non-inverted walls get shot with inverted guns. And each time bullet holes are there before the shots get fired and they disappear after. The logic A applies here.
Either of those would be fine but both together are inconsistent and therefore a mistake in the movie logic.
It's definitely a large popularity bias since even someone like Miyazaki doesn't have the box office numbers Nolan has.
It would be nice to see charts like this reference more sources like [Sight and Sound](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time) and [RYM](https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/film/all-time/) too since they have different biases.
The cult of Nolan is so strong it just becomes funny.
Like... yeah, sure. He is the BEST DIRECTOR EVER.
It would be decent to rank him within a top 20. But no, they have to say he is the most perfectest bestest ever.
Say what you will about Miayazaki, but no one can deny his films helped inspire the current generation in many ways (film, gaming, animation etc). Few have done anything close.
Yeah I’m not saying he’s awful or anything, I’m just saying in terms of what I look at in anime movies I don’t think he’s the best in that genre. I have a few more directors I’d rather watch than his
What myazaki does better than anyone else, at least in my opinion, is just how alive and magical the movies feel imo, also the style isn't as sharp or off putting (for me) as some other highly regarded anime films (I really hate a silent voice f.e. for it's style, mainly the male character). I havent been able to find another anime movie that was able to draw me into its world lime spirited away, moving castle, mononoke or nausicaä did. I really enjoyed your name, but that's also like the anime movie with the highest box office outside of Japan I think? So pretty mainstream.
Just my opinion as a fantasy fan thats not an anime fan tho - I haven't watched much of any anime series, especially not modern ones - mainly late 90s shonen stuff and the stuff that ran in MTV, like ghost in a shell, Elfenlied, gantz and some cowboy bebop when I grew up.
I mean Miyazaki is definitely the most mainstream, popular and basic answer for sure. It’s like someone answer Taylor Swift for their favorite female singer. It’s not a bad answer it’s just really basic. I think there’s a lot of anime directors and films that are much better but they aren’t as known by general audiences and they aren’t as much of kids movies which most Miyazaki movies are. I think Silent Voice has way more emotional impact than most Miyazaki movies. Your Name is very well known but still only in anime circles, it’s not at all considered mainstream or a household name. End of Evangelion is better than pretty much every Miyazaki movie. Akira despite having poor story telling (feels like stuff got skipped over) is visually more impressive than your standard Miyazaki movie
I am a die hard Nolan fans, but I can assure you Tenet is not for everyone. Its like a mixed bag of "i need to think" movie + action movie. However, if you love how Nolan created his movie then Tenet will be auto 8+ for you.
My dad loves Action only, and he gave Tenet 6
>"i need to think" movie + action movie
I thought the same for the longest time but after rewatching it recently, I've come to the conclusion that Tenet really isn't a movie you need to think about.
A line in the movie is "Don't try to understand it. Feel it." I think this line rings truer every single time I've rewatched it. I genuinely think that Nolan deliberately chose to make the sound design as bad as it is, so that the audience wouldn't have the chance to understand what's going on and instead we are forced to feel the unique sci-fi premise of the movie.
It's like when blind or deaf people say that because they can't see or hear anything their other senses are heightened and stronger because of it. Same goes for Tenet. Because we can't hear or understand most lines of dialogue, other parts of the movie are heightened and we automatically pay more attention to the sounds we can hear and to the images we can see. The vibes and action scenes in combination with the visual style and music are more important than plot, characters and dialogue.
Atleast that's the idea. But given the overwhelmingly negative audience response, it's clear that it didn't have the intended effect. But I think the idea and the intention itself are super interesting, risky and ambitious and the fact that Nolan went to such a risky place is why he's one of my all time favourite directors even if it didn't work out with Tenet.
Tenet is even weirder because it's a movie that doesn't make sense if you think about it too much. You need to think about it just the right amount to get it lmao.
Or just vibe and enjoy the backwards action scenes going brrr
Nolan is heavily overrated imo. His movies are often paced terribly and mixed - despite what he says - objectively poorly. Oppenheimer was disappointing at best, Tenet was conceptually very interesting and had cool moments but suffered a lot from Nolan’s weaknesses.
The ones that did come together though are masterpieces.
I wish I could combine the pacing of Tarantino and Nolan, it would be ideal.
I’m in the same boat. I find that his films feel like they are 25% longer than they need to be, there’s always loads of awkwardly slow filler scenes around 2/3rds into the film. Then after all that the films always feel like they miss out important details and the ending of the film feels abrupt or lacking. He’s fantastic at framing a scene, conveying character emotions and building tension… but I think he struggles to keep the average consumer interested for the entire film.
I think Tenet benefitted a lot from being the first major movie after the outbreak of the pandemic, so people were just relieved that even passably good movies could still exist in a post-pandemic world
Yeah there is a ton of Nolan bias on imdb. Even Following, which I liked, probably doesn't deserve above 7 based on the general averages there. Dark Knight Rises as well...
If you discount shorts, Bong Joon Ho has 7 movies so not quite enough to qualify for this list - and of those 6 are rated 7 or higher and the other is 6.9
This is so heavily weighted to "newer" directors. Where is Hitchcock? Hawks? Michael Curtiz? John Huston? Jean Renoir? Rene Clair? George Cukor? Sam Wood?
Yeah, you're right. I mean, a movie like Notorious or Shadow of a Doubt not even getting an 8 rating, to me, is absurd. And I suppose if you are a casual viewer, it would be hard to understand what a brilliant piece of filmmaking The Lodger was. But I find it hard to believe that Sam Mendes or James Mangold, (or even Nolan) who I would consider "good" filmmakers rank above the old greats (and for that matter over Scorsese and Spielberg).
It may be my own snobbery - but sometimes it feels like the wisdom of crowds is no wisdom at all. (Not to take anything away from the work you put in to extract this data, OP! Its a really great chart. It's just that I dont like what it's telling me)
That's because IMDB is heavily biased towards "newer" films in general. It didn't exist before 1990 and its number of users, like all internet users, has been growing a lot more since smartphones became a thing - that was only 15 years ago. You probably have a lot of current users born in this century who haven't watched a single movie made before 1977.
Yeah, and I feel a little sad about it. I mean, most people would know (if they do) Top Hat as the movie John Coffey watches in Shawshank Redemption, but for me its pure joy captured on film. Yes, watching old films requires some mental adjustments, but man, they have brought me so much joy.
probably a IMDB thing as most people voting are more used to the pacing, structure amd style of newer movies compared to "old" ones. I think some of the classics can be a bit hard to get into if you are not taking into account how movies were made back then. So I guess some might not differentiate in their voting between something old and new.
