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Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

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Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Old 10-06-12, 10:35 AM
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Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

We all know about guys like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith and Paul Thomas Anderson but there must have been quite a few who never made it. Can you name anyone who made a decent small budget film(s) in that era who never took off?
Old 10-06-12, 10:44 AM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Allison Anders
The directors of Can't Hardly Wait
Old 10-06-12, 10:44 AM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Tom Dicillo. He did Living in Oblivion with Steve Buscemi, which sort of mocks his experience with Brad Pitt when he directed him a few years earlier in Johnny Suede. Hysterical comedy. He had few other followups, but never really made it in commercial films.
Old 10-06-12, 11:21 AM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Vincent Gallo. Buffalo '66 was a great film and he's been sidelined ever since. Except for Chloe Sevigny blowing his massive ween in Brown Bunny, he's pretty much a footnote now...
Old 10-06-12, 11:48 AM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

I thought George Huang might have a career after Swimming With Sharks. He didn't.
Old 10-06-12, 12:10 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Gregg Araki directed The Doom Generation in 1995 (featuring one of Rose McGowan's first roles). I didn't care for the movie, but it did get some attention. He's still directing a movie every few years--including 2004's Mysterious Skin with Joseph Gordon Levitt, which I thought was fantastic--but he's never had commercial success.
Old 10-06-12, 12:33 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Roger Avary seems pretty obvious.

Also, Eric Schaeffer seemed like a promising up and comer who never really did anything commercial.
Old 10-06-12, 12:34 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Nick Gomez was one that I really wanted to see more from. Directed Laws of Gravity and New Jersey Drive (The latter is still a badass flick to me) Too lazy to imdb him at the moment, but the last thing I saw him do was an OZ episode.

I also thought Darnell Martin (I Like it like that) would have a promising career, but disappeared. Ironically, I think she directed OZ's first episode.
Old 10-06-12, 12:55 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Noah Baumbach
Whit Stillman
Abel Ferrera (i think his Invasion of the Body Snatchers had a big budget?)
Old 10-06-12, 01:36 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Noah Baumbach? You must be kidding he just hasn't done a commercial movie yet in the way Wes Anderson really hasn't either.
Old 10-06-12, 03:07 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Originally Posted by TheySentYou
Whit Stillman
He had a movie come out this year.

James Merendino (SLC Punk) has a new movie called Vampire Summer Camp, which says everything you need to know.

Boaz Yakin has not written anything as good as Fresh again.
Old 10-06-12, 03:36 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Originally Posted by The Bus
He had a movie come out this year.

James Merendino (SLC Punk) has a new movie called Vampire Summer Camp, which says everything you need to know.

Boaz Yakin has not written anything as good as Fresh again.
I'd say Boaz Yakin did find commercial success since he just wrote and directed 'Safe.' I guess the topic is directors who didn't graduate to big pictures?

He also wrote some of the Prince of Persia picture.
Old 10-06-12, 03:38 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

I'm not sure if he counts, but after Dead Man Walking, I thought Tim Robbins would go on to a successful directing career. His next film, Cradle Will Rock, looks like it lost quite a bit of money (it grossed less than $3 million but had a $32 million budget), and he hasn't done a theatrical film since.
Old 10-06-12, 03:47 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

The guys who directed The Blair Witch Project. One hit wonders.
Old 10-06-12, 04:15 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Allison Anders.

'Gad, Food, Lodging' was an influential film early on in the indie movement, won some awards and was at a few festivals. She made a few more small films and went off into TV work.
Old 10-06-12, 04:44 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Hal Hartley, loved Trust and Amateur. I always hoped he'd break through into the mainstream.
Old 10-06-12, 06:43 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Originally Posted by godzilla rules
The directors of Can't Hardly Wait
Josie and the Pussycats was not a successful career move despite being a "studio picture." It's actually a guilty pleasure of mine as the flick is a lot of fun, but that might've killed their shot at getting another studio gig again.

Then they certified their career deaths by writing Surviving Christmas.

Originally Posted by Defiant1
The guys who directed The Blair Witch Project. One hit wonders.
They fucked up by wanting to do a romantic comedy instead. I would've ridden that cash train The Blair Witch Project (would've) provided right into the ground.

Originally Posted by PenguinJoe
Roger Avary seems pretty obvious.
Kind of hard to make movies when you're in prison for killing a man!
Old 10-06-12, 07:02 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Originally Posted by Matthew Chmiel
Josie and the Pussycats was not a successful career move despite being a "studio picture." It's actually a guilty pleasure of mine as the flick is a lot of fun, but that might've killed their shot at getting another studio gig again.

Then they certified their career deaths by writing Surviving Christmas.


They fucked up by wanting to do a romantic comedy instead. I would've ridden that cash train The Blair Witch Project (would've) provided right into the ground.


Kind of hard to make movies when you're in prison for killing a man!


Avary wrote and directed:

Killing Zoe
Mr. Stitch
The Rules of Attraction


years before that accident. He never blew up into commercial films. In fact, Rules is about as commercial as he ever got.
Old 10-06-12, 08:04 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Didn't Avery write that Beowulf movie with Gaiman?
Old 10-06-12, 08:55 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

He also wrote (co-wrote?) Silent Hill.
Old 10-06-12, 08:59 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Originally Posted by The Bus
Boaz Yakin has not written anything as good as Fresh again.
I thought this was good

Old 10-06-12, 09:05 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Yeah, Avary didn't make it as a successful commercial director, but he wrote a lot of screenplays and was one of the most successful script doctors around until the accident.
Old 10-06-12, 09:09 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

Originally Posted by Tabletopjoe
Hal Hartley, loved Trust and Amateur. I always hoped he'd break through into the mainstream.
LOVE Hartley's films so much. Random thoughts:

Amateur has such a fucking fantastic comic performance from Isabelle Huppert. It's brilliant.

The Girl from Monday is the only Hartley film I'm sour on; everything else is ace.

The scene in Simple Men where the cast dances to Sonic Youth's "Kool Thing" makes me giddy.

<object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kqUSTpL8RHo?version=3&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kqUSTpL8RHo?version=3&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Adrienne Shelly's directorial debut Sudden Manhattan is great watch, very Hartley-esque but a little flightier.

I wish he'd make one more movie starring his regulars (Parker Posey, Martin Donovan, Elina Lowensohn, Robert John Burke, James Urbaniak, Bill Sage, etc) just to satisfy my 90s nostalgia.
Old 10-06-12, 09:26 PM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

I do have to name someone the OP left out as being indie, then successful:

Danny Boyle
Old 10-07-12, 01:27 AM
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Re: Directors from the 90's "indie" generation that didn't find commercial success?

You know technically Kevin Smith never became a commercially successful director considering he's never directed a movie thats made more than fifty million dollars at the BO.

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