Critical praise for the director of Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy and The Crying Game.
Getting the green light on any film is always a complicated process, regardless of the stature and skill of the director that’s attached to the project.
For example, it took Martin Scorsese 25 years to get his latest film, Silence, into production. As for Terry Gilliam’s take on the legend of Don Quixote, well, just watch the superb documentary Lost in La Mancha.
From a studio perspective, financing a film is all about reducing the element of risk involved. Financiers are far more likely to fund a project that has a proven director, either critically or commercially, that’s attached.
With this in mind, Quartz have analysed data from Metacritic, the film reviews aggregation website, and compiled a list of the best 100 directors from the last 25 years, based on critical reviews.
Using this approach, Richard Linklater (Boyhood, School of Rock and A Scanner Darkly) is apparently the greatest director of the last 25 years, closely followed by Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies ) and Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon).
As for Irishman Jordan, the Oscar winner ranks 74th in terms of the world’s most critically acclaimed directors from the last 25 years. His films have accumulated an average score of 69/100.
While we’re certain that directors pay no heed to critics or reviews, it’s still nice to see that Jordan’s work is consistently being appreciated.
Here’s the top 10 in full (full list available here)
1 Richard Linklater 88.5
2 Mike Leigh 85.7
3 Jafar Panahi 85.5
4 Jean-Pierre Dardenne 85.2
5 The Coen Brothers 84.7
6 Hirokazu Koreeda 83.2
7 Steven Spielberg 82.3
8 Martin Scorsese 81.7
9 Pedro Almodavar 81.5
10 Werner Herzog 81.5
Here’s an interview that we had with the talented director of Michael Collins, Breakfast on Pluto and The Butcher Boy.
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