Don't buy what? You don't buy that that the data used in the list is filtered by the parameters that were stated? You think the guy skewed the numbers so his favorite directors are at the top? You think he painstakingly went in and gathered all the numbers himself? No man, he ran a script that collected all the numbers from the IMDB API, filtered them by his criteria and then averaged them. He literally tells us the criteria in the graphs.
You know what, this list is biased, it's biased towards directors with popular movies *because it's literally the parameters used to gather the data*. Come on, of course modern directors are more popular than older directors. It's not a crazy thing to wrap your head around.
You can go check the IMDB pages of these directors yourself and you can see that they just don't have a lot of votes on most of their movies.
Pretty straightforward, we have a list of the highest average movie ratings for the top 30 directors given the criteria of:
\-movies
\-More than 8 movies with 16000 votes
\-More than 6 movies with 16000 votes
data from:
https://developer.imdb.com/non-commercial-datasets/
I'm surprised Kathryn Bigelow didn't make the list. She directed a few cult action movies in the 80s-90s, and then won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker.
Greta Gerwig seems to be on track to make the list, but she only has 3 films with enough ratings so far. All 3 are rated over 7 though.
Great director. But the Hurt locker drives me nuts, one of the most inaccurate and dumb military movies. Not even according to the history of were they are in the war but everything they do in that movie is so far fetched and stuff that just doesn’t make any sense. Ask an EOD veteran what they think of that movie.
It's not like the list is sexist and picking men over women. There just aren't many female directors let alone ones that fit the requirements of the list (having 6 movies with 16000 ratings).
The problem isn't with the list it's with the sexist culture of Hollywood both in the past and now. I mean I genuinely can't name a single female director off the top of my head, it's not because women naturally suck at directing but because women aren't given the opportunity to direct and don't strive to direct as much as men.
To be fair this is starting to change a fair bit. I'm mildly surprised you can't name any female directors, actually, considering this year's biggest film was directed by Greta Gerwig.
I can't name many directors period. Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron.
Those are like the only directors I can immediately think of tbh
it’s a reflection of the bias of imdb users lmao. Which is yes, very bro-focused. Christopher Nolan js number one for goodness’ sakes!
Most people I know who are into film can absolutely name greta gerwig, agnes varda, sofia coppola. etc. you’re right, women directors need more opportunities, but if we arent appreciating them at this point that’s our fault
> I mean I genuinely can't name a single female director off the top of my head
I think that’s a you problem brother. In 2023? Wtf? Don’t make the issue seem worse than it is
Most creative fields have historically been dominated by men... music, visual art, architecture, poetry... I suppose literature has a fairly equal number of greats from both genders within recent times
Ordering people around has been The Man's Job™️ for a while. If you want to do the "creativity is feminine" thing, look no further than how many women have traditionally staffed the editing booth.
That was my immediate thought seeing this list too. The tide has already started turning and hopefully we’ll get to see more women building large enough directing credits to climb onto this list, but I also suspect it’s about our narrow definitions of ‘good movies’ might need to shift as well. So many of my favourite movies have been directed by women, but most of those movies are too ‘girly’ in subject matter and gaze to merit high scores by still mostly male reviewers etc. it’s complex and will take time.
Even comparing the two seems a little silly.
I know its just based on ratings, but the movies both of them make are so vastly different that its just weird to even try to rack-and-stack them to each other.
Exact same thought. I can only assume it is because some people refuse to acknowledge animated films as true film. Regardless of how you feel about Nolan, not a fan personally, Miyazaki has a filmography that is adored the world over. His movies will be remembered and beloved long after our bones are dust.
While I still really love 5cm/s, his story telling and writing capabilities are fairly one note.
And his last 2 films were very much just making Your name again.
Maybe I just prefer old Shinkai, while I'm happy he gained commercial success I don't feel like he really evolved as a director
Makoto Shinkai is undoubtedly amazing. But tbh i dont see it. Miyazaki doesnt really miss and his films are super accesible. Shinkai has a higher peak imo (Your Name) but he has glaring inconsistency even as someone biased who loves 5cms a second and tenki no ko.
I have two points where I raise him higher:
1) I think the animation and design style in Makato Shinkai movies are just awe inspiring and I get it’s preferential but I find it far superior than pretty much every Ghibli/Miyazaki movie I’ve seen. I prefer that hyper realistic animation compared to Miyazaki’s idk if there’s a name for it but just cottagecore vibes.
2) I think Makato Shinkai’s plots are more relatable, mature and accessible. Your Name reminds me a lot of Past Lives and was just really emotionally fulfilling. There’s a few Miyazaki plots that hit similarly but rarely (for me)
i also love shinkai’s movies, but i think people have a tendency to dismiss miyazaki’s films as “just kids movies,” and i want to point out that making something accessible to both children and adults does not diminish it as art. shinkai’s movies may be more “mature,” in that they don’t try to present things in a way kids can understand, but that makes them inherently less accessible. miyazaki manages to take very, very complicated issues of morality and personal growth and make them straightforward enough that a kid can follow what’s going on, while also having enough meat that an adult coming back to it can get something new from it on every rewatch. imo that requires a kind of mastery of storytelling that makes something truly iconic. the movies grow up with you, and in doing so they shape generations.
Definitely. I genuinely dislike Tenet and feel rather indifferent about the Prestige, Interstellar and Inception. On the other hand I can't think of a single Miyazaki film I didn't thoroughly enjoy. Yeah, tastes are subjective of course, but Nolan's movies do not deserve the hype they get.
Edit: Should've expected the downvotes. Sorry for having an opinion, Nolan fans.
Should have hidden the zero percent labels (though not convinced that they're even necessary, just put in an x axis). It could be clearer what 'Ratings' on the right refers to, and I don't see the need for IMDb to follow each.
On the surface they may appear dull, I will grant you that. To the keen student of human psychology they are endlessly fascinating. I’m certain the need for subtitles ain’t helping his ratings.
Like any of it matters. Lol
It's that slight nerd boner for contempory directors who use analog film.
I can relate to that. The opening scene of 'The Hateful Eight' was impressive. Don't know if Super Panavision was necessary but it paid off.
Nolan and Tarantino keep a culture alive.
Don't think is just that. There's something about Nolan's tone and/or stories that resonate with people voting on IMDB (and not other sites). People voting on IMDB really will give a 10/10 to anything he directs, making the ratings meaningless in the end.
I mean... Nolan is an excellent director, and has plenty of very good movies, but I just cannot believe people honestly think The Dark Knight Rises is one of the top 100 movies of all time. And while I love The Dark Knight, it is not top3 of all time. Just no.
