Who is the worst 21st-century Hollywood auteur?

Here is a dull and destined-to-fail explanation of my criteria:

—The base criterion is the very squishy idea of "household name" — or at least the movies they make have to be relatively appealing to non-cinéastes, can be seen at the multiplex, etc. I looked at Letterboxd's top 500, some random listicles, and the Oscar noms. I don't really like including Other as an option on polls, but it's there if you must. Horror is a bit of a blindspot for me, so I may have overlooked some big names there, sorry.

—Worst: I decided to make this after watching Wake Up Dead Man last night and reminding myself of Rian Johnson's rather odd imho filmography (not that I hated the movie, it's just an odd path to auteur status). Plus I figure if I left someone obvious out it's less painful if the choice is worst not best.

—21st-century: for the most part I excluded anyone who got to this level or near enough in the 20th century. Which meant no PTA, Fincher, Cameron, Coens, Tarantino, Scorsese, Malick, etc. There are some edge cases. I admit Jackson is a pretty big stretch given how early he started, but I think it's fair to say he wasn't really in this category until LOTR.

—Hollywood / mainstream: I excluded most foreign directors (e.g., Bong Joon Ho) unless they've more or less transplanted to Hollywood. Lanthimos was probably the hardest one to decide; my gut feeling is he's a little too weird for this list, but it seemed wrong not to include him given how high-profile he has become. Despite the much discussed death of middlebrow films, there were a few people who I couldn't confidently gauge their level of mainstream-ness but kept in, e.g., Zhao, Eggers, McDonagh; but others I left out for being too arthouse, e.g., Baker, Glazer, Guadagnino, Reichardt — I doubt this distinction will hold up under rigorous scrutiny tbh.

—Auteur: let's not argue about this term. I'm using it as shorthand for big name directors, i.e., people whose name itself can attract attention. I mostly excluded people known primarily for IP regurgitation (JJ Abrams, James Gunn), though there are some borderline cases like Snyder and Coogler. I made some arbitrary calls about career stage too, like leaving out the Safdies and Emerald Fennell. I am not sure Edgar Wright really qualifies, but he was mentioned on a few things I looked at.

I've liked or tolerated at least one film by every person on this list. I think you've left out the worst and I question your choice to omit Reichardt and Guadagnino, especially Guadagnino would be shocked to learn in 2026 that he's art house.

yeah Guadgnino should probably be on there, I just got tired of fussing with the list (I went back and forth on Wes Anderson too many times), but it's true that I did see Challengers at the multiplex. Less convinced that Reichardt belongs though, she strikes me as pretty quintessentially arthouse...but I've yet to see a single film of hers!

curious which "worst" you had in mind Alfred

Fincher, Soderbergh, Nolan, and Aronofsky are the worst offenders / biggest turds imo. But Nolan does it bigger, more pompously, more outrageously bad, so he can take the crown.

Only other director hear I'd look askance at is Eggers but even then I think he's mostly harmless if a tad pretentious. Everyone is else is fine in my book, even if they're not for me.

I probably should have said in the OP that I by no means dislike all these directors; the list was meant to be somewhat objective in accounting for the category, not just who I think sucks

and in fact I haven't even seen anything by Aster or Zhao, so there's literally no judgment implied there

rather odd imho filmography (not that I hated the movie, it's just an odd path to auteur status

Auteur: let's not argue about this term.

uhhhh

sorry, we can certainly argue about the category I'm trying to limn, but I don't care about capital-a auteur theory's relation to it is what I meant

I admire Soderbergh's pace even if the speed at which he works results in glib little projects (The Christophers). I can't dislike the director who made High Flying Bird, Black Bag, and Presence in the last decade.

But he's not on the list so.

I probably should have said in the OP that I by no means dislike all these directors; the list was meant to be somewhat objective in accounting for the category, not just who I think sucks

― rob, Tuesday, May 5, 2026 7:23 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I definitely didn't think that. If anything, my post reflects my ongoing attempt to be less critical/negative, when possible, but this is a topic that really brings it out of me lol

admit Jackson is a pretty big stretch given how early he started, but I think it's fair to say he wasn't really in this category until LOTR.

—Hollywood / mainstream: I excluded most foreign directors unless they've more or less transplanted to Hollywood

let's not argue about this term

if you just wanted a thread about Peter Jackson sucking you probably could have found one tbh

Do you get beaten up on a regular basis or are you just like this on message boards?

