10. Spike Jonze
The former husband of Sofia Coppola and heir to the Spiegel fortune has had an interesting career so far. He earned acclaim in the early 90s directing music videos for the Beastie Boys, Weezer, R.E.M. and Sonic Youth amongst others. He then made his feature film directing debut in 1999 with Being John Malkovich, the first of his collaborations with screenwriting extraordinaire, Charlie Kaufman. Being John Malkovich is a film of never-ending possibilities, it twists your mind with frenzied glee, there is simply nothing else to compare it to, and its one of the most original films Ive ever seen. Its funny, sweet and dark, all in equal measure and is expertly directed by Jonze who gets Kaufmans complex script. Jonze then went on to co-create Jackass with Jonny Knoxville and Jeff Tremaine, before returning to cinema, once again partnered with Kaufman to create the absurdly brilliant Adaptation. Jonze and Kaufman have the finest writer-director relationship in cinema, and it is impossible to talk about ones achievements without crediting the other. They were both intrinsically significant to each others rise in the film world and Kaufmans now branched off to direct films of his own and Jonze co-wrote his last feature, Where The Wild Things Are. Where The Wild Things Are was an incredible departure from normality for Jonze. He had never made ordinary films, even his music videos were innovative and challenging, but nobody was expecting a CGI/live-action/animatronics/people in costumes childs fantasy film. Its a piece of exceptional filmmaking and exceeds all expectations and conventions, being one of the best films of 2009 and is innovation at its purest. Jonze will probably never get the dues he deserves from most because he makes feature films so infrequently and dwells in notoriously complex and uncommercial fare, even though his films do well at the box office for what they are. He is one of the greatest modern cinematic talents and innovators, with astounding capability behind the camera. Top 3 Films (hes only made 3):
1. Being John Malkovich 2. Adaptation 3. Where The Wild Things Are