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Who is the best director of the decade spanning 2000 - 2009?

Scullibundo

Scullibundo

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Oct 25, 2017
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I was thinking about our old Director survivor threads recently and it got me thinking about directors by decade. How a lot of the 2000's emerging directors are now the recognised vets of today. That being said, there's obviously some from the old guard that hold their own remarkably well against the new blood.

To get things rolling, I'll post some notables that others can add to. I made a rule for myself that the director had to have more than one feature produced within the decade, which excludes guys like David O. Russel from competing. I've also left off directors I think only had one notable film, but I encourage others to put forward directors they think are missing.

Danny Boyle
The Beach (2000)
28 Days Later (2002)
Millions (2004)
Sunshine (2007)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Wes Anderson
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
The Life Aquatic (2004)
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

David Fincher (I honestly didn't remember how few of his massive hits were outside of this decade)
Panic Room (2002)
Zodiac (2007)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Paul Thomas Anderson
Punch Drunk Love (2002)
There Will Be Blood (2007)

Alfonso Cuaron
Y tu mamá también (2001)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Children of Men (2006)

Christopher Nolan (this particular span of time favours Nolan's strongest films and cuts out his weakest, it represents his peak imo)
Memento (2000)
Insomnia (2002)
Batman Begins (2005)
The Prestige (2006)
The Dark Knight (2008)

Steven Spielberg (it's amazing to see the below output from the Berg 30 years into his career)​

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Minority Report (2002)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Terminal (2004)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Munich (2005)
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Martin Scorsese
Gangs of New York (2002)
The Aviator (2004)
The Departed (2006)

Quentin Tarantino
Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)
Death Proof (2007)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Sofia Coppola
Lost in Translation (2003)
Marie Antoinette (2006)

Edgar Wright
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Hot Fuzz (2007)

Wong Kar-Wai
In the Mood for Love (2000)
2046 (2004)
My Blueberry Nights (2007)

Darren Aronofsky
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
The Fountain (2006)
The Wrestler (2008)

Michel Gondry
Human Nature (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Science of Sleep (2006)
Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Lars Von Trier
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Dogville (2003)
Manderlay (2005)
The Boss of it All (2006)
AntiChrist (2009)

Joel and Ethan Coen aka The Coen Bros
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
The Ladykillers (2004)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
Burn After Reading (2008)
A Serious Man (2009)

Joe Wright
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Atonement (2007)
The Soloist (2009)​

Hayao Miyazaki
Spirited Away (2001)
Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
Ponyo (2008)

Steven Soderbergh (holy hell does he work fast)
Traffic (2000)
Ocean's Eleven (2001)
Full Frontal (2002)
Solaris (2002)
Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Bubble (2005)
The Good German (2006)
Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
Che Parts 1 & 2 (2008)
The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
The Informant! (2009)

Peter Jackson
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
King Kong (2005)
The Lovely Bones (2009)

Ang Lee
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Hulk (2003)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Lust, Caution (2007)
Taking Woodstock (2009)

Spike Jonze
Adaptation (2002)
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)

Brad Bird
The Incredibles (2004)
Ratatouille (2007)

Cameron Crowe
Almost Famous (2000)
Vanilla Sky (2001)
Elizabethtown (2005)
 
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Whitemex

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Fix the text starting with Nolan (my choice BTW) it's black and hard to read on Nightera
You also forgot Nolan's Insomnia. Underrated film
 

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Out of that list I'd take Nolan but it would be stronger if Inception had been released in that window.
 
ClickyCal'

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Boyle technically, but I would say fincher. Zodiac is probably the best movie in that whole list.
 
jett

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That's a damn fine list of movies. Mostly.

Based on current personal preference I have kind of a three-way tie between Spielbergo, Aronofsky and Tarantino. Ol' Esteban would get it easy if his lows weren't so low.
 
Ricky_R

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Goddamn at the amount of great movies there.

This is pretty difficult, tbh, but from pure enjoyment I gotta go with Spielberg.
 
Einchy

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Sculli, you missed the color formatting on Nolan.

I'll say Tarantino just because of how much Kill Bill meant to be growing up.
 
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Scullibundo

Scullibundo

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jett said:
That's a damn fine list of movies. Mostly.

Based on current personal preference I have kind of a three-way tie between Spielbergo, Aronofsky and Tarantino. Ol' Esteban would get it easy if his lows weren't so low.
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Yeah, I find it incredible, but Spielberg still has the strongest output there for me.
 
Pagusas

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Wow, putting it in a list like that really makes you appreciate how god damn amazing that decade was.

I came in here to say Alfonso Cuaron, but damn if I don't know anymore. Jackson alone should get best in class award for the insane work on LOTR
 
UltimateHigh

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I feel like Spielberg's got the strength in (quality) numbers.

