Five promising directors who completely wasted their potential
The film industry isn’t exactly the easiest to navigate. While some directors create an incredible debut film and continue on an upwards trajectory from that point onwards, like Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs or David Lynch with Eraserhead, there are others who only seem to get worse the further their career trundles forward.
In some cases, it doesn’t even move forward at all. It’s a sad truth that the industry favours certain kinds of filmmakers over others, and in many instances, if a director isn’t making what is expected of them, their career goes straight out the window. Then there are those filmmakers who waste the opportunities placed in front of them by selling out or refusing to progress excitingly, instead churning out commercial shit that serves nothing but egos and cheques.
So, we’ve had to be pretty brutal when making this list, even if that means including beloved figures like George Lucas. I hate to say it, but he really hasn’t contributed anything as a director besides Star Wars, while contemporaries of his, like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron, have at least continued to make an array of box office hits.
Also included are those who made some promising early features before allowing their careers to turn into mush, leaving them as cautionary tales that demonstrate exactly what not to do if you become a director.
Five promising directors who wasted their potential:
Richard Kelly
Donnie Darko is an undeniably well-made film that has firmly earned its place as one of the most significant indie movies of all time, but director Richard Kelly clearly used all of his talent on the Jake Gyllenhaal thriller, because nothing he has done since has remotely compared. In fact, Kelly has hardly done anything else apart from Southland Tales and The Box, both of which received mixed reviews from critics.
Where did Kelly’s genius go? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what went wrong – all we know is that Southland Tales proved to be a very significant nail in his coffin. Critics really couldn’t make up their minds on this experiential and long ensemble satirical thriller, which seemed to stuff too much in while simultaneously feeling too long. Kelly hasn’t directed a movie since 2009, so it’s safe to say that his potential has firmly been wasted.
Patty Jenkins
When Patty Jenkins directed her first film, Monster, back in 2003, she earned widespread acclaim. Depicting the tumultuous life of serial killer Eileen Wuornos, she was poised to become one of the new decade’s most promising filmmakers. Charlize Theron won an Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’, while Jenkins won ‘Best First Feature’ at the Independent Spirit Awards, marking the start of a potentially fruitful career.
Instead, she chose to work much less successfully in television before directing her second feature in 2017, 14 years after her first effort. The movie she chose to direct was none other than Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot, which, while it might have been a commercial success, isn’t exactly on the same level as Monster. She then directed the sequel Wonder Woman 1984, too, which was even less well-received. They are the only credits Jenkins has in terms of feature films, and it’s a shame that her career didn’t take a more impressive direction.
Alex Cox
In the 1980s, Alex Cox made some cult classics, like Repo Man (featuring an incredible punk soundtrack) and Sid and Nancy, chronicling the tragic relationship between the Sex Pistols’ notorious bassist and his girlfriend. He imbued his films with an authentic punk spirit, but by the end of the 1980s, his career as a respectable filmmaker was basically dead. He failed to impress with Walker, and while success briefly came again with 1991’s El Patrullero, from that point on, he might as well have thrown in the towel.
He started making incredibly low-budget movies, and I’m talking super low budget. I’ve seen student films with better acting, cinematography, and special effects. Sure, you could argue that Cox is a true punk, but do you know who else has often taken a truly punk approach to cinema? Jim Jarmusch. Even Agnes Varda was essentially a punk. But their films are actually well-made and really, really good. Cox, on the other hand, has churned out embarrassments like Repo Chick, which you really have to see for yourself to believe.
Greta Gerwig
Now, I really like Greta Gerwig’s early output as a mumblecore and indie queen, especially her work in Frances Ha, which she co-wrote as well as starred in. Then came Lady Bird, which is a fantastic coming-of-age story that highlighted her genuine talent for writing comedic and meaningful scripts while also directing them with ease. Little Women followed, which similarly showed critics that she was a force to be reckoned with. Barbie, however, is a different story.
The movie was awful, with its overly sentimental approach and surface-level take on feminism. It became more than just a film; rather, it became a product to be sold with countless pieces of merchandise to go along with it. Gerwig simply sold out, wasting her talents as an indie director to become a mouthpiece for lazy, capitalistic, hollow storytelling. Now, her obsession with continuing to make movies based on existing IP is just depressing, and she seems to have entered a completely new era of her career that is much worse than I could’ve ever imagined.
George Lucas
Now, this might ruffle some feathers, but I must argue my case. George Lucas seemingly had the whole film industry at his fingertips following the release of his seminal 1977 sci-fi Star Wars. You’d think he’d become a Steven Spielberg type, consistently cranking out huge Hollywood movies and proving himself as a master storyteller, but it seems as though the franchise came to occupy too much of his brain, preventing him from doing anything else remotely interesting.
Lucas has only directed two non-Star Wars movies in his life – 1971’s THX 1138 and 1973’s American Graffiti. While he has worked as an executive producer on many big films, even coming up with the story for Indiana Jones, you can’t help but feel as though Lucas wasted his potential as a director. He could’ve done so much more behind the camera, but instead, he is just the Star Wars guy.