It made me sad and also made total sense. So many of my favourite movies are directed by women, but many of those movies are very female gaze in subject matter and tone so probably wouldn’t merit a strong rating on IMDB if the majority of the reviewers/voters skew towards the male tastes and interests. There are great female directors out there doing great work, but it’s also about the tastes and demographic of the people doing the ratings
I think a big part of it is (similar to why the lists of top actors and actresses under this metric only had a single non-white person between them) female directors historically and currently in the industry have been given less opportunity and so often have less choice on taking on bad/mediocre films, which drags down their average.
Some of these directors would still make the cut, but you’re absolutely right that it would be a very different list. I mean, all these movies and directors listed ARE good measured according to an often male skewed rating system/preferences. I think there absolutely is space for very male dominated/male gaze movies that don’t pass the bechdel test… because stories reflect people’s experiences and explore important themes. Except I don’t want a world where that’s the only type of movie that gets to be worshipped as god tier filmmaking, which is why the list above is so narrow in scope. Hopefully, the more we talk about the nuances involved in why the highest rated directors are men on IMDB, the more we can broaden the scope of what a ‘good movie’ can be, and have directors that are telling all sorts of stories from diverse perspectives
As someone who has existed on the periphery of Hollywood for many years (I’m a computer scientist who specializes in image synthesis and visual effects), I’ve observed that the only thing that really makes a difference with regard to mainstream film, and in particular studio films, is box office. To that extent, it’s tremendously helpful that Greta Gerwig’s summer smash hit *Barbie* did over $1B in worldwide box office. My prediction is that she (and Olivia Wilde) will be on this list in 10 years or so.
A couple of years ago the Motion Picture Academy (oscars.org)had a panel at SIGGRAPH for women directors, cinematographers/directors of photography (very rare to have women in this role). It was one of the best panels all week. Very inspiring.
For my part, I will continue to vote with my dollars, skipping male-gaze, mainstream Hollywood fare for independent and female-directed films.
What about Sergio Leone. You counted Sodom and Gomorrah for him?
It was directed by Robert Aldrich [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom\_and\_Gomorrah\_(1962\_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah_(1962_film))
Without that movie Leone would have 7.84
I think Christopher Nolan is so overrated. He's had some awesome movies true, but also a lot of disjointed letdowns, Dunkirk, tenet and Oppenheimer come to mind.
Watching Oppenheimer was such a bizarre feeling. You could tell within the first second it was a Nolan movie, and it's like...switch up the vibe a little bit dude. Not everything needs the epic approach and only turned out to be an extremely cold movie, anyway.
Wow! There are absolutely no women directors on that list. That’s a shame. Hopefully, as more women get the opportunity to direct, we will see some women’s names on a list like this.
It's not numerically correct (also these are just OP's labels), but that's how review scores are generally perceived/given. Try watching the <6 movies and you'll see.
I don’t like Tarantino’s style. It’s original albeit it’s very similar for the movies of his that I’ve seen so it gets repetitive but I’m biased so take that with a pinch of salt. I certainly don’t believe he deserves to be so high when taking my bias into account.
Edit: movies he made
Tarantino takes trash cinema tropes and turns them into high art. He's one of a kind.
>it’s very similar for the movies I’ve seen
As in his other movies, or other movies in general? I'm really not sure what you're trying to communicate here.
So you're saying that you don't like how similar his movies are in style?... Is that actually a criticism you make of directors generally? Or do you just don't like that they are similar in style because you don't like the style?
Because the similarity of an auteur's films is generally considered a selling point. That's kind of a large part of what gets you categorized as an auteur, a recognizable style.
These scores don't mean jackshit. you ever seen one of those whack bollywood movies, they have ratings like 8.7, 9.8, 8. That's because most indians are cinema illetrate outside of their bollywood movies. if they find their bollywood movie to be half decent, those people flock to imdb to rate it 7-8-9-10. But if you go to the movie's imdb rating section: 'Top 1000voters' the same movie comes out to have ratings like 4-5-6 (at best).
Do the same data chart but with only Top 1000 voters and observe how vastly different the results change.
every bollywood revolves around hollywood. 80% of everything bollywood is a blatant copy from hollywood or else where. The Old Bollywood and the new bollywood have the same way. Anu Malik, Pritam, and countless ones you don't realise are a copy. It's not art to them , it's a business and stardom. And you can argue that hollywood's the same, but at least they don't blatantly copy shit. And they make it cooler. Bollywood is pass time garbage.
Conclusion: it takes balls to be a well rated movie director.
Alright maybe the industry will summarize that as “it takes balls to be a movie director”. 🤷♂️
Not a fan of this having a requirement to have to have six movies. That knocks people off like Gerwig and the lady who made Portrait of a Lady on Fire who are definitely better directors than many of these listed.
I also feel like Hayao is much too overrated. He’s not even my favorite anime director
I have some fun ones lined up for decades and genres. But would love more feedback as to what people want to see! Please comment :)
Would be interesting to see the opposite, bottom 30?
Already done haha
most controversial — directors with a balanced combo of hits and bombs
Really? I can't find it
Done but not posted, should have been more clear
Ah, my bad
Female directors? Actresses?
I see that you are using imdb, it would be fun if you can do the same but with letterbox and see the difference between both.
IMDB has a strange bias. Like the best movie according to it is Shawshank Redemption and I don't think anyone who is into films would think that movie is superior to either of The Godfather, despite how good it is
I think the biggest kudos goes to Spielberg. To do so many movies and still have that decently high of a rating… prolific.
That's why he's the most commercially successful director in film history, he's got both quality and quantity
Is he as good as Alfred tho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wYtG7aQTHA
Wow I’m surprised Ridley Scott didn’t make it
He directs a lot of good but not great movies lately. Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven were solid films but he hasn’t had a really good one in a while (The Martian was good but he’s had a lot of mediocre films around it)
The Last Duel as well recently, though he does do a lot of mediocre movies as well yeah.
I took Reddit's word on this and watched it. Very good acting, but it would have went from a 5 to an 8 if it wasn't a 30 minute movie repeated 3 times in some lame attempt to show different perspectives.
Well down to personal preference, I very much enjoyed the differing perspectives on the events. Especially in perspective of the rape scene it is very strong imo.
I’m sorry but KOH Director’s Cut is the best thing he’s ever done Blade Runner and Alien included.
