This is a great piece! I do think the term underrated gets thrown around so much just because a lot of people (including myself) will just really vibe with a work of art and not have the words to describe why. Art is subjective, so it's really hard to explain why something had such an impact on you.
I also love Mikey and Nicky. It is my favorite film that I will never watch again because of how sad it is. Also the funniest depressing movie I have ever seen.
Excellent stuff, and utterly mindboggling. I've been sitting here trying to define it myself and failing miserably: the closest I can come is if a director has had a book-length study or documentary about their work, then they're probably not underrated in any meaningful way. That might throw out Elaine May, though, and I don't want to throw out Elaine May because she's one of the all-timers.
Just because he's been on my mind (and on my telly) of late, I'd probably say Michael Ritchie, who tends to get lost in the '70s New Hollywood celebrations a bit, wasn't particularly lauded at the time, and who definitely had a thematic through-line. But I don't know. My head hurts. I'm gonna have a wee lie down.
Great writing as usual! I’m just sitting here trying to come up with someone I would consider underrated and the name I keep coming up with is Bill Forsyth. He made one of my all-time favourites- Local Hero. But he also won 2 Baftas,so again to your point, how can he be considered underrated?
You should teach a course on the topic. You should put all the directors under a bridge or under ground as an image. You invented a formula so others can use. Thanks for the read. Until then, be cool and you.
I think one of my tests is: does the director get used in marketing and does anyone have a retrospective for them. No-one is hosting a season of John McTiernan films, even though that's Die Hard 1&3, The Hunt For Red October, Predator and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). Everyone thinks of Edge of Tomorrow as a Tom Cruise film rather than Un Film de Doug Liman.
What about Alexander Payne? I think he has a really solid list of films and has barely had any recognition. I liked everything he did and loved The Descendants, Election and Sideways is the all-time greatest film about wine.
I think another thing in this is solid directors rather than distinctive directors. We fete Orson Welles but Michael Curtiz made great movies in my opinion. I would say the same for Eric Rohmer over Jean-Luc Godard.
Excellent work, Sophie! As I was reading your piece, one thing I kept asking myself is this: what is the difference between an under-rated director and cult director? Can they be both? And how do we define a cult director? For example, one of my favorite filmmakers is Alan Rudolph, a name most people don't know. Is he under-rated or a cult director? Or what about directors like Samuel Fuller or Frank Perry? You can drive yourself crazy trying to answer these types of questions (but it's fun thinking about it and getting others' opinions).
I COULD be wrong but in my head, a cult director is a director who tends to make 'cult' films. And cult films, in my opinion, are films that are well regarded/loved by the film community (or subcultures of it) but never reached box office acclaim e.g. Donnie Darko, Jennifer's Body, even Fight Club. So I think the idea of something or someone being cult is probably a bit easier to define and even measure. Thank you so much for your comment!
Very funny formula. As you say, it really depends on who is doing the "rating." I have actually heard people say that Chris Nolan is underrated, as they think he has equaled and surpassed Lean, Kubrick and Tarkovsky, but film scholars don't agree with them. Meanwhile Nolans' films are brought up by critics as among the best of the 21st century (very wrong, in my view.) I have seen the Prestige and Inception and Interstellar atop lists of the best sci fi movies ever made. Now Nolan has an Oscar! There is no way he is underrated.
I was going to write that my two favorite underrateds are Peter Weir and Elaine May, but then you listed May as one of your choices at the end! I think "A New Leaf" and "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Mikey and Nicky" are actually better than Mike Nichols (Heartbreak Kid obviously has a lot in common with The Graduate) and certainly funnier than Cassavetes and less grating than some of Woody Allens films. But May never gets brought up as one of the leading lights of New Hollywood! The character driven, humorously observed, bohemian New York set movies are what she was better than anyone at, yet those other three are always put ahead of her. (Paul Mazursky also underrated from this era and genre.)
As I am in my 20s and an American guy, the movies that are truly underrated in my film fan group are movies like Iranian Dramas and Bollywood comedies. We just haven't even heard of them. Even some British period dramas, which we are exposed to a lot (Merchant/Ivory or movies about royalty or upper class which always get tons of Oscar nominations, like "The Kings Speech" or "The Queen") can be underrated because we haven't revisited them since we got out of college and started making decisions about friendship, love, life purpose, etc. I recently watched "The WIngs of the Dove" with Helena Bonham Carter and I thought it was fantastic and totally relevant to my own life. Fukunaga's' "Jane Eyre" from 2011 is also a very touching and interesting love story. I am going to watch the adaptations of Henry James films, like "Washington Square" and "The Bostonians" and see if they are really gems as well.