Of the auteurs I've seen 2 or more films by:

Darren Aronofsky - mostly pretty bad but Pi was OK
Alfonso Cuarón - Children of Mean easily his best, Black Swan shite
Guillermo Del Toro - overrated but generally falls into the "quite good" category
Robert Eggers - started well and declined ever since
Peter Jackson - Heavenly Creatures easily his best
Yorgos Lanthimos - veers between great (Dogtooth) and mediocre (Kinds of Kindness), probably peaked now
Martin McDonagh - OK-ish
Christopher Nolan - pompous tripe, Oppenheimer maybe the worst film I've ever endured to the closing credits. WINNER!
Jordan Peele - peaked with his debut
Zach Snyder - only seen Watchmen (OK-ish) and Man of Steel (unendurable)
Denis Villeneuve - tedious and shallow other than Arrival
Edgar Wright - dullard but no worse than that

it’s sam mendes, close thread, kthxbye

Alfonso Cuarón - Children of Mean easily his best, Black Swan shite

Black Swan was Aronofsky

we haven't even reached peak Mendes yet, we're two years away from that

xp American Beauty would have disqualified him per my highly irritating and slippery criteria, but that is a good call

Del Toro might be my least favorite based on his last output since Pan's Labyrinth.

Is Nicolas Winding Refn still too art house to be included? Not that I'd vote for him as worst, but just wondering if he'd qualify for the poll.

hmm yeah I think he would qualify actually, an oversight on my part

Every Ari Aster movie is some prestige exploitation bullshit, so him.

Also feel like Antoine Fuqua could be on this list, though nowhere near my least favorite. Could imagine one of the qualifications being anytime a movie trailer says, "A film by ___"

His last what 4 films have been Danish co-productions and he’s never really worked with a big Hollywood studio so in my head he is more arthouse adjacent

xp re Refn

My brain says Snyder, but my heart says Nolan (even though I have liked a few of his movies). I think it's because the perception of Nolan is that he is making important prestige (see what I did there?) films.

Aronofsky for me, when he is ineffective he's completely vapid, when he's effective (and he can be) he leaves me feeling like I have PTSD, either way I am very much not enjoying the experience. Also his AI generated series about the American revolution was an absolute abomination.

I wouldn’t say Zhao is the worst on that list but for “middlebrow oscar winner about Shakespeare” Hamnet was much worse than Shakespeare in Love

Black Swan was Aronofsky

Yeah sorry I got mixed up, I meant Gravity was shite

'Gravity' was okay but disappointing.. more of an industrial accident than a science fiction film

so Paul Thomas Anderson is not of this century?

Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider, Nomadland, even Hamnet are assured, distinctive films (haven't watched her paycheck film).

Gravity: for me it was more like a tech demo for 3D cinema that didn't totally suck ass, but I barely even remember it as a film narrative

Andy: PTA having Boogie Nights and Magnolia in the 90s excluded him. harsh and possibly dumb, but the list would have been crazy long and idk this wasn't meant to be all that thought out lol

I like Kelly Reichardt, glad she's not on this list

respectfully submitting alejandro gonzález iñárritu for consideration here

yep he should have been on there for sure

there's your answer

would vote for aronofsky but i am 99% certain that the craftspeople he works with are more responsible for his style than any decisions he makes on his own

Everyone on the list has at least one movie I like, except Damien Chazelle, so him.

snyder is pretty bad, i still cringe when i think about the slow-mo mega punches delivered by the "heroes" in watchmen

scarfspeople

xp dammit

absolute rogues' gallery isn't it

if not for 'The Wrestler', Aronofsky would be a shoo-in

Nicolas Winding Refn was the first name that popped into my head before opening the thread.

Nicholas Fucking Refn

This is tough. Yorgos Lanthimos has pretty much taken up the mantle of Michael Haneke of celebrated contemporary auteur that I cannot stand, but as with Haneke, I am willing to concede that much of that may be just a mismatch between my tastes and his aesthetic. Zach Snyder, on the other hand, makes objectively repulsive garbage that somehow attracts defenders.

So, Snyder.