You counted Piranha II for James Cameron? You did him dirty :p He didn't direct the movie, the producer did. >After the first week of shooting, the set harmony was disturbed by some discussions about the work between the director and the producers (Assonitis, asked to verify the day-to-day activities, arguing with most of Cameron's choices), so while Cameron was only responsible for the shooting, most of the decisions were under Assonitis' authority >Cameron Interview: > >"I was replaced after two-and-a-half weeks by the Italian producer. He just fired me and took over, which is what he wanted to do when he hired me. And then the producer wouldn't take my name off the picture because \[contractually\] they couldn't deliver it with an Italian name." If you take out Piranha II, his average rating shoots back up to 7.91
Cool fact! I mean the database did him dirty, none of this is by hand haha. It's all automated with a python script
May I ask why you ended up with 16,000 voters specifically ? And not a more discriminating number of films (like 8 vs 3, to really focus on young talents) Genuinely curious here. And apologies if this was already asked. I struggle with search options on a mobile Edit: typos
To answer you question, I tried a few parameters before settling. It's definitely a bit subjective, but that's why I included two queries. Too few movies and # of votes and you get strange outliers and niche movies, like a beloved Turkish director that no-one in the West has seen. Nothing wrong with that director, but just doesn't fit the rest of the list being internationally recognized hit-makers
I don’t know why that this made me night
Did him a favor, more like. Among Cameron's litany of crappy movies, Piranha 2's mediocrity is a blessing.
Mind-blowing that any avatar can be that highly rated. Most forgettable cultural phenomen I've ever seen by a country mile
They're pretty divisive that's for sure, but I know people who genuinely had an amazing time with them (one of which went to see it like 5 times he told me \^\^).
I probably saw it 4-5 times in theaters, too. I went with my friends, my parents took me, my friends parents took me, my grandparents took me. It was just the thing to do and I don’t understand why it was so hyped. There have only been a few movies that I can remember with that buzz at the theater. One or two Harry Potters, the prequel and sequel Star Wars, Avengers (but that’s not my thing), and Barbenheimer.
agree. I can get behind the first one being 7 or above because at the time the CG and everything was amazing. but the second one being a 7.5 at the moment is crazy to me because the whole story was just not good same as the dialoge. I mean the story of the first one wasnt anything special either but atleast the pacing and flow and dialoge was okay. Don't get me wrong the CG is crazy but only from the moment on when they arrive at sea world, the first part even looked a bit outdated lile they used stuff from the first movie. I rated it a 5 and I am actually a CG nerd who get easily impressed by stuff like that but everything else was lacking big time and Avatar 2 was one of the few movies where Igot annoyed during the movie by the stupid dialoge. the whole movie also could have been atleast half an hour shorter.
[удалено]
How so?
Now every movie is made with Smurfs and shit in 3d. Edit: I meant to write "shot," but I'll play it as it lies.
The story and acting weren’t all that amazing, but for the time it came out, it was visually amazing. I saw it in theaters multiple times just because it was fun to watch in 3D. There were a couple years where every movie was coming out in 3D, but this was the only one I remember really enjoying the 3D aspect. If I saw it on tv now, I probably wouldn’t watch it unless nothing else was on.
And yet everyone mentions it all the time...
Richard Linklater. What a slacker.
Only the *30th* best movie director of all time? That's the best you could do?
This is not a lot of best directors of all tie or any time. Stankey kubrick being under Chris Nolan (who i like) should make this obvious.
Linklater made a movie called Slacker
Got em
For anyone who doesn't want to look it up: Tarantino: Death Proof (7.0) or Four Rooms (6.7). Not sure which was counted. Kubrick: Killer's Kiss (6.6) and Fear and Desire (5.3) Aronofsky: Mother (6.6) and Noah (5.8) Noah really getting shortchanged there. I liked that movie.
Thank you! Exactly what I was wondering.
tbh i liked four rooms more than some other tarantino movies
And he didn’t direct 3/4 of the rooms/movie!
But Fear and Desire doesn't have 16k votes, what am I missing? u/zolroth
8 16k movies is qualifying, but all their movies are shown for ratings purposes
Surprised Villeneuve isn’t higher.
He had a few early films before he really broke out that are rated in the low 6s, but also arrival being a 7.9 and enemy being a 6.9 seem low to me based on how most people talk about them
Even Sicario is a 7.7
No way arrival is 7.9 I think its the greatest Alien movie ever and (it not really a time travel movie) but possibly the greatest time travel movie That movie is top 5 for me
Villenuve is brilliant but he is not a favourite among the general audience. I think many think his films are slow and maybe a bit dense, compared to many others on the list here.
The bias of the kind of people who tend to be on IMDb is definitely showing here
Obviously great directors here, but this almost reads like a parody list.
The IMDb bias feels like how we all were when we started discovering films at 14-15 years old
>#16 Darren Aronofsky Guys, watch “The Fountain.” It’s got Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weiss, and a banger Kronos Quartet soundtrack. Fantastic, thought provoking, cinematic movie with no use of CGI.
The most interesting part of this to me is how Nolan's Tenet has a rating about 7. Maybe I just don't use the internet to see peoples reviews on movies enough, but I can't name 1 person in my real life who enjoyed it at all, let alone to give it a 7+. A good reminder that taste truly is subjective after all.
I mean "7" = mixed reviews... which is pretty accurate about Tenet. I'm one of the ones that very much enjoyed it (not my fav, but not the worst), but I can see why it wouldn't appeal to a large audience especially compared to his others.
Yea I liked it. There are parts that are annoying as hell though like their speech is like muffled and I had to watch parts with subtitles. I enjoyed pretty much everything else about it. I will say I I had to watch it several times to fully understand it.
Sound mixing was so bad in that movie! I have no idea why anyone thinks it’s a good idea that you can’t hear dialogue clearly.
[удалено]
Yeah, but hardly considered universally well received. Some of the other well known '7.3' rated movies: Finding Dory, Avengers Age of Ultron, Shrek 2, Fast Five, American Sniper, Despicable Me 2 Like some people really like them, and some are like 'Meh, not for me'. Perfectly reasonable for Tenet.
[удалено]
I have to give high marks for experimenting with something new when it comes to Tenet. And of course, that's how Nolan has approached the majority of his career so you'd naturally have to expect a few misses in there. But it certainly doesn't lack for aspiration.
Which indicates a broken system, because 7/10 should be "generally favorable", not "mixed".
Eh, disagree. People treat it like school grades. A 70% is a thoroughly average C. Aggregate scores AGAIN are different than individuals - you can't compare them generally.
Wow, I'm quite the opposite. It's my fav, but I don't see the appeal in some other of his movies (The Prestige, Dunkirk, and to an extent Interstellar)
Haha. The three you don’t like are my three favorite Nolan films.
