Gordon recently asked if Bryan Singer, director of the Usual Suspects and X-Men, was the best director around at the moment. Although potentially rhetorical, I responded negatorially and was challenged by Gordon to name the ‘best’ of the ‘new breed’ of directors.

This poses two problems. Firstly, how do you define “new breed” and secondly, “best” is surely subjective, very much like beauty. The second is more of an issue for me because I can respect a director even though I’m not keen on his work (in just the same way that I can respect Picasso for being a fantastic artist but wouldn’t want any of his works hanging on my wall).

So what defines “new breed”? Well, I’m guessing that Gordon means directors who came to public knowledge in the 90’s, based on the fact that Singer’s first film - Public Access - was released in 1993. Since then, he’s only directed four more movies; The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, X-Men and X-Men 2. All five of Singer’s films have been good but none have been directorially outstanding. “What about the Usual Suspects?” I hear you cry. Well, granted it’s an outstanding film but what do you remember about it? Bryan Singer’s direction or Christopher McQuarrie’s (Oscar winning) story? But that makes it sound like I’m demeaning Singer’s ability to handle a complex screenplay without turning it into an incomprehensible mess. Which I’m not. He did a solid job in bringing the X-Men franchise to the screen and it’s this solidity that will hopefully make a success of the forthcoming Superman film he’s attached to.

What has been interesting in thinking about this new breed of directors is that several of them have been (or about to be become) attached to well known comic/superhero franchises. The next name on my list is Ang Lee. The word that comes to mind with his films are versatility. His first three films (the only one of which I know much about being “Eat Drink, Man Woman”) constituted a trilogy of ‘generational’ films about aspects of Taiwanese culture. He then moved away from his Taiwan upbringing and jumped into an entirely unexpected area with an acclaimed - and beautifully shot - version of Sense and Sensibility. Of course, his most renowned film is “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” - but how far removed is a tradtional Chinese martial arts film from a Jane Austen adaptation ? How about a Civil War western removed? In between those two films, Lee shot “Ride With The Devil” which is worth seeing (and I’d be remiss if I didn’t also recommend The Ice Storm too). Lee’s last film, of course, was Hulk - a film which divided critics and fans alike but everyone agreed that while the story may have been a little lacking, the direction was superb.

By sticking with superheroes, we come to Christopher Nolan who has just finished directing his fourth feature film, Batman Begins. Nolan’s first movie was the incredibly low budget film “Following” and on the strength of this movie (which more or less disappeared without a trace in the UK despite) he was given the budget to film Memento, one of the most talked about films in 2000. Love it or hate it, Memento showed an originality in both the direction and the screenplay which he wrote himself (adapted from his brother’s short story). He followed Memento with a remake of Insomnia. Although a little hit and miss, it was still one of the best films of 2002.

One director who is responsible for two of my all time favourite films is David Fincher. The films in question are Se7en and Fight Club and the success both films is mostly down to Fincher’s direction in making the absolute best out of two great screenplays. I’m also an advocate of Alien 3 which, although not a patch on the first two movies, has some great direction and some memorable scenes. The Game and Panic Room are guilty of being mediocre in comparison to his two masterpieces but they are by no means poor films.

The next two outstanding “new” directors would have to be the two Andersons and I don’t include Paul W.S. Anderson - the man behind Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat and Alien Vs Predator - in those. I’m actually referring to the two auteurs: Paul Thomas Anderson, director and writer of Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punchdrunk Love and Wes Anderson, director and writer of Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic. (This is where the definition of “new breed” is shown to be ambiguous as two other directors I can think of are Jim Jarmusch and Todd Solondz who are both older than the others mentioned here but the bulk of their work has been released since the 90’s.)

I should mention Guy Ritchie in order to try and build the UK side of this but I’d be better off puting forward Danny Boyle instead. As much as I enjoyed the originality of “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”, I found Snatch to be more of the same and who the hell had anything good to say about Swept Away? Ritchie might have vision but at the moment he seems to me to be little more than a one trick pony. Speaking of one trick ponies, M. Night Shyamalan has obviously found a formula and stuck to it. He can direct but I’m beginning to think that he needs to leave the writing (and, for that matter, the acting) to someone else. Danny Boyle, on the other hand, has had the balls to try different genres although none of his films have raised themselves out of mediocrity to the heady days of Trainspotting.

Have I missed anybody from this list? Without a doubt but this is a brief list of people who I think are some of the best of a new breed of directors. With virtually no exceptions, all of them are willing to take risks and try new things and bring a refreshingly new vision to the movie world. So what do you think?