20 Greatest Directors Of The New Millennium

19. Ben Stiller

Filmography: Zoolander (2001); Tropic Thunder (2008); The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) Before you scoff and move on to the next entry (or another article), really give this some thought for a moment. The egos of actors tends to make it easy to dismiss them when they move behind the camera. "What, just 'cause the guy can act a little bit, he thinks he can direct too. What an arrogant jerk!" This sort of attitude is understandable and somewhat justifiable, as the history of cinema is filled with bad films directed by actors that would best be forgotten. However, some actors prove to be quite adept at the position, and though rarely publicly stated by many, Ben Stiller is one of these cases. Comedy being something that tends to be very unique and personal to the individual, it can be hard to build much consensus around a comedic director as an "auteur", particularly when they work in broad comedy. However, they do exist, and in the 21st century, no director has accomplished this task as deftly as Ben Stiller. What Stiller accomplishes in his films is the difficult alchemy of mixing "stupid" comedy with intelligent satire. His parodies of the fashion and film industries, Zoolander and Tropic Thunder respectively, use over-exaggerated caricatures of cliché figures in both industries to poke fun at the excesses of those businesses, but in a manner that still exudes love for the industries and the people in them. There's a stealthy intelligence behind the goofy surface of Stiller's work, and for those looking for it (such as Zoolander devotee Terrence Malick), the subtlety is greatly appreciated.