MOST UNDERRATED FILMS/FILMMAKERS IN YOUR OPINION. DISCUSS. DEBATE.GO!

Just off the top of my head I’m gonna say Monte Hellman and his film Two lane blacktop. I dont know why. I’ll try again later.

Todd Field, Alexander Payne, and Tony Gilroy.

I don’t know if they’re underrated but I just love all three of them to death and think they’re deserving of all the accolades. They haven’t made a lot of films so it’s not fair to put them up with the all time greats but I do think a lot of people are unaware of their work. And between them, I can’t name one film of theirs that I didn’t like.

I watched Two-Lane Blacktop for the first time just the other night. Heavy stuff.

I know the Coens are often dismissed among serious film buffs, being mainstream favorites and all, but Barton Fink and Blood Simple are masterworks. Perhaps more underrated among cinephiles than among the general public.

Brian, Ive always thought that the coens were pretty well regarded among cinephiles as well as the general public, I know Ive been an admirer of they’res ever since i saw Fargo for the first time. I think it was one of the first films that kind of put me out of my comfort zone and made me think about alot of the moral choices that the characters made and what they couldve done and what might’ve been and yatta yatta yatta, but anyway Blood simple is definetly one of my three or four favorites from them.

Jim Jarmusch.
Often I encounter only lukewarm enthusiasm for him. I think he is a genious, a revolutionary character in American film – among my top10 directors for sure.

I haven’t really had a chance to get into jarmusch quite yet Fandorin-san Ive seen stranger than paradise and felt a little indifferent about it. I admired alot of things about it though. I plan on watching Dead man pretty soon though, it looks promising.

Rob Zombie.

Not underrated in the sense he is a master but people are just very “omg rob zombie is a freak he sucks” When “The Devils Rejects” is a legitimate film, his others are not horrible either.

@ the3rdman: also watch down by law, night on earth and coffee and cigarettes, if you get into it…

@chopin: I have only seen House of 1000 corpses, which I really really regret. There is nothing even remotely good or interesting about this movie. Not even a self-parody or solid ‘trash’. After this I really don’t want to see anything else he makes. Can you please explain what is ‘likeable’ about this film?

The Marx Bros.
God knows that they have been lost in time.

House of 1000 Corpses? The originality and the bizarre imagery, that is why I love El Topo, which is a definite influence on Rob Zombie. Also 1000 Corpses has some occasionally good composition, this is about it, it is not a great film by any means but it does deserve some respect. I would not recommend it though, Devils Rejects, I would.

hmm I didn’t think there was much original about it, it even bored me in the end, to some extent. i wouldn’t consider (forced) random cinematography and plot development original..

I think most people would agree, but if you see Devils Rejects and still say that then fine, I can understnad, but I will go out on a limb and say it is a great film. He is underrated, maybe not for everyone though. That is the whole idea of underrated in the first place isn’t it? A director who never achieves a lot of acclaim but you personally think he is deserving of more?

Tarantino = takes the best scenes from different films ,monologues from films he hopes a lot of people didnt see,add’s some dialogues invented by him and BAM a tarantino movie.i admit when i was 12-14 i loved pulp fiction and reservoir dogs and i still think their cool movies,but his ego makes me realize"wow this guy really made it and he’s fucking cocky about it!,maybe i can do it to!",and i understand that almost everything is already done so its hard to be original,one word about him CONNECTION’s! thats what got him there and i think he’s overrated for that,i might sound envious but its my personal point.he overrates himself.

now that Rob zombie has been mentioned ,he has his similarities with Quentin only Quentin is better than him xD,he mixes a lot of things from his favorites movies and creates characters inspired by other movies and creates his own …pretty cool i guess,house of a thousand corpse was somehow incoherent in the last few scenes,plus he made a halloween remake,the original one was already good!,here for overated altho the devils rejects wasn’t that bad slightly better than hoathousandc ,but people overrate him because he’s rob zombie! woah!, i think Jim Van Bebber is better than him just by seeing the documentary “in the belly of the beast” on how he filmed the manson family won my respect i recommend the doc to any amateur or indie filmmaker out there,its about appreciation i guess,but i cant appreciate people who remake and takes a lot from other films,shit i wish i could do that too

ps;sorry fro any grammars I’m high xD.

sorry my underated vote was for Jim Van Bebber in comparison over rob zombie.

Hal Ashby and Todd Haynes
but every underrated director is overrated to someone out there.

I would say John Waters, he is my film maker hero and most people dismiss his work as trash, when he sets out to entertain and be bizzare, and succeeds in hilarious fashion!

