4. Gus Vant Sant
The Good: Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, MilkThe Bad: Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, Psycho, Gerry, Last Days, Finding Forrester, Restless, Promise Land Gus Vant Sant is something of a chameleon - a less snazzy but similarly-minded Steven Soderbergh, if you will, given his tendency to switch between studio pictures, works based on his own original ideas, and the occasional batsh*t crazy venture, like, oh, remaking Alfred Hitchock's
Psycho shot-for-shot. He's a great and brave filmmaker, at least, but being brave has left him with a lopsided filmography, one that doesn't fare too well on close analysis. Sure, he directed the great movies
Drugstore Cowboy and
My Own Private Idaho, but far too many of his pictures - for me, at least - seem to venture into pretentiousness, as with the wearisome
Gerry and - not included on the bad or good lists because I can't deny it at least has power-
Elephant, a movie about a school shooting. Vant Sant might've dodged a bullet had
Finding Forrester not been a blatant effort to reprise the beats of
Good Will Hunting.