3. Bobby Green - We Own the Night
Not all directors are always operating at full capacities, and even true talents like James Gray are bound to slip up every once in a while. We Own the Night is the polar opposite of Gray and Phoenix's subsequent collaboration, Two Lovers: It is a clunky, lazy, generic thriller full of ridiculous plot twists and overly dramatized moments. Gray, blessed with access to some of the finest actors working today, totally fumbles the execution, and even the actors can't save the film. Not for lack of trying, either: Again, it's not as though Phoenix and his talented co-stars deliver sub-par performances. Rather, they are simply not given anything to work with, between the sloppy scriptwriting and heavy-handed directing. With a shamefully underdeveloped character, Phoenix has nothing to latch onto as a performer and ends up sleepwalking through the film.