I’d say most directors I’ve seen films by are pretty much underrated/unknown. Off the top of my head: Heinz Emigholz, Elfi Mikesch, Goran Markovic, Roger Corman, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Dario Argento, Bo Widerberg, Ruggero Deodato, Mamoru Oshii, Andrzej Zulawski, Shunya Ito, Jerzy Skolimowski, Vaclav Vorlicek, Walerian Borowczyk, Sharunas Bartas, Kinji Fukasaku, Herbert Ross, Clarence Brown, Ken McMullen, Shinji Aoyama, Leos Carax, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Patrice Leconte, Patrice Chéreau, Tony Richardson, Jacques Doillon, Jianxin Huang, Ringo Lam, Chang Cheh, Michael Cimino, Semyon Aranovich, Heiner Carow, Günther Egon, Rudolf Thome, Dominik Graf, Klaus Lemke, Eckhardt Schmidt, Jack Cardiff, Marta Meszaros, Toshiya Fujita, Nobuo Nakagawa, Kihachi Okamoto, Koji Wakamatsu, Sabu, Rashid Nugmanov, etc., etc., etc.

I think the list is endless. There are so many incredibly gifted filmmakers out there right now, but of course few cinephiles make a claim for somebody they are not familiar with.
And I have the feeling that a lot of people believe there can only be so many true masters, like Fellini, Kubrick, Bergman, Bresson or Welles. But quite to the contrary, there are hundreds of equally gifted directors out there once you delve deeper.
No one would make a claim trying to list only a limited number of great painters or writers, but it seems in cinema the view is often narrow. Maybe because films only exist a hundred years people think to know what great cinema is, and compare one filmmaker to another, instead of thinking in different styles and methods. Not many would try to say Picasso was a better painter than Michelangelo, though their work obviously couldn’t be more different…

- Second Elfi Mikesch. Second EVERYONE Sano just mentioned.

And I haven’t even started with so-called “experimental” cinema. It often gets ghettoised, same as exploitation or documentaries.
Haven’t heard many people claiming Lucio Fulci, Stan Brakhage or Jean Rouch to be as great as Welles and Ozu. What a pity.

That’s quite a list Sano, I must admit there’s a couple of directors there that I haven’t even heard of. I’ll add a couple more japanese names: Masaki Kobayashi, Keisuke Kinoshita and Masahiro Shinoda. But like you say- the list is endless.

Joseph Cornell

@Matti Karbo
Don’t worry, it’s not like I know the whole output of those directors. Good choice with the Japanese names. The few films I’ve sen by Kobayashi and Kinoshita are amongst my favorites. :-) Shinoda is still pretty much an unknown to me. Only seen the edited Criterion DVD of his vesion of “Double Suicide” so far.
My experience so far is that every country has a couple of masters “hidden away” from the sight of foreign cinephiles. Some countries with a rich film culture like Japan, have a couple of dozen of them. ;-)

The3rdMan, I agree about Hellman, though not about Two Lane Blacktop. It’s a great movie, but it’s pretty well known, at least amongst cinephiles. I’d say his Ride in the Whirlwind, The Shooting, or China 9 Liberty 37 are equally good films but much less praised. His entire filmography has been dismissed to an extent, which is bothersome as hell considering he’s a wonderful director. He also made Iguana, but I haven’t been able to find a copy anywhere.

Any fans of Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin here? They only did three features but they had an impact and I don’t think anyone managed to film a child’s point of view nearly as well.

Their facility with children is probably behind the praise they received from Truffaut. I think they were less an influence on the New Wave than they were an influence on Truffaut personally although their use of New York City as a character may in fact prefigure the waves use of Paris.

The style is neorealist but much more optimistic. We had a real master who seems ignored today.

The films are available and really worth a look.

movie: All the Real Girls
its one of my personal favorites, but anyone I know whose seen it – gave me a very mediocre review

director: Whit Stillman

How can you remember so many sano, that’s in-sano. and yeah haven’t heard a lot of them, but i think people underrate Eyes Wide Shut…

The Fountain by Aronofsky is extremely underrated and so is, and im going to be picked on for this one, Unbreakable

“Children of Men” by Alfonso Cuarón.

@Angel
People overrate Rob Zombie because he is Rob Zombie? What film watcher who is not a fanboy says this? People look at Rob Zombie, or at least from every competent person I have ever talked to about film, and said he was a freak who makes horrible films. I don’t think any person serious about watching film would ever overrate them because they are an unusual musician.

To your initial argument against him. If a person could never “reuse” something then the film, music, painting, photography, pretty much the entire art industry would be dead. If I made a western and the characters were bounty hunters who are searching for gold people would say I rip off Leone. Your entire argument that Tarantino just recycles dialogue is absolutely unjustified, why not just say this, “Despite the difference they are basically the same, I mean diet coke is the same as coke but with artificial sugar.” This is all coming from a person who finds Tarantino extremely overrated btw. All pieces of art will be similar, at the base every film is just a variation. But I will make you a deal, find me a monologue from a Tarantino film and then the “original” film, and tell me how he just steals it and takes all credit. (regular dialogue, nothing which is an obvious homage or allusion)

sekzee i second not only Unbreakable but i’ll add M. Night Shyamalan.. i’ve enjoyed all his movies, yes, there i said it…

@harold

Children of Men i don’t think is underrated, people gave it it’s Cred, nominations and all..