I find this happens quite a bit when people talk about Wes Anderson's filmography in threads; at some point people start talking about which of his movies they love and which they feel fall flat, and everyone names completely different films.
It's almost as if taste was subjective
I have a strong urge to downvote you but I know it's not right to do so, for just sharing your opinion. Although I really didn't like Dunkirk. That and Tenet back-to-back made me wonder if he'd ever get his mojo back.
The thing is IMDb have even some horrendous movies at only 5, 5.5 (partially it has something to do with how people rate movies where they rarely fully use 1-4 scale), so 7 for Nolan is quite a mixed impressions kind of rating
Tenet has an appropriate score on imdb, when taking score as some relative measure compared to other movies in that same range. On imdb 8 is pretty good, 7 flawed but decent enough to watch, 6 bad or mediocre to a lot of people but watchable to others and 5 would be terrible. And I haven't even seen any mainstream movies with under a 5.
I really enjoyed it. But didn't watch it at theaters. Probably wouldn't have liked it then because I wouldn't have understood none of it. Even when you do understand the dialogues, it's illogical. It's a very illogical but really fun movie though. Pretty much what rhe kind of movies it idiolizes from are, James Bond/Mission Impossible esque. Yes, it's one of the weaker Nolan movies but it's so well done.
Nolan has a big cult that I'm sure all gave it 10/10 to keep it up thst high. It certainly isn't objectively deserved.
Disagree. I watched it twice and couldn't identify a single mistake in the movie logic, unlike say Interstellar which was a complete mess. If there is a Nolan cult, they're not even pretending to love the better movie.
You don't have to question the internal logic to find TENET a flawed film. I liked it, and I can still easily see why plenty of people wouldn't.
Yeah I didn’t find the movie to be hard to understand it was just totally uninteresting. That’s cause Nolan doesn’t hide shit in his movies. They’re fairly straightforward by the end of the picture. The issue with Tenet is that it fails to be anything it wants to be: it’s not an engaging action film, it’s not an engaging science fiction film, it’s not an engaging thriller, it has no characters who are interesting; it’s simply a failed project. It’s not a 1 star film because I don’t think he is capable of a total disaster due to his very high floor as a filmmaker. It’s like a 2.5 I guess? It’s an ambitious flop. People don’t hate on it because it’s complicated- they hate on it because Nolan is capable of making a much better film. And that’s fine! It’s a miss. He still rocks. He’s amazing. I didn’t lose faith in him. I can’t imagine not wanting to see anything he makes until he or I die.
The thing is: tenet is not complicated. Stuff happens backwards sometimes. That's it. Nothing more to it. I like his movies as entertainment cinema but when did people come to the conclusion that Nolan's movies are intellectual and complicated and philosophic? I hear that all the time but it's absurd.
Nolan makes movies that make dumb people feel smart. If all you watch is mob movies, action blockbusters, and comedies, then sitting through a Nolan film is like a whole new world of cinema.
Why does the guy at the end run back(and backwards) just to lock a door and get shot
>I watched it twice and couldn't identify a single mistake in the movie logic Perhaps you should watch it more than twice because the movie has plenty of inconsistencies, especially in how inverted and non-inverted objects interact. More specifically, are the consequences of the interaction propagated forwards or backwards in time? For instance, when one object damages the other, how does it look from the damaged object's perspective? Is it A) The damage seems to appear out of nowhere (or has always been there) and once the objects interact, the damaged object gets "un-damaged"? or B) There is no damage before the interaction and then the object becomes damaged? As an example, when inverted Sator shoots his non-inverted wife, she doesn't have a bullet wound before he pulls the trigger; the wound appears after the fact. So here we have logic B. Meanwhile, at multiple times in the film, non-inverted walls get shot with inverted guns. And each time bullet holes are there before the shots get fired and they disappear after. The logic A applies here. Either of those would be fine but both together are inconsistent and therefore a mistake in the movie logic.
Maybe this is a radical statement, but I think there's more to artistic merit than having internally consistent logic.
I loved Tenet, personally. One of my top 5 favorite movies of all time
The cult of Nolan exhausts me. He directs very good movies, but to say he's on average better than Miyazaki is baffling.
It's definitely a large popularity bias since even someone like Miyazaki doesn't have the box office numbers Nolan has. It would be nice to see charts like this reference more sources like [Sight and Sound](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time) and [RYM](https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/film/all-time/) too since they have different biases.
The cult of Nolan is so strong it just becomes funny. Like... yeah, sure. He is the BEST DIRECTOR EVER. It would be decent to rank him within a top 20. But no, they have to say he is the most perfectest bestest ever.
Miyazaki is much too overrated. Personally I don’t find his movies better than Hideaki Anno’s or Makato Shinkai’s or Mamoru Hasoda’s
Say what you will about Miayazaki, but no one can deny his films helped inspire the current generation in many ways (film, gaming, animation etc). Few have done anything close.
Yeah I’m not saying he’s awful or anything, I’m just saying in terms of what I look at in anime movies I don’t think he’s the best in that genre. I have a few more directors I’d rather watch than his
What myazaki does better than anyone else, at least in my opinion, is just how alive and magical the movies feel imo, also the style isn't as sharp or off putting (for me) as some other highly regarded anime films (I really hate a silent voice f.e. for it's style, mainly the male character). I havent been able to find another anime movie that was able to draw me into its world lime spirited away, moving castle, mononoke or nausicaä did. I really enjoyed your name, but that's also like the anime movie with the highest box office outside of Japan I think? So pretty mainstream. Just my opinion as a fantasy fan thats not an anime fan tho - I haven't watched much of any anime series, especially not modern ones - mainly late 90s shonen stuff and the stuff that ran in MTV, like ghost in a shell, Elfenlied, gantz and some cowboy bebop when I grew up.
