Entertainment Weekly have created a list of what they claim to be the top '
25 Greatest Working Directors' and as far as these things go, it's not the worst, despite some glaring omissions. Though obviously 'greatest' and 'working' are such vague terms that it's impossible to know what guidelines were used in forging this list and if they are talking about which directors are at their peak right now and producing the best of cinema every couple of years then surely
Steven Spielberg's placement in third is curious? He's only had one film released in the past five years, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, for which you would hold a strong argument for it being the worst of his whole career. Sure he's picking himself up off the ground now and he's got some interesting movies on the horizon but when the
Coen Brothers have released True Grit, A Serious Man, Burn After Reading and No Country For Old Men since Spielberg's Munich, it's a weak argument that the E.T. & Jaws director deserves such lofty status. 25. Wes Anderson 24. Mike Leigh 23. Brad Bird 22. J.J. Abrams 21. Spike Lee 20. Edgar Wright 19. Peter Jackson 18. James Cameron 17. David Lynch 16. David O. Russell 15. Kathryn Bigelow 14. Danny Boyle 13. Roman Polanski 12. Guillermo del Toro 11. Paul Thomas Anderson 10. Pedro Almodovar 9. Clint Eastwood 8. Terrence Malick 7. Quentin Tarantino 6. Joel and Ethan Coen 5. Darren Aronofsky 4. Martin Scorsese 3. Steven Spielberg 2. Christopher Nolan 1. David Fincher Of course there are the horrific omissions, like any list of such subjective interests, with the lack of Sam Mendes, Michael Mann, Steven Soderbergh, Jason Reitman, Paul Greengrass, David Cronenberg, the Pixar guys and others (they are just the first that came to mind, I'm sure there's more) that are a little difficult to stomach, and possibly even Ben Affleck who is forging a significant directorial career right now. I'm sure there'll be others too..... but I think Fincher, Nolan, Aronofsky, Coen, Tarantino and Almodovar in the top ten are inarguable.