Any directors that you have "outgrown?"

I loved 60s Godard so much when I was a film student, but watching most of that stuff back in the past decade I find all but maybe a couple of those movies to be unwatchably juvenile.

I remember you beating Tenet to death in a series of posts and finishing with "the worst action movie I've ever seen" and thinking to myself "this guy sure hasn't seen a lot then". Then again I don't think you've left a work of anime or videogame untouched so maybe you are up to something with that deceleration ...I thought it was "passable" (and I do fall in the camp that somehow can find amusement in Nolan indirectly announcing he doesn't care for writing good characters here w. naming his lead "the protagonist" and such...which is still awkward). I thought it fell right in the middle of his filmography ranking-wise, and there are far worse action flicks out there which don't stand out because they lack Nolan's name on them personality.

Is that meant to be "declaration?"

I haven't seen many bargain bin action films, to be clear. I tend to stick with the bigger stuff, as the genre rarely appeals to me. I ask a few things out of an action film:

1. First off, write your character beats into the action. Pausing to catch your breath is great and all action movies need to do this, but actions should matter. A tiny thing like Fury Road's Angharad not knowing how to reload a gun, having said gun yanked out of her hands by a disdainful Toast, tells me more about those two characters than whole scenes of characters talking out their feelings.

2. Write characters who behave professionally. Banter is fine, but you cannot break the immersion of "would this character do this thing in this situation without immediately being called out/killed?" Kylo Ren being a whiny baby is a dealbreaker, as is Poe mocking Hux's mother and not getting shot out of the sky. Especially in military or paramilitary characters, this is *crucial.* I just finished a part of Final Fantasy XIV an hour ago that I LOVED: It was twenty minutes of characters discussing how to go about a large scale military operation, and then commencing the operation in a logical, professional manner. There is A LOT of banter and comedy in the fight, but it arises from characters respecting each other and poking fun at each other (Y'shtola questioning whether Estinien misunderstood the order to "subdue the enemy" as "enthusiastically murder them" made me laugh, as did Magnai saving Sadu's ass only for everyone to praise Sadu for saving the day as Magnai looks disheartened in the background). The comedy works because I trust these characters to be adults aware of their responsibilities, and that gives their actions weight.

3. If at all possible, write your themes into the action. If you have any "message," organically fit it in. Fury Road works the idea of "we are not things" through the way Joe treats all of his subordinates as cattle, while Furiosa's crew is less obviously efficient but each member has very specific skills that are useful, from Nux's black thumb to Cheedo's uselessness and cowardice becoming a plot point at the end, showing her overcoming her flaws to become a hero.

4. Create some semblance of tension to the action. Make it clear that the characters can be hurt, or that they can screw up. I didn't like The Raid because it was nonstop punching and fighting that was obviously just a dance, and I don't recall seeing any solitary moment in which anybody important proved fallible.

Do the first three things, and I guarantee that I will like your action movie. Tenet doesn't attempt points 1 or 3, and it cheats around point 2 because there are no characters to speak of. As for the fourth point (which is a bonus if you succeed at the others), Tenet screws that up with its time travel gimmick. There is no suspense whatsoever to anything, because it has all already happened. We saw it happen. Or we're seeing the future happen, so we know everything is fine in the present. Nothing matters, because predetermination. I'm gonna stick by my call of "worst action movie I've seen." It is too much of a machine, not even caring to write the most basic of characters when it can just cynically plug in an avatar and ignore character beats altogether. Regardless of how technically impressive the film is, I could feel nothing but complete boredom because I could get the same experience from watching a cat bat at a screensaver. It's just sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Is that sarcastic or genuine? I've been interested in the movie for awhile, but I've never caught up with it.

I don't know. Paul Thomas Anderson probably. I was a big fan of his up to The Master (his best film for me), but Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread just left me cold and indifferent. I wasn't a fan of either at all. I also had rewatched Boogie Nights and Magnolia in the meantime and, while I still like them quite a bit, I definitely don't hold them in such a high esteem as I once did. I liked his latest, Licorice Pizza, a lot, though, so, maybe, I'll be warming up to him again in the future.

Also there are directors like Sharunas Bartas and Philippe Grandrieux. I absolutely loved the first film I watched from each (Few Of Us and A New Life respectively, both near masterpieces), but everything else I've watched from them, I wasn't a fan of at all, even though it was stylistically and thematically very similar to those aforementioned films.

ive come around on nolan, think he's fun

have soured on tarantino and bergman

I won't say I've outgrown him, but I've been very disappointed in Soderbergh's recent output.

Let me just say, even as teenager, i thought Godard was meh. First time I watched Alphaville I could just tell he probably liked the smell of his own farts. With that being said his influence on cinema cannot be overstated.

Used to like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs but these days I prefer everything he's done afterwards.

Nolan is alright but I find it hard to take The Dark Knight trilogy seriously sometimes. Dunkirk is great though.

I fucking love Soderberg these days, I think he's made some of the best American movies from the 2000s.

If Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood wasn’t just a fluke, Tarantino will likely be it. Same goes for Wes after The French Dispatch. Tim Burton is also one I’ve LONG gotten tired of.

I've cooled out on Edgar Wright

I think you nailed it. The sense of something being fresh is what makes a movie great.