11 Awful Directors With One Great Movie

6. Richard Kelly - Donnie Darko

Southland Tales Richard Kelly
Universal Pictures

The Awful Director: Though Richard Kelly has directed just three theatrical features to date, he's nevertheless earned his fair share of notoriety due to how colossally his latter two films failed with audiences and critics alike, amid massive expectations no less.

Firstly, 2006's Southland Tales was largely dismissed as a pretentious farce, and certainly not what most expected given the five-year wait after his electrifying, acclaimed debut feature.

Then Kelly followed up with the 2009 Cameron Diaz-starring thriller The Box, which is among the very few movies to receive the dreaded "F" rating from CinemaScore. The director hasn't made a film since.

The One Great Movie: Kelly's debut was, of course, 2001's cult classic Donnie Darko, a marvellously inventive dark comedy sci-fi film that made the career of Jake Gyllenhaal overnight.

Kelly couldn't even leave that alone, though, and the overly expository 2004 Director's Cut is ultimately proof of how his poor filmmaking instincts can poison even his single beloved movie.

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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.