Five underrated directors who haven’t made a movie in far too long
There are some directors lucky enough to make films every year or so, with back-to-back projects that mean they might never have downtime, but they are never bored or creatively unfulfilled. It’s a privilege that is only awarded to very few people, with the likes of Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig and Ari Aster being rare examples of independent directors who have somehow managed to stay consistently booked and busy.
While the likes of Amazon and Ridley Scott can keep creating commercial rubbish that adds nothing to the artistic landscape besides their own desperate need for attention, there are genuinely wonderful directors who are struggling to fund projects that would have a profound impact not just on cinema, but the people who watch them.
Before his death, David Lynch was struggling to find funding for his next project, and there are other arthouse directors who are patiently waiting for their next chance to shine, while some are hogging the limelight for irrelevant stories, carrying the mantel of being bankable.
But who are the people who need more attention and funding? Here are five underrated directors and their last known features who haven’t made a film in far too long, and more than deserve a chance to return to the chair and grace us with another masterpiece.
Five directors who’ve been away too long:
‘C’mon C’mon’ (Mike Mills, 2021)
After a few years of radio silence, who knows what Mike Mills is working on, but the world is certainly in need of the types of hand-crafted stories he has come to be known for.
After the release of his 2016 film 20th Century Women, which follows a single mother trying to raise her son with the help of her friends and neighbours, Mills showcased himself as one of the most thoughtful filmmakers working today, with a deep reverence for the inner world of young people and the experiences we often overlook. This was made all the more clear after his most recent film, C’mon C’mon, a warm and rare story about what it means to be truly empathetic and make space for feelings we might not understand. His work is a masterclass in empathy, and we would all do well to experience the world from his perspective.
‘Weiner Dog’ (Todd Solondz, 2016)
It is an absolute crime that someone like Todd Solondz is struggling to find funding, with the director having established a new wave of dark comedy that was bold in its critique of capitalism, consumerism and suburban America. The combination of this subject matter and his dry and blasé sense of humour, with characters often making light of extremely disturbing events in their personal lives, has cemented Solondz as the gentle whistleblower of everyday evil.
From his portrait of a young girl on the cusp of adolescence who is abused and ignored by everyone around her, to his sprawling story of everyday people who are all in denial about their own pains, the director has provided a voice for outcasts and people who are typically cast aside, making him one of the most important independent directors of his generation. His last project was scrapped at the last minute as a result of insufficient funding—another example of the failures currently plaguing the industry, with established directors struggling to share their work.
‘The Loneliest Planet’ (Julia Loktev, 2011)
After its premiere at TIFF, Julia Loktev was one of the directors who emerged from the festival as a ‘one to watch’, with a scathing and masterfully interior film about the world of a relationship that slowly crumbles after one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
But the director has not made another film since (apart from a long-form documentary), seemingly having retreated from the industry with no follow-up to her exploration of the fragility of love and how we never truly know the people we love. It was undoubtedly ahead of its time in its restraint and subtlety, and I eagerly await the day that Loktev makes her return to filmmaking.
‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ (Rachel Lambert, 2023)
There are few films that truly capture depression and the way it consumes each part of your life, with Rachel Lambert’s 2023 film Sometimes I Think about Dying being a rare outlier in doing so through its portrait of an office worker who struggles to connect with the people around her.
While it has moments of very dry humour, it is by no means a comedy, with an intrinsically heartbreaking strand that portrays the loneliness of being tormented by your own brain and beaten down before being given the chance to try. As an emerging director, Lambert’s next moves haven’t been widely advertised, but she is certainly a filmmaker to watch and someone whose next project deserves to be greenlit straight away.
‘Corpus Christi'<em> </em>(Jan Komasa, 2019)
Corpus Christi is the kind of film that will stay with you for a very long time, yet even so, it was criminally underseen at the time of its release, and I have heard very little from the director since. It follows a convict who accidentally finds himself fulfilling his lifelong dream of becoming a priest, being mistaken for the role in a small town and deciding to take it up without correcting anybody.
It’s a tender and important story about forgiveness and redemption, with the lead character finding strengths in himself that he had long forgotten about, using his infectious sense of optimism to heal those in the town who are hurting after a recent tragedy. While little has been heard about Komasa’s next project, we can hope that there is another story secretly in the works.
