Donnie Darkos Richard Kelly & 9 Other One Hit Wonder Directors

Donnie Darko’s Richard Kelly & 9 Other One Hit Wonder Directors

Donnie Darko’s Richard Kelly may not have had another hit but they’ve still gone down in movie history alongside these other one-hit-wonder directors.

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Films like Donnie Darko, The Deer Hunter, and American History X have been iconic in their respective genres. To date, these films are held in high regard by film buffs. But the one common element between these three examples is a one-hit-wonder of a director. Hollywood is filled with cases when a director wows audiences and critics with one film but fails to match expectations with future releases.

In other cases, the directors themselves hardly make films and are content with the legacy of their one memorable debut. While it definitely evokes some sympathy, one can still cherish that one particular magnum opus left behind by a one-hit-wonder.

10 Richard Kelly – Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly’s debut feature was an ambitious thriller bolstered by a memorable performance by Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead. The film’s premise is intricately detailed and open to multiple interpretations drawing a largely favorable consensus in Kelly’s favor. If this wasn’t enough, a Director’s Cut was also released to similar acclaim.

The rest of his work however pales in comparison inciting minuscule attention. It’s only unfortunate that a young director who won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance helmed The Box, and Southland Tales, two forgotten critical and box-office disappointments. This year, Kelly announced plans for a Rod Serling biopic and a Donnie Darko sequel although the fate of these projects again seems uncertain.

9 Michael Cimino – The Deer Hunter

Michael Cimino had already directed Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, a well-received but forgotten heist film starring Clint Eastwood. His magnum opus was of course The Deer Hunter, a gripping tale on the trauma of the Vietnam War. The film won Best Picture at the Oscars while Cimino took home the trophy for Best Director. Considering the film’s legacy and having worked with Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken, Cimino seemed to be fated for success.

Instead, his next film Heaven’s Gate developed a reputation as one of the worst films ever made and won a Razzie for Worst Director. His career has gone downhill ever since with one failure after the other until his retirement in 1996.

8 Daniel Myrick And Eduardo Sánchez – The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project might not have introduced the found-footage style of filmmaking but it definitely revolutionized the genre. Found-footage horror found a mainstream presence after this 1999 hit, as can be seen from Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, REC, and many others.

Despite bringing about a horror revolution and gaining widespread praise, co-directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez couldn’t replicate their success. Their solo work fell under the horror genre only and was met with mixed responses in general. Films aside, Sánchez has had a somewhat better run on TV directing episodes for Lucifer and Supernatural.

7 Kimberly Pierce – Boys Don’t Cry

Hillary Swank won her first acting Oscar for Boys Don’t Cry, the debut feature by Kimberly Pierce. The filmmaker does bear influence today as the governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences but as for her filmography, her subsequent efforts yielded mixed results.

Since then, she directed Stop-Loss and Carrie. The former was a drama that dealt with the psychological stress on soldiers serving in Iraq. Despite mixed to positive reactions, it bombed at the box office. As for her remake of Carrie, reactions were largely unfavorable and audiences still seem to prefer the Brian DePalma original.

6 Tony Kaye- American History X

The gut-wrenching socio-political drama American History X dealt with a neo-Nazi and his eventual redemption. Somehow, just before its release, director Tony Kaye wished to disown the film citing creative disagreements with the producers. As he told The Guardian, “I had tried to get my name taken off it, and replaced with various pseudonyms. One was “Humpty Dumpty’.”

Much to his dismay, the film was released and generated highly positive reviews. More than a decade later, he directed Lake of Fire, a documentary on abortion followed by a slew of lesser-known features. In fact, his third film Black Water Transit was never released publically owing to legal tussles and a bankrupt production company.

5 James McTeigue – V For Vendetta

James McTeigue is most well-known for his dystopian vigilante drama V For Vendetta. The film’s social commentary and the Guy Fawkes mask-wearing protagonist V still hold their iconic status in the present day. The rest of McTeigue’s work was disappointingly bland and formulaic.

Ninja Assassin and Survivor would easily fall within the pantheon of conventional action flicks. Both were critical disappointments and underperformed financially. With The Raven, one could see some stylistic mystery but eventually, even this film suffered the same fate. His last feature Breaking In earned at the box office but yet again, the positive reactions were in favor of leading lady Gabrielle Union while McTeigue’s direction suffered flak yet again.

4 Charles Laughton- The Night Of The Hunter

An accomplished British stage and film actor, Charles Laughton took to directing once for the pathbreaking thriller The Night of the Hunter. Arguably ahead of its times, the film went unrecognized and was termed as a flop. Haughton never made a film again till his death.

The film that mostly deals with a murderous patriarch of a family relied on exciting visual techniques to convey the horror around the central character. Rather than commercial scares of the 40s and the 50s, Haughton was willing to go further in the past with his filmmaking approach borrowing from German Expressionist techniques. Today, his sole directorial feature is hailed as a cult classic.

3 Billy Bob Thornton- Sling Blade

Billy Bob Thornton is reputed as an actor but his streak of successful roles was preceded by his Oscar-nominated performance in Sling Blade. Thornton also wrote and directed the 1996 human drama, even winning an Oscar for Adapted Screenplay. The film revolves around a man with an intellectual disability who had killed his mother as a child. As he grows up, he attempts to rebuild his life beyond the trauma.

From then on, his acting career was pretty much set but his future directorial efforts could never match the quality of Sling Blade. Only Daddy and Them gained positive reviews (although with heavily limited distribution) while his other films faced mixed to negative reactions.

2 Mathieu Kassovitz – La Haine

La Haine documents a day in the life of three French youths who wander across Paris in the wake of an anti-police riot. The film continues to be one of France’s most popular cinematic exports but director Mathieu Kassovitz had a mixed track record since then.

Having won Best Director at Cannes, hopes were high for his future films, some of which had a decent run in his native country but failed to make a mark abroad. And when Kassovitz extended his reach towards Hollywood, he, unfortunately, helmed professional misfires like Gothika and Babylon AD.

1 Tommy Wiseau- The Room

While Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 classic The Room wouldn’t exactly qualify as a “hit”, it can’t be denied that the erotic drama-comedy has garnered a cult fanbase over the years. Wiseau wrote, directed, produced, and starred as the tragicomic hero of The Room, the film that’s considered to be “so bad that it’s good”.

Unfortunately, his other directorial efforts turned out to be plain bad and hardly gained any form of recognition. A year after The Room, the “disaster artist” directed a short documentary called Homeless in America. This bizarre social experiment was then followed by the 2015 Hulu sitcom The Neighbors which created, wrote, and directed. Despite the notoriously bad reviews, Wiseau was still to submit a few episodes to the Emmys!

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/best-one-hit-wonder-movie-directors-richard-kelly-donnie-darko/

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