25 Best Film Directors of the 21st Century (So Far)
Which directors have received the best reviews from professional critics since 2000? Find out below, where we rank this century's top filmmakers by their average Metascores.
To be included, a director must have four or more eligible films. Such films have seven or more reviews from professional critics and were first released (in any country) on or after January 1, 2000, and must have been released (including as a straight-to-Netflix streaming release) at some point in the USA. Multi-director anthology films are excluded, as are theatrical re-releases of older films. Averages were calculated using Metascores from July 12, 2017, and include films released through July 7, 2017.
#19
Richard Linklater
How's this for an achievement: Despite being one of the 21st century's most prolific filmmakers, Richard Linklater not only has the 19th-best average Metascore, but has not received anything other than a green (61+) score for any of his 12 films since 2000. (Going back to the 1990s, he has just one yellow score in his entire career to date.) He also achieved a rare perfect 100 score for 2014's Boyhood, which he spent over a decade filming.
In typical Linklater fashion, he has not one but two more features coming over the next year: the November dramedy Last Flag Flying (starring Bryan Cranston and Steve Carell and serving as a sequel to Hal Ashby's 1973 film The Last Detail), and 2018's Where'd You Go, Bernadette (an adaptation of Maria Semple's comic novel starring Cate Blanchett and Kristen Wiig).
| Films directed, 2000-2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| ▣ | Boyhood | 2014 |
| ▣ | Before Midnight | 2013 |
| ▣ | Before Sunset | 2004 |
| ▣ | Everybody Wants Some!! | 2016 |
| ▣ | Waking Life | 2001 |
| ▣ | The School of Rock | 2003 |
| ▣ | Bernie | 2011 |
| ▣ | A Scanner Darkly | 2006 |
| ▣ | Me and Orson Welles | 2008 |
| ▣ | Tape | 2001 |
| ▣ | Bad News Bears | 2005 |
| ▣ | Fast Food Nation | 2006 |