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Woody Allen – I never got his neurosis-as-performance schtick. His insecurity isn't funny or charming to me. Even if he's NOT in the movie, there's a character that's always a Woody-stand-in. His characters never grow, never learn…everyone else around him changes. The women in his films are fantasies for insecure males and there are zero stakes.
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Terence Malick – IMHO, he loves his camera more than his characters (outside of Badlands which I enjoy). For him, the camera is the character….which doesn't give me any reason to care about characters. So while his films are visually-stunning, they're emotionally empty to me.
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Lars von Trier – Watching a von Trier movie is more of an exercise in endurance as to how much suffering I can withstand over the next 2 hours. And he has a particular style that I find not only annoying but takes me out of the movie. Here they are: a. He removes agency from his characters, b. He engineers the world as hostile to his protagonist, c. There's no counterweight to any trauma, d. He relies on performers to give the appearance of humanity. Von Trier fans like to pass him off as if his suffering is making some sort of profound statement. They're not. It's suffering for the sake of suffering.
What are some famous and respected directors that you don’t like and why?
I was debating about this topic with a cinephile friend…and it came back to favorite directors and then what directors I don't like. Naturally, I thought I'd come to reddit and see what others popped up and how many people will disagree with these 3 directors I don't like.