I don't really think of Peter Jackson or Zach Snyder as auteurs. They just do large scale franchise stuff for the most part. Now 90s Peter Jackson, that was something else.

yeah but snyder subsumes all of that franchise stuff into his own style (not a good thing)

haha

wow lol

Catterdale sounds like some kinda faux-artisanal cheese brand

Also I'm not sure auteur is quite as platonic a concept as some of youse think but let's not fight over that one eh?

Edgar Wright 1

shit, i should’ve voted for this tool. first couple of films are great but he’s out of ideas and keeps making movies. baby driver and last night in soho are terrible

i did to try to vote for Wright but I think i might've already voted for Nolan by then

when I was first introduced to auteur theory in the first term at film school it was presented as a played-out debate which you shouldn't take too seriously, this was 1998.

God I was shocked when I saw Baby Driver, couldn’t believe it was an overwhelming critical success

Also I'm not sure auteur is quite as platonic a concept as some of youse think but let's not fight over that one eh?

― Wildfowler (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, May 12, 2026 3:39 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yesss…had my popcorn at the ready for the inevitable poptimism crossover discussion

Auteur vs. brand name is maybe a debate, but any time anyone is promoting or talking about something as "a Darren Aronofsky film" or whatever, then I think that's auteurish enough. Which I think is true of everyone on this list, even Zach Snyder.

Cahiers didn't build auteur theory around art movie directors

God I was shocked when I saw Baby Driver, couldn’t believe it was an overwhelming critical success

All movie critics secretly love the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

taylor swift is an auteur imo

My fave Spielberg (and fave Dick adaptation) is Minority Report. Genuine love for Catch Me If You Can, too— top drawer Williams score. I can’t really think of him as “an auteur” perhaps because his entire language feels so enormously influential, completely shifted the angle of American cinema away from the dour nihilism of New Wave toward something more feel-good and commercial. I genuinely believe that Spielberg didn’t just redefine American cinema but also American cultural identity. And I admire that, I guess, even if I don’t know how to feel about The Implication Of It All.

The American auteur that doesn’t click for me is Linklater, beyond Slacker and Dazed. I haven’t gotten more than 30 minutes into any Before.. movie before feeling like I was wasting my life and switching it off.

Surprised that I was the lone vote for Jackson. I watched every version of every Middle Earth film of his out of Tolkien-fan obligation, and the best thing I can say is that I didn’t hate The Hobbit movies as much as everyone seemed to hate them (but I sure as hell won’t watch them again).

The American auteur that doesn’t click for me is Linklater, beyond Slacker and Dazed. I haven’t gotten more than 30 minutes into any Before.. movie before feeling like I was wasting my life and switching it off.

Really? That’s harsh

I just scanned Linklater’s filmography and I did love Hit Man

I thought I voted for Jackson!

I love a lot of Linklater, I think of him kind of like Soderbergh but in a different vein: lots of movies, good range of genres and ideas, definite identifiable tics and tropes, recurrent themes. Some great ones, some clunkers, pretty good batting average.

He can be massively entertaining — Dazed and Confused, School of Rock, Everybody Wants Some are all great fun. And his "artist" movies (Orson Welles, Nouvelle Vague, Blue Moon) are endearing. I like the way he writes, he's good at conversation.

Really? That’s harsh

I just scanned Linklater’s filmography and I did love Hit Man

― it was the worst feeling i’ve ever heard (flamboyant goon tie included), Tuesday, May 12, 2026 5:47 PM (one hour ago)

I'm just kidding! I love linklater, the "before" trilogy especially, but one thing I just thought about is his sensibility is extremely hetero. not a problem for me but I could see how that sort of thing wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea

like even blue moon, which I love and which is (unless I'm forgetting one) the only one of his features with a queer lead, the lead is played by ethan hawke, and the love interest is a woman 25 years his junior

really not sure how I would have voted in this poll btw since I don’t really make a point to go see movies I am pretty sure I’m not going to like. snyder, aster, chazelle all seem like they probably make middlebrow fluff but I couldn’t tell you for sure. I might have gone with villenueve if this were a few months ago, because I really don’t like his epics and I think his influence on the industry is a bad thing, but I saw sicario for the first time recently and that ruled. nolan has made plenty of middling movies too but I really do like his batman movies and some of the early stuff

they're weirdly similar directors, imo

xp I don't think it's a straight/queer thing. I will try and be precise about why I don't vibe with Linklater. I noticed it first with Waking Life, where I felt as if I was in second year university listening to my friends in the semiotics department, having drunk far too many cups of tea, talk at me. It felt like I was being talked at. I felt the same when I was attempting to enjoy Before..., as if I was expected to enjoy sitting across the room listening to a couple muse on philosophical topics. There is a quality to Linklater's writing that comes off to me as being very one-sided, not like somebody is being a storyteller, but is extemporising on some deep thoughts that he's been having. And I like those sorts of deep thought extemporisations-- when I'm part of the conversation, and can respond. But yeah, it seldom feels enlightening or instructive or entertaining to me, it feels like... well, it feels like reading a message board conversation, not being able to participate, and being told "this is cinema".

