25 Misfires From Otherwise Great Film Directors

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor – April 22, 2018

Last week, we looked at 30 filmmakers who made only one well-reviewed movie over their entire careers. Today, we examine the opposite group: directors who have nearly flawless careers, with only a single misfire (with a Metascore of 60 or lower) standing in the way of a perfect record of all-green scores.

Note that we only looked at directors who have made at least five films since 1980.

9 of 26 photo by Second Order

Bruno Dumont

The one misfire:
43 Twentynine Palms (2003)

The French auteur, whose work (usually bleak, naturalistic or experimental dramas, but also one slapstick comedy) regularly screen at Cannes, certainly isn't for everyone. But no matter how controversial or divisive, his films usually win over a majority of critics. The one that didn't is Twentynine Palms, which follows a couple wandering the Southern California desert (sometimes sans clothes). Reviewers found it pretentious and boring, with an especially "ugly" ending.

Dumont's most recent feature, Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc, just opened in limited release in the United States.

Everything else:
74 The Life of Jesus (1997)
77 Humanité (1999)
67 Flanders (2006)
83 Hadewijch (2009)
63 Hors Satan (Outside Satan) (2011)
65 Camille Claudel 1915 (2013)
79 Li'l Quinquin (2014) *
66 Slack Bay (2016)
62 Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (2018)

* Aired as a TV miniseries in France but was screened theatrically in the United States

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