I haven't seen any of his movies. Can anyone familiar with my tastes suggest a good starting point?
Villeneuve has very quickly become one of my favorite directors. For me it started with
Incendies. I saw it at a film festival just after it was nominated at the Oscars. That movie blew me away, and has continued to do so on subsequent viewings. I went back and watched his previous Canadian features, and they're good, but
Incendies seems next level, to me. After the international success of
Incendies he started making movies in the Lower 48 with recognizable movie stars.
Prisoners was his first, and while the story itself isn't anything especially revolutionary, his personal stamp of style and character infused into this thriller about abducted children is fantastic.
Enemy is frickin' great. Weird and twisted and really well done.
Sicario for me is similar to
Prisoners in that the story doesn't offer much of anything new, but Villeneuve's filmmaking prowess makes the pretty standard material very compelling.
Arrival is his first time working with a bigger budget and it is wonderfully smart and adult Sci-Fi that doesn't hit the same notes that have been played to death in that genre.
Villeneuve always gets great performances and his movies look great. I see why people are comparing him to Christopher Nolan, but for me David Fincher may be even more apt. I see some flattering parallels between their visual sensibilities, the kinds of genre material they are drawn to, and the dark stories they weave within and beyond those genres.
Denis Villeneuve is definitely on my must-see opening day and then probably go back for multiple viewings on the big screen list of filmmakers. I don't think he's made a misstep, yet. Excited to see how his career continues to develop.
If forced to rate his filmography thus far, I guess it would go...
1.
Incendies
2.
Enemy
3.
Arrival
4.
Prisoners
5.
Sicario
6.
Polytechnique
7.
Maelstrom
As for the hyperbole of the topic title, no, he isn't the "biggest director in Hollywood".
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