The Most Promising U.S. Directors

An observation.

The ‘80s and ‘90s saw a slew of brilliant American filmmakers making their debut: Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, Jim Jarmusch, Oliver Stone, Jonathan Demme, Michael Mann, John Sayles, Gus Van Sant, Tim Burton, Sam Raimi, Joel and Ethan Coen, Kathryn Bigelow, Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Jonze, Todd Solondz, Todd Haynes, Alexander Payne, David O Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, and Kelly Reichardt, just to name a few.

Now, think of an American director who has had his film debut, at the earliest, from 2000 on, who has built a solid reputation and has had a legitimately important impact on cinema in the same vein as the names I just mentioned?

Anyone? I can think of many directors born outside the United States who have emerged as big named auteurs: Glazer, Villeneuve, Bong, Nolan, McQueen, Farhadi, Inarritu, Lanthimos, Park, Refn, Mungiu, Weerasethakul, Wright, Arnold, Sciamma, Hamaguchi …

So, what about American filmmaking giwho have popped up recently? They are scant and few:

Sean Baker
Damien Chazelle
The Safdies
Ari Aster
Jeff Nichols
Jeremy Saulnier
Jordan Peele
David Lowery
Barry Jenkins
Robert Eggers

Others: David Robert Mitchell, Charlie Kaufman, Shane Caruth, JC Chandor, Craig S. Zahler, Trey Edward Shults, Greta Gerwig, Eliza Hittman, Dee Rees, Bennett Miller, Mike Mills, Sean Durkin, Kogonada

That's pretty much it. Am I missing anybody? Olivia Wilde, I guess (just kidding). The amount of new talent that has grown from the American studio system since the 2000s is pathetic, at least when compared to the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

It doesn’t help that any filmmaker that shows any hint of promise quickly gets sucked into the Marvel and DC vacuum. The likes of Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao, Destin Daniel Cretton, Jon Watts, and many more, have all sold their creative souls to the corporation.

So, what does this all say exactly? It implies that directors who came from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s have had to pick up the slack, and even they are not being given as many opportunities these days, what with Hollywood's current fascination with sequels and comic book movies.

These filmmakers can't live forever, and many of them are well into the twilight of their careers.

What’s the future of American cinema going to be like? It looks bleak, to say the least, but there are still some filmmakers starting to form impressive filmographies, despite the studio system not being interested in giving them any kind of creative freedom or room for original thought.