I am shocked that anybody would bring up George Clooney or Emerald Fennell as underrated. Maybe those people prefer heavy handed political allegory showy performances?
Yeah Nolan being underrated is just a BAD take. Aw Peter Weir was in my shortlist! Phenomenal director. May has been completely dismissed, it's quite mind-boggling. People genuinely do not know her.
Also thanks so much for sharing your experience - that's fascinating. Also YES to all these films.
I think ultimately it goes back to the argument I try to make in the essay....people who use 'underrated' for certain directors is because they reject their going rate in terms of perception/recognition. It's a smug move. Calling Clooney underrated tells me: "I'm really calling him underrated because I bet most people know this guy even directed". It's such an abstract and useless term - it's become void of meaning.
Great post. Elaine May is so interesting - the way her filmography is talked about is "very good movies with singular-minded vision" and then "the worst film ever made." Something seemed a bit weird about that haha I've wondered about Ishtar for a while so thank you for giving a short description! Your posts are so enjoyable to read and I was trying to think of underrated directors to contribute to this but none have yet come to mind. Thanks again!
Still wish you crunched the numbers on a few directors, just to see how they worked out. But yeah, when I live in a world where Craig Baldwin and Hollis Frampton are sometimes called overrated, sometimes I want to get all, "Words should mean things!" when people call the likes of George Clooney underrated.
Oh man, that's the thing it would have been IMPOSSIBLE. To get the numbers right, I'd need to put in dissertation-levels of research and of course, I don't even have the tools (How do I begin getting an average IMDb rating for all Scorsese films or all the awards he won 🥲). But yeah I guess that's the insight of the piece - underrated is not the word we should be using here. Haha and totally feel you!!
This is a great piece! I do think the term underrated gets thrown around so much just because a lot of people (including myself) will just really vibe with a work of art and not have the words to describe why. Art is subjective, so it's really hard to explain why something had such an impact on you.
I also love Mikey and Nicky. It is my favorite film that I will never watch again because of how sad it is. Also the funniest depressing movie I have ever seen.
THAT FINAL SCENE 😭
Excellent stuff, and utterly mindboggling. I've been sitting here trying to define it myself and failing miserably: the closest I can come is if a director has had a book-length study or documentary about their work, then they're probably not underrated in any meaningful way. That might throw out Elaine May, though, and I don't want to throw out Elaine May because she's one of the all-timers.
Just because he's been on my mind (and on my telly) of late, I'd probably say Michael Ritchie, who tends to get lost in the '70s New Hollywood celebrations a bit, wasn't particularly lauded at the time, and who definitely had a thematic through-line. But I don't know. My head hurts. I'm gonna have a wee lie down.
wow, thank you so much for this comment!! this is exactly why i write 🥹 great calls btw
Great writing as usual! I’m just sitting here trying to come up with someone I would consider underrated and the name I keep coming up with is Bill Forsyth. He made one of my all-time favourites- Local Hero. But he also won 2 Baftas,so again to your point, how can he be considered underrated?
Love Bill! Local Hero is so good, I think I referenced it in a recent After Credits drop. Well, I'd just call him one of the greats, you know? 💖
Industry strength intelligent writing ౼ and you must have had as much fun manufacturing your index as the film buff has applying it ... Brava!
Thank you so much!! Yeah it was a lot of fun 😂
Bravo
Thank you 💖
You should teach a course on the topic. You should put all the directors under a bridge or under ground as an image. You invented a formula so others can use. Thanks for the read. Until then, be cool and you.
Ha! I'll wait a little longer to see if any mathematicians poke holes at what I just did. Thank you so much!
The use of "underrated" too often validates pedestrian opinions. I loathe it.
That being said, I'm a sucker for new and weird types of metrics to measure movies and filmmakers, so I'm a fan of all of this.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
It's all about getting nerdy and having fun with loath-y terms like this in this cozy corner of the internet. Glad you enjoyed!!
I think one of my tests is: does the director get used in marketing and does anyone have a retrospective for them. No-one is hosting a season of John McTiernan films, even though that's Die Hard 1&3, The Hunt For Red October, Predator and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999). Everyone thinks of Edge of Tomorrow as a Tom Cruise film rather than Un Film de Doug Liman.
V good point!
What about Alexander Payne? I think he has a really solid list of films and has barely had any recognition. I liked everything he did and loved The Descendants, Election and Sideways is the all-time greatest film about wine.
I think another thing in this is solid directors rather than distinctive directors. We fete Orson Welles but Michael Curtiz made great movies in my opinion. I would say the same for Eric Rohmer over Jean-Luc Godard.