i def don’t think linklater scans as necessarily hetero. i’m a lesbian who loves the before series

i mean i guess that wouldn't keep him from being straight. but like. blue moon is sooooo gay regardless of hawke as the leading man. would put money on ethan hawke having made out with a dude in his life

I'm a queero who loves the first couple Before films, and he's been aware of how Ethan Hawke's son in Boyhood comes across, not to mention however you wanna accept Blue Moon.

The characters may be ostensibly straight but Everybody Wants Some!! is pretty damn gay

Yeah EWS is suuuuper gay (complimentary)

you can hang out with all the boys

The only time I've ever believed in Glenn Powell too.

I've not seen the movie, but is Jack Black's character gay in "Bernie"?

As closeted iirc. It's never said explicitly, but pretty clearly Linklater and Black conceive of him as gay.

after this thorough investigation i've determined that linklater has more of a bisexual sensibility than a straight one

i mean here's the thing, before sunrise is about a man and a woman falling in love as their conversation progresses, but i don't think of the connection depicted as hetero at all (except when they are in painfully antiquated ways discussing the Differences Between Men and Women)

Bernie is very good. One of the better inside jobs on the "South is complicated" trope. I think what I like about Linklater is that he's got a Texas jock dude squareness to him, even if he's lived his life in arty spaces. So while he's fluent in auteur methods, he's got this aw-shucks basicbro practicality. Kinda like Spielberg minus the tendency towards corn.

xp Why can't heterosexuality be broad enough to include this kind of connection?

i'm speaking from my gay soapbox here but heterosexuality is narrow and repressed by nature

sorry to all the heteros here

I feel almost sorry for these squares.

Why you think the Straight Pride flag looks like this?

https://i.etsystatic.com/33245026/r/il/8952e0/3577051970/il_1080xN.3577051970_clcg.jpg

wait'll y'all hear what i think about marriage and having kids

I am sure you would blow our minds by saying marriage and kids are...just neat

Or we'd just blow you.

Damn!

My fave Spielberg (and fave Dick adaptation) is Minority Report. Genuine love for Catch Me If You Can, too— top drawer Williams score. I can’t really think of him as “an auteur” perhaps because his entire language feels so enormously influential, completely shifted the angle of American cinema away from the dour nihilism of New Wave toward something more feel-good and commercial. I genuinely believe that Spielberg didn’t just redefine American cinema but also American cultural identity. And I admire that, I guess, even if I don’t know how to feel about The Implication Of It All.

The American auteur that doesn’t click for me is Linklater, beyond Slacker and Dazed. I haven’t gotten more than 30 minutes into any Before.. movie before feeling like I was wasting my life and switching it off.

lol

i think my fave dick adaptation is linklater's "a scanner darkly"!

my take on queerness in media is that one of the results of queer erasure is that pretty much anything can be read in a queer way. i don't give a shit whether or not linklater is actually queer, if his stuff resonates with someone in a queer way, cool. dick resonates with me in a queer way. particularly stuff like "a scanner darkly" and "flow my tears" which feature "dual-moders" as protagonists - bob arctor is a cop on the down-low lol

Oh yes, I agree. Interestingly, my history of culture consumption has excluded whole sections of "queer canon" work, with no disrespect to the creators of that content-- Dennis Cooper and Gregg Araki spring to mind, their work just doesn't press the buttons that need pressing.

I skipped "A Scanner Darkly" based on my dislike of "Waking Life" but I'll watch it presently based on your recommendation!

cool, lmk what you think!

i attacked sic in this thread for bad reasons and with poor judgment - sorry sic. fwiw i value your contributions to ilx a lot.

I clicked on this just to shit on the guy who directed American Beauty (I know, 20th century but he’s still working) and Road to Perdition and he’s not even listed. Boooo.