10 respected directors who became laughing stocks

Dario Argento

We hate to say it, but Italian director Dario Argento lost his unofficial title as a horror master years ago with movies like The Phantom of the Opera, The Card Player, Giallo, and Dracula 3D. He was once one of the most influential horror filmmakers of all time, releasing iconic giallo movies like Deep Red, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, and Tenebrae – alongside the iconic supernatural horror Suspiria – but as his career progressed, his output declined.

These days, his time as a well-respected director seems well in the past, with each new attempt to make a movie failing miserably, much to the disappointment of his cult following of ‘70s and ‘80s horror lovers. At least he proved himself to be a surprisingly good actor with a leading role in the moving Gaspar Noé film Vortex, but as a filmmaker, Argento has sadly turned into a bit of a laughing stock.

Xavier Dolan

At one point, Xavier Dolan was the most explosive and controversial filmmaker on the block, rocking global audiences with his Cannes directorial debut, I Killed My Mother, which he made at just 20 years old. From this point on, he became known for his brutal realism and harsh stories, something that was only expanded upon in his 2014 film, Mommy.  

It is a fascinating work that marked him as one of the most promising new filmmakers, however, the director later announced that he would be quitting filmmaking entirely due to a lack of external validation and critical attention, describing his frustration with not being critically recognised for later films like Matthias and Maxime and The Night Logan Woke Up. Unfortunately, I just cannot take any artist seriously who is motivated by validation and awards, as any filmmaker worth their salt would not quit for such a childish reason.

James Cameron

We don’t need a third Avatar film – we didn’t even need the second. James Cameron’s bizarre obsession with dedicating the rest of his career to making Avatar movies has certainly lessened people’s opinions of him as a respected filmmaker; he is seemingly closed off from doing anything remotely different. While he made legendary sci-fi movies like The Terminator and its sequel, Judgment Day, and of course, Titanic, Cameron’s career has since plateaued.

With an Avatar movie scheduled to emerge later this year and then another in 2029, the filmmaker has made the bold decision to dedicate 20 years of his career to the franchise, which, while extremely bankable, feels incredibly tired. The first movie was exciting to many, sure, but Cameron really should’ve moved onto something else since then.

Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig used to be a mumblecore darling and fierce advocate for independent cinema, becoming the face of a new movement in Hollywood as filmmaking became more accessible due to the rise of affordable digital cameras. After starring in films such as Frances Ha, Baghead and Hannah Takes the Stairs, Gerwig extended her glorious creativity to the page, eventually directing her own work with Lady Bird and Little Women, taking the world by storm with her naturalistic style, joyful energy and passion for cinema that shines in every frame.

However, like many filmmakers, Gerwig was then tempted by the forces of evil and strayed to the dark side. Working with Mattel was one thing, humanising and making light of a corporation who have profited from unrealistic beauty standards and oppressive patriarchal ideas, but her upcoming franchise with Netflix has truly hammered in the last nail of her creative coffin. Gerwig has signed an eight-picture deal with the parasitic streaming giant to adapt the entire Narnia series, something that goes against her roots in indie cinema and betrays the medium of film entirely.

M Night Shyamalan

When your whole thing is plot twists, making a movie without one would be the real plot twist of M Night Shyamalan’s career. Unfortunately, the filmmaker has kept to a steady formula, and his career has experienced strong ups and downs as a result. Gaining attention from the success of The Sixth Sense, which earned six Academy Award nominations, the filmmaker went on to share much less impressive movies like Lady in the Water and The Last Airbender, highlighting a weak period in Shyamalan’s career.

With Split and Glass, Shyamalan seemed to regain some commercial attention, but these movies have since been criticised for perpetuating negative ideas about certain mental health issues, leaving them far from becoming enduring pieces of cinema. The sheer ridiculousness of Old really cemented the filmmaker as someone not to be taken as seriously as he once was, and his most recent movie, Trap, also received rather mixed reviews.

Nicholas Winding Refn

Nicolas Winding Refn has made some undeniably great works, namely being the sheer masterpiece that is his 2011 film Drive, but that appears to be a creative anomaly that his other films have barely come close to. Drive follows a Hollywood stuntman who is enlisted as a getaway driver for a dangerous group of criminals, threatening the safety of the woman he loves as he desperately tries to protect her.

However, after watching his later films, none of them share a semblance of the magic that was present in Drive, existing as a sheer force of nature that simply obliterates anything else he has worked on. This is most obvious when looking at his recent short film Beauty is not a sin, which left Mubi viewers somewhat outraged after realising that it is an advertisement in disguise. Who knows what led him down the rabbit hole of corporate filmmaking, but let’s hope he finds his way out in one piece.

Joel Schumacher

When Joel Schumacher started making movies, he gained an eager following. With movies like The Lost Boys and St Elmo’s Fire, he showed real potential to become a firm Hollywood fixture. And while he did become that, many of his films started to receive media attention for all the wrong reasons. His 1997 film Batman & Robin has been labelled one of the worst films of all time, with people finding Schumacher’s directorial choices hilariously bad.

That’s not the only terrible film he made, however, with titles like 8mm, Bad Company, The Number 23, Blood Creek, Twelve, and Trespass all receiving less than impressive reviews from critics. It seemed as though Schumacher had lost his filmmaking talent somewhere in the early 1990s – where it went, who knows?

Mel Gibson

Rising to prominence as an actor, starring in movies like Mad Max, Gallipoli, and Lethal Weapon, Mel Gibson’s directorial career got off to a strong start with praise for movies like The Man Without a Face and Braveheart. Yet, following various controversies – such as the release of his movie The Passion of the Christ, deemed by many to be anti-Semetic, and incidents of homophobia and racism – Gibson’s position in Hollywood quickly tarnished.

Unfortunately, he has still continued to make movies, like the well-received Hacksaw Ridge, but his most recent film, 2025’s Flight Risk, has cemented his status as a laughing stock. His name is hardly visible on the poster due to his rocky reputation, and Mark Whalberg’s hair alone is a criminal enough part of the film. Badly reviewed, the movie is truly an indicator of Gibson’s Hollywood downfall.

Ridley Scott

Congratulations to Ridley Flop, who has become the most irrelevant and meaningless director of the 21^st century. While there is no debate about the fact that he has made a couple of good films, his approach to filmmaking in later years has evolved into an aggressive and desperate pursuit of power and domination, churning out toxic trash like Gladiator II, Napoleon and House of Gucci that reveal his desire for quantity over quality and profit over true artistry.

Scott’s entire career now revolves around creating egregiously expensive films with no style or substance, making films as a way of boosting his own ego and desperately clinging onto a semblance of power in the industry. He truly believes himself to be the best director in the world, throwing tantrums over people who don’t share this sentiment and embarking on a creative tirade to prove his talent by making exceptionally awful films that prove nothing other than the fact that he has no respect for the medium and purely sees it as a money-making machine.

Francis Ford Coppola

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. It’s hard not to feel bad for Francis Ford Coppola when watching the abysmal flop that is Megalopolis, revealing the delusional ideas of a once-great director who has completely lost the plot. Coppola was one of the key players with the New Hollywood movement, making notorious pictures such as The Godfather, The Conversation and Rumble Fish which cemented his legacy as one of the most influential cinematic figures of all time.

However, the failure of Megalopolis shows that some ideas just aren’t meant to see the light of day, and even though you can, it doesn’t mean you should. The film is a sad reflection of an artist who has gained so much power that he doesn’t know what to do with it, making something awful that no-one else would get away with and losing sight of what made his work great in the first place.