Film's One-Hit Wonders: 30 Directors With Only One Good Movie

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – April 15, 2018

Even the worst directors have one good film in them. Well, at least some of them do. In the gallery above, we've identified 30 filmmakers from the past four decades who have directed at least five features but have managed to receive positive reviews for just a single one of their films.

16 of 31

Harmony Korine

After beginning his career by writing the indie 1995 hit Kids when he was still a teenager, Korine embarked on a directorial career (among other endeavors), specializing in shocking (if not controversial) indie films that inevitably become minor cult hits. Only one of those films—Spring Breakers—managed to score with critics at the time of its release, however. Though six years old, that film remains his most recent work, though Korine does have a new Matthew McConaughey comedy, The Beach Bum, now in production.

The one good film:
63 Spring Breakers (2012)

Everything else:
19 Gummo (1997)
52 Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)
53 Mister Lonely (2007)
33 Trash Humpers (2009)

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