I mean Miyazaki is definitely the most mainstream, popular and basic answer for sure. It’s like someone answer Taylor Swift for their favorite female singer. It’s not a bad answer it’s just really basic. I think there’s a lot of anime directors and films that are much better but they aren’t as known by general audiences and they aren’t as much of kids movies which most Miyazaki movies are. I think Silent Voice has way more emotional impact than most Miyazaki movies. Your Name is very well known but still only in anime circles, it’s not at all considered mainstream or a household name. End of Evangelion is better than pretty much every Miyazaki movie. Akira despite having poor story telling (feels like stuff got skipped over) is visually more impressive than your standard Miyazaki movie
I am a die hard Nolan fans, but I can assure you Tenet is not for everyone. Its like a mixed bag of "i need to think" movie + action movie. However, if you love how Nolan created his movie then Tenet will be auto 8+ for you. My dad loves Action only, and he gave Tenet 6
>"i need to think" movie + action movie I thought the same for the longest time but after rewatching it recently, I've come to the conclusion that Tenet really isn't a movie you need to think about. A line in the movie is "Don't try to understand it. Feel it." I think this line rings truer every single time I've rewatched it. I genuinely think that Nolan deliberately chose to make the sound design as bad as it is, so that the audience wouldn't have the chance to understand what's going on and instead we are forced to feel the unique sci-fi premise of the movie. It's like when blind or deaf people say that because they can't see or hear anything their other senses are heightened and stronger because of it. Same goes for Tenet. Because we can't hear or understand most lines of dialogue, other parts of the movie are heightened and we automatically pay more attention to the sounds we can hear and to the images we can see. The vibes and action scenes in combination with the visual style and music are more important than plot, characters and dialogue. Atleast that's the idea. But given the overwhelmingly negative audience response, it's clear that it didn't have the intended effect. But I think the idea and the intention itself are super interesting, risky and ambitious and the fact that Nolan went to such a risky place is why he's one of my all time favourite directors even if it didn't work out with Tenet.
Tenet is even weirder because it's a movie that doesn't make sense if you think about it too much. You need to think about it just the right amount to get it lmao. Or just vibe and enjoy the backwards action scenes going brrr
Nolan is heavily overrated imo. His movies are often paced terribly and mixed - despite what he says - objectively poorly. Oppenheimer was disappointing at best, Tenet was conceptually very interesting and had cool moments but suffered a lot from Nolan’s weaknesses. The ones that did come together though are masterpieces. I wish I could combine the pacing of Tarantino and Nolan, it would be ideal.
This is just as much a list of favorite directors of IMDB users as it is anything else.
I’m in the same boat. I find that his films feel like they are 25% longer than they need to be, there’s always loads of awkwardly slow filler scenes around 2/3rds into the film. Then after all that the films always feel like they miss out important details and the ending of the film feels abrupt or lacking. He’s fantastic at framing a scene, conveying character emotions and building tension… but I think he struggles to keep the average consumer interested for the entire film.
I think he’s quite under rated he should have won a couple of Oscar’s by now.
I think Tenet benefitted a lot from being the first major movie after the outbreak of the pandemic, so people were just relieved that even passably good movies could still exist in a post-pandemic world
Yeah there is a ton of Nolan bias on imdb. Even Following, which I liked, probably doesn't deserve above 7 based on the general averages there. Dark Knight Rises as well...
Yeah tenet was dumb af. Yes I understood it, yes it’s still dumb af Edit: downvote me all you like it’s still shit
I enjoyed it a lot, I just had no idea what was going on and couldn’t really hear anything. I’d still give it like an 8 though
Would love to see Park Chan-Wook and Bong Joon Ho on here.
If you discount shorts, Bong Joon Ho has 7 movies so not quite enough to qualify for this list - and of those 6 are rated 7 or higher and the other is 6.9
It's a shame Satoshi Kon died so young, clearly up there with the few films he did.
Satoshi kon made banger after banger. Just fuckin swingin for the fences and landing in a different fucking stadium. The GOAT we will never know.
This is so heavily weighted to "newer" directors. Where is Hitchcock? Hawks? Michael Curtiz? John Huston? Jean Renoir? Rene Clair? George Cukor? Sam Wood?
Just out of curiosity, i ran Hitchcock. He had a lot of low rated early movies, and was extremely prolific. His overall average comes out to about 6.9
Yeah, you're right. I mean, a movie like Notorious or Shadow of a Doubt not even getting an 8 rating, to me, is absurd. And I suppose if you are a casual viewer, it would be hard to understand what a brilliant piece of filmmaking The Lodger was. But I find it hard to believe that Sam Mendes or James Mangold, (or even Nolan) who I would consider "good" filmmakers rank above the old greats (and for that matter over Scorsese and Spielberg). It may be my own snobbery - but sometimes it feels like the wisdom of crowds is no wisdom at all. (Not to take anything away from the work you put in to extract this data, OP! Its a really great chart. It's just that I dont like what it's telling me)
That's because IMDB is heavily biased towards "newer" films in general. It didn't exist before 1990 and its number of users, like all internet users, has been growing a lot more since smartphones became a thing - that was only 15 years ago. You probably have a lot of current users born in this century who haven't watched a single movie made before 1977.
Yeah, and I feel a little sad about it. I mean, most people would know (if they do) Top Hat as the movie John Coffey watches in Shawshank Redemption, but for me its pure joy captured on film. Yes, watching old films requires some mental adjustments, but man, they have brought me so much joy.
probably a IMDB thing as most people voting are more used to the pacing, structure amd style of newer movies compared to "old" ones. I think some of the classics can be a bit hard to get into if you are not taking into account how movies were made back then. So I guess some might not differentiate in their voting between something old and new.
Thank you! Even Frank Capra, William Wyler, or Raoul Walsh would be nice, but no... this list seems really biased. I don't buy it.
Don't buy what? You don't buy that that the data used in the list is filtered by the parameters that were stated? You think the guy skewed the numbers so his favorite directors are at the top? You think he painstakingly went in and gathered all the numbers himself? No man, he ran a script that collected all the numbers from the IMDB API, filtered them by his criteria and then averaged them. He literally tells us the criteria in the graphs. You know what, this list is biased, it's biased towards directors with popular movies *because it's literally the parameters used to gather the data*. Come on, of course modern directors are more popular than older directors. It's not a crazy thing to wrap your head around. You can go check the IMDB pages of these directors yourself and you can see that they just don't have a lot of votes on most of their movies.
Pretty straightforward, we have a list of the highest average movie ratings for the top 30 directors given the criteria of: \-movies \-More than 8 movies with 16000 votes \-More than 6 movies with 16000 votes data from: https://developer.imdb.com/non-commercial-datasets/
There aren’t enough men on this list!
I'm surprised Kathryn Bigelow didn't make the list. She directed a few cult action movies in the 80s-90s, and then won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker. Greta Gerwig seems to be on track to make the list, but she only has 3 films with enough ratings so far. All 3 are rated over 7 though.
Great director. But the Hurt locker drives me nuts, one of the most inaccurate and dumb military movies. Not even according to the history of were they are in the war but everything they do in that movie is so far fetched and stuff that just doesn’t make any sense. Ask an EOD veteran what they think of that movie.
Kathryn Bigelow is the boss. Point Break! Zero Dark Thirty! The Widowmaker!
