Pantheon Directors
These are the directors who have transcended their technical problems with a personal vision of the world. To speak any of their names is to evoke a self-contained world with its own laws and landscapes. They were also fortunate enough to find the proper conditions and collaborators for the full expression of their talent. (notable films italicized)
Allen, Woody (1935 - )
Let's focus on the filmmaker, shall we? After starting the 70s with "earlier, funny ones," that hold up extremely well, Allen embarked on a career filled moral tales the worthy of Rohmer or Chekhov.
And while he was not able to pull off the late career renaissance of a Scorsese or Bunuel, there are a few bracing post-millennial works, particularly Match Point. Maybe he has one more in him.
If I have a favorite Woody it might be Broadway Danny Rose, which contains one of my favorite shots, clear evidence that this wasn't just a terrific writer of jokes and anxieties.
Rose, agent to the game but lightly talented, is walking down a hospital corridor with his star client, Lou Canova, with whom he has begun to enjoy some inexplicable success. The camera is stationary, in the deep foreground, while the two men, in the deep background, walk towards us. As they walk it becomes clear Canova has something important and uncomfortable to tell Rose. By the time the two men approach the camera, and Rose is in extreme close up, he realizes he is being fired. His expression is heartbreaking. Pure cinema.
Bananas 1971, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) 1972, Sleeper 1973, Love and Death 1975, Annie Hall 1977, Interiors 1978, Manhattan 1979, Stardust Memories 1980, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy 1982, Zelig 1983, Broadway Danny Rose 1984, The Purple Rose of Cairo 1985, Hannah and Her Sisters 1986, Radio Days 1987, September 1987 Another Woman 1988, Crimes and Misdemeanors 1989, New York Stories (segment) 1989, Alice 1990, Shadows and Fog 1991, Husbands and Wives 1992, Manhattan Murder Mystery 1993, Bullets over Broadway 1994, Mighty Aphrodite 1995, Everyone Says I Love You 1996, Deconstructing Harry 1997, Celebrity 1998, Sweet and Lowdown 1999, Small Time Crooks 2000, The Curse of the Jade Scorpion 2001, Hollywood Ending 2002, Anything Else 2003, Melinda and Melinda 2004, Match Point 2005, Scoop 2006, Cassandra's Dream 2007, Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2008, Whatever Works 2009, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger 2010, Midnight in Paris 2011, To Rome with Love, 2012, Blue Jasmine 2013, Magic in the Moonlight 2014, Irrational Man, 2015, Café Society 2016, Wonder Wheel 2017, A Rainy Day in New York 2019, Rifkin’s Festival 2020, Coup de Chance 2023.
Anderson, Paul Thomas (1970 - )
Yes, the fan boys can be obnoxious (I am one of them). He can do wrong. The Master should have ended on the motorcycle in the desert. Inherent Vice has misogynistic elements that would have made PTA's mentor, Robert Altman, proud. Magnolia does just go on and on, doesn't it? But the audacity of vision, the sheer will to make films like no other, and coax large budgets (largely on the screen) from his benefactors makes you shake your head in admiration. I mean, who decides to adapt a seventy year-old Sinclair Lewis novels and turn it into one of the greatest of American films?? Who is ready, willing and able to take on Pynchon not once but twice? And he probably just made his best film in his fourth professional decade.
Hard Eight 1996, Boogie Nights 1997, Magnolia 1999, Punch-Drunk Love 2002, Let There Be Blood 2007, The Master 2012, Inherent Vice 2014, Phantom Thread 2017, Licorice Pizza 2021, One Battle After Another 2025.
Anderson, Wes (1969 - )
I suppose if you are in the Pantheon your are going to get backlash. It is odd that the backlash continues as he continues to make one charming, beautifully acted and moving film after another (the charges against him that he is an un-emotional, empty stylist are so ridiculous I am ashamed I just dignified them with a response). If he has an overriding theme it is taken from E.M. Forster: "Only Connect."
Bottle Rocket 1996, Rushmore 1998, The Royal Tenenbaums 2001, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 2004, The Darjeeling Limited 2007, Fantastic Mr. Fox 2009, Moonrise Kingdom 2012, Grand Budapest Hotel 2014, Isle of Dogs 2018, The French Dispatch 2021, Asteroid City 2023, The Phoenician Scheme 2025.
Cassavetes, John (1929 - 1989)
(Previous Ranking: Oddities, One-Shots and Newcomers. What Sarris said: "Too much of the time he is groping when he should be gripping")
Sarris caught Cassavetes before the incredible 70s run, of course, so he may have been a bit skeptical given the somewhat tepid industry output in the early sixties wedged around the personal (and utterly groundbreaking) independent cinema of Shadows and Faces. Cassavetes would return reluctantly to studio stuff late in his career, but the output is dominated by independently-made masterpieces he willed into existence. It is difficult to know whether Sarris would have found the 70s films more groping than gripping (Sarris did NOT like improvisation), but Cassavetes is, arguably the single most influential director since Welles.
Husbands 1970, Minnie and Moskowitz 1971, A Woman Under the Influence 1974, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie 1976, Opening Night 1977, Gloria 1980, Love Streams 1984, Big Trouble 1986.
Coen Brothers (Joel 1954 -) (Ethan 1957 - )
They go into the Pantheon as a duo. It looks like they have split up now and the early results of individual works is not promising, which indicates the sensibility, for want of a better term, their auteurism, is a team thing. I have to say if I have begun to prefer their goofier works (Arizona, Intolerable Cruelty, Hail, Caesar!) over their more serious ones it is that I find an ethos of cruelty and meaninglessness to be a bit wearying. Nevertheless, it is hard to image a pair of film makers who have had a greater impact upon the art form in their time.
Blood Simple 1984, Raising Arizona 1987, Miller's Crossing 1990, Barton Fink 1991, The Hudsucker Proxy 1994, Fargo 1996, The Big Lebowski 1998, O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2000, The Man Who Wasn't There 2001, Intolerable Cruelty 2003, The Ladykillers 2004, No Country for Old Men 2007, Burn After Reading 2008, A Serious Man 2009, True Grit 2010, Inside Llewyn Davis 2013, Hail, Caesar! 2016, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 2018
Coppola, Francis Ford (1939 - )
(Previous Ranking: Oddities, One-Shots and Newcomers. What Sarris said: "Coppola seems infinitely more merciful to his grotesques than does anything-for-an-effect (Mike) Nichols. Coppola may be heard from more decisively in the future")
Well, he was certainly heard from decisively again, wasn't he?
If I choose to believe that Tucker: The Man and his Dreams is his best film it is because it is his most personal, representing Coppola's own intransigence to do great work at no expense to his integrity. This, as with Welles, hurt him, his longevity, his output and, I fear, perhaps his reputation. Which sucks. Oh, and Megalopolis is great.
The Godfather 1972, The Conversation 1974, The Godfather Part II 1974, Apocalypse Now 1979, One from the Heart 1982, The Outsiders 1983, Rumble Fish 1983, The Cotton Club 1984, Peggy Sue Got Married 1986, Gardens of Stone 1987, Tucker: The Man and His Dream 1988, New York Stories (segment) 1989, The Godfather Part III 1990, Bram Stoker's Dracula 1992, Jack 1996, The Rainmaker 1997, Twixt 2001, Youth Without Youth 2007, Tetro 2009, Twixt, 2011, Megalopolis 2024.
Cronenberg, David (1943 - )
A high percentage of Cronenberg's most distinctive work was made under the Canadian flag, but the output from his American work is strong enough to warrant inclusion here. There are few more instantly identifiable auteurs in history than David Cronenberg. As he has inched closer and closer to the end, the films become more and more personal, more Cronenbergian, if you will. The Shrouds is almost painfully auto-biographical. As with Lynch, despite the ease with which we want to ascribe the descriptor "body horror" to everything that has icky stuff in it, there is only one Cronenberg.
Stereo 1969, Crimes of the Future 1970, Shivers 1975, Rabid 1977, Fast Company 1979, The Brood 1979, Scanners 1981, The Dead Zone 1983, Videodrome 1983, The Fly 1986, Dead Ringers 1988, Naked Lunch 1991, M. Butterfly 1993, Crash 1996, eXistenZ 1999, Spider 2002, A History of Violence 2005, Eastern Promises 2007, A Dangerous Method 2011, Cosmopolis, 2012, Maps to the Stars 2015, Crimes of the Future 2022, The Shrouds 2024.
De Palma, Brian (1940 - )
Certainly the most avant-garde leaning of all successful commercial Hollywood directors. In fact, when tempted towards the conventional for career-survival purposes, the results, while entertaining (e.g. Untouchables, Mission Impossible) gave a sense that DePalma wasn't terribly interested. Even the Hitchcock pastiches, if one wants to facilely refer them as such, are deeply personal. Almost unapologetically he has returned to the prickly and difficult but demanding and rewarding in his late career, which has led almost inevitably to that career not surviving. Which is disheartening.
Hi, Mom 1970, Get to Know Your Rabbit 1972, Sisters 1973, Phantom of the Paradise 1974, Carrie 1976, Obsession 1976, The Fury 1978, Dressed to Kill 1980, Home Movies 1980, Blow Out 1981, Scarface 1983, Body Double 1984, Wise Guys 1986, The Untouchables 1987, Casualties of War 1989, The Bonfire of the Vanities 1990, Raising Cain 1992, Carlito's Way 1993, Mission: Impossible 1996, Snake Eyes 1998, Mission to Mars 2000, Femme Fatale 2002, The Black Dahlia 2006, Redacted 2007, Passion 2012, Domino 2019.
Kubrick, Stanley (1928 - 1999)
(Previous Ranking: Strained Seriousness. What Sarris said: "The very fact that he makes few films seems to confirm his stature among his champions. There is supposedly too much care and integrity in Kubrick to make him work more often." )
The numerically scant output post-1970 continued, as was his want and the subject of Sarris' ire, but, like Cassavetes, the "modern era" films are a continuation of what was started in the 60s and cannot be denied. More here....
Clockwork Orange 1971, Barry Lyndon 1975, The Shining 1980, Full Metal Jacket 1987, Eyes Wide Shut 1999.
Linklater, Richard (1960 - )
Arguably the name on this list with the most out and out dodgy films (Last Flag Flying, anyone?), but 2025 confirmed his place in the Pantheon and whether he has bent the knee to Netflix or not there is no reason to doubt the quality of his output going forward. Don't ever count him out.
Slacker 1991 Dazed and Confused 1993, Before Sunrise 1995, Suburbia 1996, The Newton Boys 1998, Tape 2001, Waking Life 2001, School of Rock 2003, Before Sunset 2004, Bad News Bears 2005, A Scanner Darkly 2006, Fast Food Nation 2006, Me and Orson Welles 2009, Bernie 2012, Before Midnight 2013, Boyhood 2014, Last Flag Flying 2017, Everybody Wants Some!! 2016, Where'd You Go, Bernadette 2019, Apollo 10 ½ 2021, Hit Man 2023, Blue Moon 2025, Nouvelle Vogue 2025.
Lynch, David (1946 - 2025 )
It's not his fault that every movie that is a little odd and dream-like these days is deemed Lynchian. In fact, we had never seen his likes before, and never will again. There are certainly many more avenues for communicating grief than ever, but has there ever been a loss felt more heavily than Lynch's death last year?
Eraserhead 1977, The Elephant Man 1980, Dune 1984, Blue Velvet 1986, Industrial Symphony No. 1 1990, Wild at Heart 1990, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me 1992, Lost Highway 1997, The Straight Story 1999, Mulholland Drive 2001, Inland Empire 2006.
Malick, Terence (1943 - )
If Cassavetes wasn't the single greatest influence post-1970 than it was probably Malick. Bilge Elbiri makes that case here. Just this year you can see his marks all over Train Dreams, Hamnet, and Rebuilding, just to name a few.
I was having some personal difficulties when I saw Tree of Life at the late great Egyptian theater in Seattle on opening night, 2011. When I emerged the difficulties remained, but after experiencing this....immensity...they seemed meaningless, a set of trifles. The world, experiencing our own set of difficulties, awaits The Way of the Wind.
Badlands 1973, Days of Heaven 1978, The Thin Red Line 1998, The New World 2005, The Tree of Life 2011, Song to Song 2017, A Hidden Life 2019.
Mann, Michael (1943 - )
I finally conceded the Pantheon to Mann after a few heated discussions with Mann-heads. And while not necessarily my cup of tea (a few too many rather overlong, self-serious and just not very good films in 45 years) the greatness of Thief, Manhunter, The Last of the Mohicans and Heat made it a relatively easy concession.
Thief 1981, The Keep 1983, Manhunter 1986, L.A. Takedown 1989, The Last of the Mohicans 1992, Heat 1995, The Insider 1999, Ali 2001, Collateral 2004, Miami Vice 2006, Public Enemies 2009, Blackhat 2015, Ferrari 2023.
May, Elaine (1932 - )
I hesitated to include directors in any of the major categories, good or bad, if the output was 4 films or less, but her films are so distinctive, singular and beguiling, and her overall influence as writer, actor and mentor forced the exception.
Apparently there is much in her lack out output that is her fault, being a prickly perfectionist with a tendency towards runaway budgets. But given, for example, the atrocious and disrespectful treatment she received for her masterpiece Ishtar, one cannot entirely blame her for checking out. Rumors continue there is a late-career work coming. Will new films by May and Malick save the world?
A New Leaf 1971, The Heartbreak Kid 1972, Mikey and Nicky 1976, Ishtar 1987.
Payne, Alexander (1961 - )
Payne, always a squirmy watch, and despite a wariness of his characters and a weariness of the world, is not afraid to be moving, which generally redeems his misanthropic leanings. The endings of About Schmidt, where Nicholson achieves god tier, and The Leftovers, and the really quite beautiful love scene between Matt Damon and Hong Chau in the underrated Downsizing, completely wreck me. Ironically, when he tries a little too hard to be moving, as in the hospital bed sequence with Clooney in his weakest film, The Descendants, he falls short. He earns the tears in the other films by being almost deliberately unsentimental. Is there anyone making as consistently interesting films? It is galling that he has to scrap and scrape for financing.
Citizen Ruth 1996, Election 1999, About Schmidt 2002, Sideways 2004, The Descendants 2011, Nebraska 2013, Downsizing 2017, The Leftovers 2024.
Reichardt, Kelly (1964 - )
It is confounding Reichardt had to wait 12 years between her debut and her next film. And now she is turning out one utterly original and distinctive work after another. I suppose this speaks to an evolving industry. More likely the talent simply will not be denied.
River of Grass 1994, Old Joy 2006, Wendy and Lucy 2008, Meek's Cutoff 2010, Night Moves 2013, Certain Women 2016, First Cow 2020, Showing Up 2022, The Mastermind 2025.
Scorsese, Martin (1942 - )
Raging Bull, viewed by me for the first time in the little navy town of Bremerton in 1980 in a near empty Admiral Theater, changed my life forever. Not only were the formal choices something I (or anyone) had ever seen, I could not process why my heart was filled with love for a pathologically jealous, self-destructive galoot. It made me a cinephile for life, and sent me on the path to pursue film making as a career (the latter didn't work out, but that was hardly Marty's fault. It was I, a pathologically jealous, self-destructive galoot, who was the blame). Does anyone doubt his next film, likely released well into his 8th decade, will be amongst his best?
Boxcar Bertha 1973, Mean Streets 1974,, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1976, Taxi Driver 1977, New York, New York 1978, American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince 1978, The Last Waltz 1980, Raging Bull 1981, The King of Comedy 1984, After Hours 1986, The Color of Money 1988, New York Stories (segment) 1989, The Last Temptation of Christ 1990, Goodfellas 1991, Cape Fear 1993, The Age of Innocence 1995, Casino 1997, Kundun 1999, Bringing Out the Dead 1999, Gangs of New York 2004, The Aviator 2005, The Departed 2010, Shutter Island 2011, Hugo 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street 2016, Silence 2019, The Irishman 2020, Killers of the Flower Moon 2023.
Spielberg, Steven (1946 - )
There was a period of time after all the early, unprecedented success Spielberg was rather ill-thought of, amongst cinephile snobs at least, as a maker of Blockbusters and Oscar bait. But he would not be so easily dismissed. The Pantheon was secured once and for all by the astonishing "comeback" represented by the "No More Mr. Nice Guy" run from 1998 to 2005, when he elegantly balanced the personal, small character study (the masterful Catch Me if You Can) with the intelligent, personal tentpole (Minority Report, War of the Worlds).
The Sugarland Express 1974, Jaws 1975, Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977, 1941 1979, Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 1982, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984, The Color Purple 1985, Empire of the Sun 1987, Always 1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989, Hook 1991, Jurassic Park 1993, Schindler's List 1993, Amistad 1997, The Lost World: Jurassic Park 1997, Saving Private Ryan 1998, A.I. Artificial Intelligence 2001, Catch Me If You Can 2002, Minority Report 2002, The Terminal 2004, Munich 2005, War of the Worlds 2005, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008, The Adventures of Tintin 2011, Lincoln 2012, Bridge of Spies 2015, The BFG 2016, The Post 2017, Ready Player One 2018, West Side Story 2021, The Fablemans 2022.
Welles, Orson (1915- 1985) (Honorary Member)
(Previous Ranking: Pantheon Directors. What Sarris said: "The world of Orson Welles is the world of the runaway artist who pauses every so often to muse over what he has lost of left behind. Quite and frenzy alternate in this world...")
Okay, a bit of a cheat here with only three movies, and one we had to wait 30-odd years for. So sue me, he's Orson Welles.
The Deep (1970), F for Fake (1973), The Other Side of the Wind (2018 release).
