A Star Is Born 10 Best Actor Directorial Debuts Ranked According to IMDb

A Star Is Born: 10 Best Actor Directorial Debuts, Ranked According to IMDb

In light of Bradley Cooper’s debut with A Star is Born, some directing debuts from actors have been hugely successful, others much less so.

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A common feature of the entertainment world today is the arrival of the multi-hyphenate star. Celebrities who are just as comfortable behind the camera as they are in front; or releasing an album the same week their new TV show launches. However, this is really nothing new.

In the 1930s Orson Welles burst on the scene as a writer/director and star of his own movies and within a few years of his career he made Citizen Kane. For as long as there have been movie stars, there have been movies directed by movie stars. Some directing debuts from actors have been hugely successful, others much less so.

10 Dennis Hopper: Easy Rider (1969) – 7.3

Dennis Hopper’s directorial debut has long been seen as a counter-cultural classic, and as a movie that defined a generation. Released in the summer that became synonymous with the death of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Easy Rider is the story of two bikers on a road trip across the U.S. Hopper shot the film using a loose, improvised and (for the time) a highly unconventional style with less focus on narrative and more on emotion and style. A technique that became hugely popular later, in the 1970s.

9 Liev Schrieber: Everything Is Illuminated (2005) – 7.4

Liev Schrieber’s directorial debut is seriously impressive in its balancing of emotion and comedy, given the film’s subject matter. Elijah Wood plays Johnathan Safran Foer, in this semi-autobiographical film of a Jewish American man traveling to Ukraine to locate the woman who saved his grandfather during the Holocaust. On the way, he meets bigotry and excentricity, to upsetting and hilarious effect respectively. Schrieber hasn’t made another film since, but with this, he demonstrates a skill and sensitivity many fulltime directors strive for.

8 Jonah Hill: Mid90s (2018) – 7.4

Jonah Hill’s debut surprised more than a few critics with its tenderness and authenticity. A coming of age story, it follows 13-year-old Stevie who lives in LA and falls in with a group of skaters. It’s impressive as a debut, not least because Hill focussed on a smaller character-driven story rather than going for spectacle.

The movie itself is simple, but powerful, with a great central performance that gives a heartfelt philosophy about going your own way in life. Probably not what people expected from the star of so many gross-out comedies.

7 Kenneth Branagh: Henry V (1989) – 7.5

Kenneth Branagh’s debut was a critical success, earning him Oscar nominations for both his performance and his directing. An adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, the film revolves around a tumultuous battle in English history. Branagh was praised for remaining true to the material and also finding a way to make it cinematically entertaining. His ability to balance multiple plot threads and characters, and action and warfare, is exactly why he’s touted for MCU and other Disney projects.

6 Bradley Cooper: A Star is Born (2018) – 7.7

Few directing debuts have hit quite as big as Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born. A commercial and critical success, earning a multitude of nominations and a win for Lady Gaga’s song ‘Shallow’. Impressive, not least for a debut but because this is (at least) the third time this movie has been remade. Cooper breathed new life into the film, not just by updating it to the modern era, but by directing the film with authenticity and an emotional realism that the story needed. Making it simultaneously inspiring and heartbreaking.

5 Jordan Peele: Get Out (2017) – 7.7

In just a few short years Get Out has become a modern horror classic and established Jordan Peele as one of the most interesting new voices in the industry. Having established as a highly-skilled comic performer and writer it was fascinating to see him shift into a very different genre.

Of course there are moments of levity in Get Out, but they act as moments of relief from everything else going on. His Academy Award for screenwriting, hopefully, proves that the horror genre can be as effective as any other for delivering informative social commentary.

4 Robert De Niro: A Bronx Tale (1993) – 7.8

Robert De Nero is best known as one of the greatest living actors, but he also deserves praise for his excellent debut. Based on a play (and co-starring) Chazz Palminteri, the film is a coming of age story about a young Italian-American boy who finds himself caught between two battling father figures. One who wants him to keep his head down and work hard, the other a local gangster who shows him the benefits of life as a goodfella. At times tense, and at times funny; the film has endured the test of time for its Shakespearean level of drama brought down to street level.

3 Kevin Costner: Dances With Wolves (1990) – 8.0

Kevin Costner was at the height of his fame, having established himself in the ’80s as the All-American hero, when he made Dances With Wolves to huge success. Costner (and the movie) won multiple awards for the story of a Civil War Captain who befriends and fights for a tribe of Native Americans.

While the film has more recently been revalued as a slightly problematic white-savior film, it still remains epic in its scope. At three hours long nearly every shot of this film is filled with natural beauty.

2 Billy Bob Thornton: Sling Blade (1996) – 8.0

Billy Bob Thornton has now made a number of films as director but his debut still stands above the rest. Adapted from his own play, the film was a clear passion project for Thornton, who also stars. It tells the story of Karl Childers, a handicapped man who is released from hospital after his childhood killing of his mother. By no means, an easy film to watch it does, however, have a fantastic performance from Thornton and a thought-provoking story about innocence and childhood.

1 Charles Laughton: The Night of the Hunter (1955) – 8.0

Not just a fantastic debut but one of the greatest films ever made. Charles Laughton, who had made his name as a leading man in Hollywood, then made one of the darkest films of the era. In an iconic performance from a highly menacing Robert Mitchum, a corrupted minister threatens and bullies a widow into revealing a hidden cache of money. Full of suspense that is still effective to this day, the film is a stunning example of the powers of film noir and was almost unique at the time of its release.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-actor-directorial-debuts-imdb-ranked-star-born-bradley-cooper-robert-de-niro-jonah-hill/

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