Excellent work, Sophie! As I was reading your piece, one thing I kept asking myself is this: what is the difference between an under-rated director and cult director? Can they be both? And how do we define a cult director? For example, one of my favorite filmmakers is Alan Rudolph, a name most people don't know. Is he under-rated or a cult director? Or what about directors like Samuel Fuller or Frank Perry? You can drive yourself crazy trying to answer these types of questions (but it's fun thinking about it and getting others' opinions).
I COULD be wrong but in my head, a cult director is a director who tends to make 'cult' films. And cult films, in my opinion, are films that are well regarded/loved by the film community (or subcultures of it) but never reached box office acclaim e.g. Donnie Darko, Jennifer's Body, even Fight Club. So I think the idea of something or someone being cult is probably a bit easier to define and even measure. Thank you so much for your comment!
Underrated piece tbh
Charlotte ❤️
Very funny formula. As you say, it really depends on who is doing the "rating." I have actually heard people say that Chris Nolan is underrated, as they think he has equaled and surpassed Lean, Kubrick and Tarkovsky, but film scholars don't agree with them. Meanwhile Nolans' films are brought up by critics as among the best of the 21st century (very wrong, in my view.) I have seen the Prestige and Inception and Interstellar atop lists of the best sci fi movies ever made. Now Nolan has an Oscar! There is no way he is underrated.
I was going to write that my two favorite underrateds are Peter Weir and Elaine May, but then you listed May as one of your choices at the end! I think "A New Leaf" and "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Mikey and Nicky" are actually better than Mike Nichols (Heartbreak Kid obviously has a lot in common with The Graduate) and certainly funnier than Cassavetes and less grating than some of Woody Allens films. But May never gets brought up as one of the leading lights of New Hollywood! The character driven, humorously observed, bohemian New York set movies are what she was better than anyone at, yet those other three are always put ahead of her. (Paul Mazursky also underrated from this era and genre.)
As I am in my 20s and an American guy, the movies that are truly underrated in my film fan group are movies like Iranian Dramas and Bollywood comedies. We just haven't even heard of them. Even some British period dramas, which we are exposed to a lot (Merchant/Ivory or movies about royalty or upper class which always get tons of Oscar nominations, like "The Kings Speech" or "The Queen") can be underrated because we haven't revisited them since we got out of college and started making decisions about friendship, love, life purpose, etc. I recently watched "The WIngs of the Dove" with Helena Bonham Carter and I thought it was fantastic and totally relevant to my own life. Fukunaga's' "Jane Eyre" from 2011 is also a very touching and interesting love story. I am going to watch the adaptations of Henry James films, like "Washington Square" and "The Bostonians" and see if they are really gems as well.
I am shocked that anybody would bring up George Clooney or Emerald Fennell as underrated. Maybe those people prefer heavy handed political allegory showy performances?
Yeah Nolan being underrated is just a BAD take. Aw Peter Weir was in my shortlist! Phenomenal director. May has been completely dismissed, it's quite mind-boggling. People genuinely do not know her.
Also thanks so much for sharing your experience - that's fascinating. Also YES to all these films.
I think ultimately it goes back to the argument I try to make in the essay....people who use 'underrated' for certain directors is because they reject their going rate in terms of perception/recognition. It's a smug move. Calling Clooney underrated tells me: "I'm really calling him underrated because I bet most people know this guy even directed". It's such an abstract and useless term - it's become void of meaning.
Joe Bob Briggs commented about the use of “underrated” on “The Last Drive-in” recently too. So true.
Ah thanks for the call! Will have to check that out.
Insane i love it
😂♥️♥️♥️
Excellent piece. I love the angles you take on a subject. I believe you built a mathematical model not just a puny formula
Great post. Elaine May is so interesting - the way her filmography is talked about is "very good movies with singular-minded vision" and then "the worst film ever made." Something seemed a bit weird about that haha I've wondered about Ishtar for a while so thank you for giving a short description! Your posts are so enjoyable to read and I was trying to think of underrated directors to contribute to this but none have yet come to mind. Thanks again!
Love this.
Still wish you crunched the numbers on a few directors, just to see how they worked out. But yeah, when I live in a world where Craig Baldwin and Hollis Frampton are sometimes called overrated, sometimes I want to get all, "Words should mean things!" when people call the likes of George Clooney underrated.
Oh man, that's the thing it would have been IMPOSSIBLE. To get the numbers right, I'd need to put in dissertation-levels of research and of course, I don't even have the tools (How do I begin getting an average IMDb rating for all Scorsese films or all the awards he won 🥲). But yeah I guess that's the insight of the piece - underrated is not the word we should be using here. Haha and totally feel you!!