10 Directors Who Never Topped Their First Film

5. Bryan Singer - The Usual Suspects

Zack Snyder Dawn of the Dead
Bad Hat Harry Productions

The Usual Suspects is one of the absolute best movies of the 1990s, and it also stands as the best film of Bryan Singer's career.

Singer's directorial bow, the picture was released in 1995, winning countless praise from fans and critics alike thanks to its delicate, unravelling story, the brilliant performances of its core characters, and a sleek, stylish direction that put Singer on the map in a major way. Not just that, but screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and star Kevin Spacey both picked up an Academy Award each for their work here.

A tale of a supposed chance meeting between five criminals, the tension and pacing leading up to the eventual reveal of the sinister, feared Keyser Soze really is masterful stuff, and The Usual Suspects still serves as a phenomenal watch all these years later.

As for Bryan Singer, the first two X-Men movies are two other standouts of his career - in particular X2 - while efforts such as Superman Returns, Jack the Giant Slayer, X-Men: Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse all massively split opinion.

2018's Bohemian Rhapsody was a fantastic film, yet it's one that was largely handled by Dexter Fletcher after Singer stepped away from the picture during production - meaning, as it stands, The Usual Suspects has yet to be topped by the filmmaker.

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