5. Paul Thomas Anderson
Filmography:
Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master. In my opinion, Paul Thomas Anderson is the greatest director in the world right now. He continues to defy conventions and raise expectations as he releases masterpiece after masterpiece. Like many other directors on this list, Anderson has yet to become a household name outside of cinema buffs and whilst Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood hold more mainstream appeal, he's yet to get a reputation like Scorsese, Spielberg or Tarantino amongst more casual cinema goers. Anderson is monumentally dynamic with a Kubrickian visual style that compliments his wonderfully crafted characters and stories so well - a lot of this is due to his appreciation of the synergy between film and music and long term partnership with Robert Elswit - the best cinematographer in the business. A true actors director, he has directed career best performances out of Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood), Tom Cruise (Magnolia), Mark Wahlberg (Boogie Nights), Adam Sandler (Punch Drunk Love), Burt Reynolds (Boogie Nights) and Julianne Moore (Magnolia). He's always done it his own way - ever since dropping out of film school - his contempt for authority is evident in his films and his reluctance to engage in Hollywood circles is evident by his reclusiveness - he does very little press for his movies despite being as interesting to listen to as anyone. Anderson's tales are rich in depth and dark without being downbeat and his movies reverberate in fascination as a Paul Thomas Anderson movie is never boring, but always intriguing. When it's all said and done, Anderson will go down as one of the very greats, if he's not already. Kubrickian in his approach to filmmaking, he makes filmmaking look so easy as he combines his extraordinary talent as a writer (his movies have novelistic elements) and capability as a director (he knows every shot possible) to be the best writer-director currently active in filmmaking.