Luckily, I wrote an essay explaining why the ending to A.I. is in fact downbeat and great!

I'm thinking of Lincoln, which is far more entertaining and beautiful than a talky period drama about politics has any right to be.

Robert Zemeckis' post-Death Becomes Her works are so embarrassingly awful that…

am I alone in thinking The Prestige is arguably Nolan's best film? Beautifully shot, perfectly encapsulates his love of complex narrative structures, and is driven by characters rather than big ideas.

My film class thought Witness was laughable.

Blue Jasmine was terrible. Embarassing.

Fisher King is a masterpiece.

Welles made a solid 6 masterpieces, some brilliant uncredited work, and 2-4 really, really solid films

…if anyone is getting an honorable mention as "best American film director whose last name starts with the letter 'C'" (admittedly a silly category to begin with) then Coppola ought to be on the list.

I think it's fair to say that Polanski's films are brilliant.

1989's Family Business here with Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman as his dad, and SEAN CONNERY as Hoffman's dad?!?

Why do we judge directors by their best work instead of their worst work?

plagued by aiming low in thematic depth and complexity, looking to appeal to the average middle American viewer, which goes beyond his much-maligned sentimentality and into not trusting or respecting his audience's intelligence

I feel like the Hitchcock thing feels like such a slap, because Chaplin and Peter Yates and Preminger get to be counted as American. 20th century Hollywood was flooded with expats; counting some of them as "American" and some not feels arbitrary.

Brian De Palma is the antichrist, and should have been omitted.

Speaking of Chaplin, Orson Welles says he wrote the screenplay for Monsieur Verdoux, and Chaplin screwed him out of the onscreen credit.

The next enjoyable film Tim Burton makes will be his first.

I think if Shyamalan was given a good script he…

It was a long time before I realized Fincher directed Alien 3. Oddly, that pumps him up in my estimation – not because it was so great, but just because it's so weird, esp for a franchise film.

Never realized Terry Gilliam was techically American.
Or even actually American.