We discuss the 10 Most Overrated Directors Right Now. Try not to be offended as we list highly praised auteurs that we don’t find very impressive.
One topic that’s always an interesting debate among cinephiles is who are the most overrated directors working today. While even some of those deserve recognition for their work, some receive excessive praise based on reputations from decades-old films.
Let’s explore and debate those men and women who need to be taken down a peg, no matter how many roses we throw at their feet. Here is our list of the 10 most Overrated Directors right now.
10 Most Overrated Directors Right Now
Wes Anderson
Most overrated film: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Tina Fey once quipped, “Wes Anderson is here tonight for the film Grand Budapest Hotel. Per usual, Wes arrived on a bicycle made of antique tuba parts.” Has a filmmaker ever been given so much credit for being so eccentric?
My main complaint with Anderson is that his characters grow increasingly apathetic with each new film. This has been a downhill trend since the glory days of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and The Royal Tenenbaums.
Ari Aster
Most overrated film: Hereditary
Ari Aster’s film brings a monstrous amount of anxiety to the viewer. The Midsommar director likes to alienate his viewership to the point of cinematic Stockholm syndrome. His movies are overwrought and overdone by a filmmaker in love with the darkest places of his own mental health.
Tim Burton
Most overrated film: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
The master of juxtaposition, Burton was responsible for such gothic fairytales as Edward Scissor Hands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Beetlejuice.
However, for the past decade, the mercurial director, like Anderson, has been in love with his scripts’ aesthetic. They consistently play it too safe, almost tepid, and have become monotonously boring.
Kat Coiro
Most overrated film: Marry Me
The veteran television director of Dead to Me, Modern Family, and She-Hulk made her theatrical film debut last year with Marry Me. A romantic comedy whose sole purpose was to promote J.Lo and Maluma’s album. The result is an utterly charmless infomercial.
Clint Eastwood
Most overrated film: The Mule
Clint Eastwood is known as an actor’s director. One that needs a single take to make a scene work. However, his films can be filled with politically incorrect comic relief. The excuse is that the characters he plays are a product of his time (The Mule) to a monotonous and derivative buddy road trip picture (Cry Macho).
If you don’t trust me, how about Ray Liotta, who called Eastwood overrated on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen? Even The Daily Beast described Eastwood’s directing career as “Devoid nearly all of them are from any trace of irony, nuance, or anything that is normally associated with art.” Ouch.
Kenneth Lonergan
Most overrated film: Manchester by the Sea
Not many people may know that the famously reclusive director who rose to fame with the 2000 film You Can Count on Me also wrote Analyze This and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. However, Lonergan is on this list because of the extreme overreaction to the film Manchester by the Sea.
The film is depressing, and its story relies on common human issues. It is implausible that the main character’s ex-wife would forgive him for killing their three daughters while drunk and high on drugs (including cocaine). Additionally, it is unlikely that the police would let him walk away without a criminal charge, at the very least child endangerment and manslaughter.
Baz Luhrmann
Most overrated film: Elvis
Many may find Baz Luhrmann’s lavish productions, outrageous techniques, and “heightened reality” to be an all-encompassing cinematic experience. However, I continuously have an adverse reaction to the self-indulgent filmmaker.
The methods are equivalent to a bait-and-switch card trick, covering up for the fact that his films are consistently too long, frivolous, and artificial.
Terrence Malick
Most overrated film: The New World
I fully expect to be shredded for this, but as long as I have Christopher Plummer on my side, I don’t have to justify my pick when the man who portrayed Captain Georg von Trapp can do it for me.
Plummer said, “I love some of his movies very much, but the problem with Terry is he needs a writer desperately. He insists on overwriting until it sounds terribly pretentious, and he edits his films in such a way that he cuts everyone out of them.”
Michael Moore
Most overrated film: Roger & Me
The documentary filmmaker tends to attack those he disagrees with, with a Philip Roth level of moral indignation that has lost its steam over the past 20 years. How? By misleading his audience for personal gain.
This is evident in his film Planet of the Humans, which has been criticized by once allies as misleading. It may be an entertaining narrative, but a dangerous one.
Zack Snyder
Most overrated film: Zack Snyder’s Justice League
I can pinpoint why Zack Snyder may be one of the most overrated filmmakers today, and it has nothing to do with his excessive run times and unintentional dullness. It’s the director’s excessive use of slow-motion visuals.
Case in point, IGN found that 9.97% of the four-hour-plus runtime of Zack Snyder’s Justice League is in slow motion. If any filmmaker needs to equip their films with a remote for fast-forwarding, it’s him.
Do you disagree with anyone on this list? Any director you think should be added? Comment below!