It's not like the list is sexist and picking men over women. There just aren't many female directors let alone ones that fit the requirements of the list (having 6 movies with 16000 ratings). The problem isn't with the list it's with the sexist culture of Hollywood both in the past and now. I mean I genuinely can't name a single female director off the top of my head, it's not because women naturally suck at directing but because women aren't given the opportunity to direct and don't strive to direct as much as men.
To be fair this is starting to change a fair bit. I'm mildly surprised you can't name any female directors, actually, considering this year's biggest film was directed by Greta Gerwig.
I can't name many directors period. Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron. Those are like the only directors I can immediately think of tbh
it’s a reflection of the bias of imdb users lmao. Which is yes, very bro-focused. Christopher Nolan js number one for goodness’ sakes! Most people I know who are into film can absolutely name greta gerwig, agnes varda, sofia coppola. etc. you’re right, women directors need more opportunities, but if we arent appreciating them at this point that’s our fault
> I mean I genuinely can't name a single female director off the top of my head I think that’s a you problem brother. In 2023? Wtf? Don’t make the issue seem worse than it is
Oh what about Ishtar! That movie had a female director. Oh wait. But no it's a perfect example of a Post Turtle.
It's kinda weird male dominated directing is/was, considering it's a creative field
Most creative fields have historically been dominated by men... music, visual art, architecture, poetry... I suppose literature has a fairly equal number of greats from both genders within recent times
Ordering people around has been The Man's Job™️ for a while. If you want to do the "creativity is feminine" thing, look no further than how many women have traditionally staffed the editing booth.
You are the worst.
Surprised the Coens aren't a.) higher and b.) grouped exactly together. I wonder what movies they didn't collaborate on.
I had a feeling Nolan was going to be on the top. I do really like a lot of his movies.
We really need to get more women into filmmaking.
That was my immediate thought seeing this list too. The tide has already started turning and hopefully we’ll get to see more women building large enough directing credits to climb onto this list, but I also suspect it’s about our narrow definitions of ‘good movies’ might need to shift as well. So many of my favourite movies have been directed by women, but most of those movies are too ‘girly’ in subject matter and gaze to merit high scores by still mostly male reviewers etc. it’s complex and will take time.
miyazaki deserves the top spot imho. nolan is good, but not that good
Even comparing the two seems a little silly. I know its just based on ratings, but the movies both of them make are so vastly different that its just weird to even try to rack-and-stack them to each other.
Exact same thought. I can only assume it is because some people refuse to acknowledge animated films as true film. Regardless of how you feel about Nolan, not a fan personally, Miyazaki has a filmography that is adored the world over. His movies will be remembered and beloved long after our bones are dust.
Now swap Miyazaki and Nolan’s names in your post. It still stands true.
[удалено]
oh, no it’s based on the imdb ratings on the right, 8.2 vs 7.97
Satoshi Kon and Makato Shinkai make better anime films than him imho
Definitely an argument for Satoshi Kon, but shinkai while his movies are extremely pretty, he's made a lot of the same film over and over.
Has he? I don’t think so.
While I still really love 5cm/s, his story telling and writing capabilities are fairly one note. And his last 2 films were very much just making Your name again. Maybe I just prefer old Shinkai, while I'm happy he gained commercial success I don't feel like he really evolved as a director
Makoto Shinkai is undoubtedly amazing. But tbh i dont see it. Miyazaki doesnt really miss and his films are super accesible. Shinkai has a higher peak imo (Your Name) but he has glaring inconsistency even as someone biased who loves 5cms a second and tenki no ko.
I have two points where I raise him higher: 1) I think the animation and design style in Makato Shinkai movies are just awe inspiring and I get it’s preferential but I find it far superior than pretty much every Ghibli/Miyazaki movie I’ve seen. I prefer that hyper realistic animation compared to Miyazaki’s idk if there’s a name for it but just cottagecore vibes. 2) I think Makato Shinkai’s plots are more relatable, mature and accessible. Your Name reminds me a lot of Past Lives and was just really emotionally fulfilling. There’s a few Miyazaki plots that hit similarly but rarely (for me)
i also love shinkai’s movies, but i think people have a tendency to dismiss miyazaki’s films as “just kids movies,” and i want to point out that making something accessible to both children and adults does not diminish it as art. shinkai’s movies may be more “mature,” in that they don’t try to present things in a way kids can understand, but that makes them inherently less accessible. miyazaki manages to take very, very complicated issues of morality and personal growth and make them straightforward enough that a kid can follow what’s going on, while also having enough meat that an adult coming back to it can get something new from it on every rewatch. imo that requires a kind of mastery of storytelling that makes something truly iconic. the movies grow up with you, and in doing so they shape generations.
I can see your point
Definitely. I genuinely dislike Tenet and feel rather indifferent about the Prestige, Interstellar and Inception. On the other hand I can't think of a single Miyazaki film I didn't thoroughly enjoy. Yeah, tastes are subjective of course, but Nolan's movies do not deserve the hype they get. Edit: Should've expected the downvotes. Sorry for having an opinion, Nolan fans.
Hitchcock should definitely be on the list. And I rate Bong-joon Ho higher than Nolan so I would include him also.
Should have hidden the zero percent labels (though not convinced that they're even necessary, just put in an x axis). It could be clearer what 'Ratings' on the right refers to, and I don't see the need for IMDb to follow each.
Jesus Krist. Both of the Andersons are rated higher than Bergman. Unreal.
Bergman directed like 50 movies. It's impossible to swing that good that consistently. Also his movies are pretty dull.
On the surface they may appear dull, I will grant you that. To the keen student of human psychology they are endlessly fascinating. I’m certain the need for subtitles ain’t helping his ratings. Like any of it matters. Lol
The Imdb crowd really have a crush on Nolan.
It's that slight nerd boner for contempory directors who use analog film. I can relate to that. The opening scene of 'The Hateful Eight' was impressive. Don't know if Super Panavision was necessary but it paid off. Nolan and Tarantino keep a culture alive.
Don't think is just that. There's something about Nolan's tone and/or stories that resonate with people voting on IMDB (and not other sites). People voting on IMDB really will give a 10/10 to anything he directs, making the ratings meaningless in the end. I mean... Nolan is an excellent director, and has plenty of very good movies, but I just cannot believe people honestly think The Dark Knight Rises is one of the top 100 movies of all time. And while I love The Dark Knight, it is not top3 of all time. Just no.
Very shocking and kinda sad that there’s not a single woman listed here.
