, but there are thoughts behind it that better be addressed.
Tarantino... Fincher.... Nolan.... this 4th spot changes between PTA and Wes. A and Pre-
Alice Tim Burton, daily... I'm not gonna call them my favorite filmmakers of all time (getting exposed to a lot of capital "G" great cinema these past years, since 2015 really, has given me fresh - well maybe not NOW lol - eyes to distinguish such high compliments from anything and anyone modern-day - but that shouldn't mean I'm a blind traditionalist)... but I owe alot to these guys. I grew to love this medium partly because of the experiences their films offered to me at a certain point in time/my life... and that makes them
so special, even if I rate their newest films soft 7s, it doesn't matter. They have a place in my youth that no one coming will ever have.
I prefer PTA's top 3 (
Magnolia,
There Will Be Blood (interchangable),
The Master but this 3rd one could change) to Nolan's (
Memento,
The Dark Knight then definitely
Inception)
but I love them in different ways. I love Anderson's for more "cinephile" reasons (he excites me about how a film could be made, the themes he tries to tackle - not always successfully or very honestly but that's weirdly part of the charm? - very openly want to make you wrestle with thoughts and certain feelings, I'm not gonna say I love certain elements in his films like a type of character or use of music/sound... I'm saying I love those things
elsewhere too because
him; he might've trained me to appriciate those kinks. That's how bold and provacotive he can be in his best moments. And substance-wise, he is more humane. Call it more "obvious" or anything else but everytime you watch certain scens in
Boogie Nights (closer to a B-tier of his) or
Mag and they remain powerful pretty much every time. That side is absent from half of Nolan's catalogue (he doesn't overtly go for them and when he does he kinda fucks up - that infamous
Interstellar line)... and while I enjoyed it well enough, I don't think
Oppenheimer is actually that good of a movie about a guilty conscious that could've been made about that man. Imagine if PTA made it...
so what's wrong? I have to say this... there's something about PTA that feels
unnatural to me. If not him and his choices, the reception he has gotten throughout his career. It's a little unormal. If your favorite artist hands out a turd every once in a while... wouldn't that feel perfectly fine and natural to you? have I hung out with pacinoyes too much lately?
...so perfect track record my ass, I want my men to bomb every once in while. At best of times, PTA does this but within the same film (not ALL of
The Master works but the parts that do are truly special)
...But Nolan's top 3 are irreplacable experiences for me. I remember writing down what's happening at in
Memento to figure it all out once it's over... the excitement of
The Dark Knight release days ("why are all these grown-up magazines discussing a Batman movie? what has this scary man in clown make-up done?), replaying that movie with my high school mates a billion times even years after it was released... Xing the days waiting for
Inception to come out. When the fuck are these experiences - life-shaping memories really - gonna ever happen again? That name carries weight for my generation for experiences like this.
His deal-breaker is, as stated earlier, that he's not always serious (not meaning he's humorous, unfortunately) and his missteps are more unforgivable than PTA's (in moments)... so the closer-to-perfect track record is outta the window, at the same time his progression into the director he is today is more natural... and for the time being I'm more excited as to where Nolan goes with his next movie than where PTA goes... so should I change the answer to him?
Yeah I will.