Better Director, Paul Thomas Anderson or Christopher Nolan?

[Street Knowledge]

PTA Notable Work
Boogie Nights
There Will be Blood
Punch Drunk Love
Hard Eight
Magnolia

Nolan Notable Work
Insomnia
Batman Begins
Inception
The Dark Knight
Following
Momento

 

[MartyMcFly]

 

[LastManStanding]

casual movie fans will prefer Nolan where as snobbish movie fans will prefer Anderson. both are good, but are like comparing apples to oranges.
critically they are both very similar, but financially there is no comparison. Nolan's movies consistently make money where as most of Anderson's movies flop.


Oscar Nominations/Wins:

PTA (6 nominations, 0 wins)
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (Inherent Vice 2014)
Best Motion Picture of the Year (There Will Be Blood 2007)
Best Achievement in Directing (There Will Be Blood 2007)
Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (There Will Be Blood 2007)
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Magnolia 1999)
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Boogie Nights 1997)

Nolan (3 nominations, 0 wins)
Best Motion Picture of the Year (Inception 2010)
Best Writing, Original Screenplay (Inception 2010)
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Memento 2000)




Box Office Numbers and Rotten Tomato Critic Scores for PTA

Hard Eight (1996)
budget: unknown
box office: 222k
RT score: 83%

Boogie Nights (1997)
budget: 15M
box office: 43M
RT score: 92%

Magnolia (1999)
budget: 37M
box office: 48M
RT score:84%

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)
budget: 25M
box office: 24M
RT score: 79%

There Will Be Blood (2007)
budget: 25M
box office: 76M
RT score:91%

The Master (2012)
budget: 32M
box office: 28M
RT score: 85%

Inherent Vice (2014)
budget: 20M
box office: 11M
RT score: 72%


Box Office Numbers and Rotten Tomato Critic Scores for Nolan

Following (1998)
budget: 6k
box office: 240k
RT score: 78%

Memento (2000)
budget: 9M
box office: 40M
RT score: 92%

Insomnia (2002)
budget: 46M
box office: 113M
RT score: 92%

Batman Begins (2005)
budget: 150M
box office: 374M
RT score: 85%

The Prestige (2006)
budget: 40M
box office: 109M
RT score: 76%

The Dark Knight (2008)
budget: 185M
box office: 1.004Billion
RT score: 94%

Inception (2010)
budget: 160M
box office: 825M
RT score: 86%

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
budget: 230M
box office: 1.084Billion
RT score: 88%

Interstellar (2014)
budget: 165M
box office: 672M
RT score: 72%

 

[icelandSpar]

Agree with the above. Christopher Nolan makes good, conventional, mass-market movies, but Anderson is a better director and artist. About this, there can be no debate. