12 Years a Slave is opening and everyone is raving about Steve McQueen-and of course they should! He’s a genius.
It made us think though about how this movie season seems dominated by old favorites and Hollywood greats- Spike Jonze (Her), Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine), Ron Howard (Rush), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street), Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), Ridley Scott (The Counselor), and The Coen Brothers with Inside Llewyn Davis.
And those are just the ones I could name off the top of my head.
We were curious why we were focusing so hard on all of the old favorites rather than some of the new and exciting talent emerging. There’s Haifaa Al-Mansour who wrote and directed Wadjda, her first feature as well as the first female film maker in Saudi Arabia. There’s newcomer John Krokidas who directed the upcoming Beat Generation film Kill Your Darlings, a film that focuses on a mysterious death as well a young romance between two men. Then there’s J.C. Chandor who’s upcoming film All is Lost starring Robert Redford seemed like a nearly impossible task and yet the reviews are glowing.
It’s an interesting time to be a director, we’re in a transitioning period and many of the ones who press on to have a lasting career will be our generations greats.
Who do you think we should all be keeping an eye on?
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