Cuaran with Y tu mamá también and Children of Men (and the best Potter flick) is tempting though.
 
shintoki

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Overall, I'd give it to aronofsky. All 3 are classics.

But I want to say Coen had the highest high
 
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Scullibundo

Scullibundo

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Razgriz-Specter said:
Nolan
Nothing competes with The Prestige and Inception, and then has Begins and TDK backing them up.
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I'd say that you're ignoring Insomnia. And Spielberg has at least 4 films in his filmography that trumps Nolan's.

Lookikng at the whole list. I'd say that Wes Anderson is the most consistent and Aronofsky is more consistent than I remember.
 
LewieP

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Oct 26, 2017
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Probably Nolan, Arrenofsky or Speilberg for me.

I agree that this is Nolan's best period, where I like his other work too, but have fewer reservations about the work in this period than after this. The Prestige is maybe my favourite of his movies.

For Arrenofsky, The Fountain is his masterpiece, and whilst I don't utterly adore The Wrestler, it's still a fine piece of work, and Requiem for a Dream is a very singular movie.

For Speilberg, I don't love everything he put out during this time, but AI and Catch Me If You Can are certainly two of his strongest movies. He gets docked a few points for Crystal Skull though.

I'd also give a nod to Yimou Zhang (Hero, House of Flying Daggers), David Cronenberg (Spider, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises), Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up In The Air).
 
XMonkey

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Out of those listed, probably the Coen brothers.

PTA probably has 2 of my all time favorite films in that decade, but the Coen brothers put out a lot more consistently good films in that decade so I gotta go with that.
 
Aurongel

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Christopher Nolan by far.

His films aren't perfect but no one blends mass market appeal and artistic precision the way he does. The proof is that he gets non stop blank checks to make whatever he wants AND he's always turning in projects under budget in an age of exploding production budgets.
 
Vic_Viper

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Id say its between David Fincher, Michael Mann, and Christopher Nolan (probably in that order).

They all have a certain style though and dont stray very far from it.
 
Jessie

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I'm gonna go with Peter Jackson. Lord of the Rings was next level cinema at the time, and I'd argue that it still hasn't been beat. Certainly not in terms of practical effects and real world locations, with Blockbusters gravitating towards fake looking CGI.
 
Talal

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Wow that's a very good list. My vote goes to Nolan, career defining decade for him.
Spielberg and Scorsese tied for second place. Aronofsky probably the best see-one-time-and-one-time-only movie director of the decade.
There will be blood best movie of the decade imo.
 
duckroll

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Nolan will get the popular vote because that's when he peaked in mainstream output. But I think Ang Lee, Scorsese, and the Coen Brothers had a hell of a run in the decade. Fincher, Spielberg, and WKW had their best film in this decade, but the rest of their output is very inconsistent.
 
Keldroc

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My instinct was to say Nolan but looking at the OP it's the Coen Brothers with a bullet.

lol at Boyle even being in the running. 28 Days Later is his only good film of that decade.
 
Dommo

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Nolan did good that decade, for sure. The Prestige might be my favourite film on the list, and with Memento, BB and TDK, yeah, good stuff. Although I gotta say I'm a big fan of 2000s Spielberg. I've got a real soft spot for that dreamlike blown-highlights bleach-bypass look he perfected throughout that decade - MR, WotW and Munich are stunning.

I love Fincher, but his 2000s output is down from 90s/10s Fincher. Brad Bird's films are great, maybe not enough of them. And can't go without mentioning Peter Jackson, just for LOTR, which in a lot of ways defined cinema for that decade. One of the finest achievements.
 
a916

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Nolan the god.

He has quality and quantity compared to some of the others like Speilberg/Anderson
 
ryseing

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If Social Network were one year earlier, it'd be Fincher. Zodiac is the best movie of that decade but Benjamin Button isn't great and I've never seen Panic Room but am told it's fairly standard.

Prestige is my second favorite movie of the decade and Memento is wonderful, but I think I gotta go with Spielberg. Minority Report is a classic, War of the Worlds has gone around to being underrated again, and Catch Me is damned charming.

Coens are close though. No Country and Brother are up there with the best two of the other folks.
 
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Miyazaki tbh. I know Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo are lower tier Ghibli, but I don't care - I love them both. Spirited Away is the best movie ever.

Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox to Grand Budapest Hotel run got started here, so shoutout I guess.

The Coen Brothers and Peter Jackson have killer stretches, but also their weakest films of their career.

Von Trier is the worst director of the decade.

If I was a studio executive, I would probably say Nolan for how he managed to get a lot of hits and quality below budget.
 
janusff

janusff

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Cool thread.

Came in thinking the Coen Bros. before I read the list of works in the OT. But after reading, I may have to give it to Cuaron.
 
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