His Success: Richard Kelly shot to the top of Hollywood's hot-list after directing 2001's Donnie Darko at the mere age of 25 to critical and commercial success, with the movie enduring as a cult classic over the years. Sadly, that's pretty much where his success ends to date. His Failures: Kelly's follow-up Southland Tales had a disastrous premiere screening at 2006's Cannes Film Festival, and after a significant re-edit was finally released to a similarly calamitous box office (making just $374.7k against a $17 million budget) and poor critical response. His third film, 2009's The Box, boasted plenty of promise but couldn't live up to it, resulting in mixed reviews and an underwhelming box office, just barely making its $30 million budget back. This one seems pretty obvious: the boy wonder wowed everyone with his debut, but simply struggled to come up with something as imaginative and thought-provoking for his follow-ups. Studios and audiences alike expected much from "the guy who made Donnie Darko", but not all filmmakers are built for the long haul. Perhaps that original flash in the pan was the only significant project he has to offer. How He Can Save His Career: Kelly would be an interesting choice for a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster. Get someone else to write the script (which clearly seems to be a problem with two-thirds of his movies so far), because while Southland Tales wasn't very good, it was fine from a stylistic perspective, and demonstrated that Kelly would probably do just fine in that realm. Or hell, make another suspense film or supernatural thriller but just work from the script of an acclaimed writer in the genre. His long-gestating next project Soulmates (due for release next year) however sees Kelly again trying to pull writer-director duty himself, so temper your expectations.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