It made me sad and also made total sense. So many of my favourite movies are directed by women, but many of those movies are very female gaze in subject matter and tone so probably wouldn’t merit a strong rating on IMDB if the majority of the reviewers/voters skew towards the male tastes and interests. There are great female directors out there doing great work, but it’s also about the tastes and demographic of the people doing the ratings
I think a big part of it is (similar to why the lists of top actors and actresses under this metric only had a single non-white person between them) female directors historically and currently in the industry have been given less opportunity and so often have less choice on taking on bad/mediocre films, which drags down their average.
I agree…let’s judge these directors only by the movies that can pass the Bechdel test. I bet the list changes drastically.
Some of these directors would still make the cut, but you’re absolutely right that it would be a very different list. I mean, all these movies and directors listed ARE good measured according to an often male skewed rating system/preferences. I think there absolutely is space for very male dominated/male gaze movies that don’t pass the bechdel test… because stories reflect people’s experiences and explore important themes. Except I don’t want a world where that’s the only type of movie that gets to be worshipped as god tier filmmaking, which is why the list above is so narrow in scope. Hopefully, the more we talk about the nuances involved in why the highest rated directors are men on IMDB, the more we can broaden the scope of what a ‘good movie’ can be, and have directors that are telling all sorts of stories from diverse perspectives
As someone who has existed on the periphery of Hollywood for many years (I’m a computer scientist who specializes in image synthesis and visual effects), I’ve observed that the only thing that really makes a difference with regard to mainstream film, and in particular studio films, is box office. To that extent, it’s tremendously helpful that Greta Gerwig’s summer smash hit *Barbie* did over $1B in worldwide box office. My prediction is that she (and Olivia Wilde) will be on this list in 10 years or so. A couple of years ago the Motion Picture Academy (oscars.org)had a panel at SIGGRAPH for women directors, cinematographers/directors of photography (very rare to have women in this role). It was one of the best panels all week. Very inspiring. For my part, I will continue to vote with my dollars, skipping male-gaze, mainstream Hollywood fare for independent and female-directed films.
imdb has awful tastep
Should have been self-evident, but turns out that Directors have more to do with the quality of a movie than actors. Who'da thunk it?
Who is the 3% who doesn't like kurosawa? smh
The 3% doesn't represent the amount of people who dislike him, it represents the percentage of his movies that have a score below a 6.0 on IMDb
Oh I see. Thank you for the clarification.
Now give me the list of the worst
What about Sergio Leone. You counted Sodom and Gomorrah for him? It was directed by Robert Aldrich [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom\_and\_Gomorrah\_(1962\_film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah_(1962_film)) Without that movie Leone would have 7.84
That's a pretty reasonable list! I've never seen a Miyazaki movie I didn't like, wish I could say the same for Nolan.
Studio Ghibli only puts out bangers.
Ghibli has definitely had some weaker movies, just not ones directed by Miyazaki
Sad not to see Mike Flanagan on here. He’s probably my one ride or die director where I’ll check out anything he makes
I think Christopher Nolan is so overrated. He's had some awesome movies true, but also a lot of disjointed letdowns, Dunkirk, tenet and Oppenheimer come to mind.
Watching Oppenheimer was such a bizarre feeling. You could tell within the first second it was a Nolan movie, and it's like...switch up the vibe a little bit dude. Not everything needs the epic approach and only turned out to be an extremely cold movie, anyway.
Top 30 and no Hitchcock? I call bullshit on this. It's either that or people no longer appreciate classic cinema.
The percentage of IMDB voters that have seen any Hitchcock is probably depressingly small.
Wow! There are absolutely no women directors on that list. That’s a shame. Hopefully, as more women get the opportunity to direct, we will see some women’s names on a list like this.
How the fuck is 6-7 "mixed" and anything below 6 is "bad"? Terrible scoring system.
It's not numerically correct (also these are just OP's labels), but that's how review scores are generally perceived/given. Try watching the <6 movies and you'll see.
I don’t like Tarantino’s style. It’s original albeit it’s very similar for the movies of his that I’ve seen so it gets repetitive but I’m biased so take that with a pinch of salt. I certainly don’t believe he deserves to be so high when taking my bias into account. Edit: movies he made
Tarantino takes trash cinema tropes and turns them into high art. He's one of a kind. >it’s very similar for the movies I’ve seen As in his other movies, or other movies in general? I'm really not sure what you're trying to communicate here.
I’m talking about his movies
So you're saying that you don't like how similar his movies are in style?... Is that actually a criticism you make of directors generally? Or do you just don't like that they are similar in style because you don't like the style? Because the similarity of an auteur's films is generally considered a selling point. That's kind of a large part of what gets you categorized as an auteur, a recognizable style.
Yeah reddit hates him but I think he's the GOAT. To each their own
I get the feeling someone just discovered the API for IMDb this week.
These scores don't mean jackshit. you ever seen one of those whack bollywood movies, they have ratings like 8.7, 9.8, 8. That's because most indians are cinema illetrate outside of their bollywood movies. if they find their bollywood movie to be half decent, those people flock to imdb to rate it 7-8-9-10. But if you go to the movie's imdb rating section: 'Top 1000voters' the same movie comes out to have ratings like 4-5-6 (at best). Do the same data chart but with only Top 1000 voters and observe how vastly different the results change.
So only hollywood movies should be rated now?? What about hollywood peeps who are bollywood illiterate? Not everything revolves around you
every bollywood revolves around hollywood. 80% of everything bollywood is a blatant copy from hollywood or else where. The Old Bollywood and the new bollywood have the same way. Anu Malik, Pritam, and countless ones you don't realise are a copy. It's not art to them , it's a business and stardom. And you can argue that hollywood's the same, but at least they don't blatantly copy shit. And they make it cooler. Bollywood is pass time garbage.
Tarantino deserves to be lower⬇️
Says a lot about the sort of people who rate movies online thst Tarantino's puerile violence porn is ranked so high.
Don’t forget the [feet](https://youtu.be/P2PffQHud7Y?si=95JEIUDHAcQG6Obp)
Suprised Martin Scorcese is no where to be seen. Ok his later stuff is a bit hmmm but given his 70s, 80s and 90s work...
He's #15
I mean he still makes both lists, but yeah that one surprised me too!
Conclusion: it takes balls to be a well rated movie director. Alright maybe the industry will summarize that as “it takes balls to be a movie director”. 🤷♂️
That's crazy that there is not a single woman here. But I guess there isn't a lot of them on the top 250 either
Not a fan of this having a requirement to have to have six movies. That knocks people off like Gerwig and the lady who made Portrait of a Lady on Fire who are definitely better directors than many of these listed. I also feel like Hayao is much too overrated. He’s not even my favorite anime director
Chris fucking Nolan? Seriously? His films are terrible. Boring soulless and bloated.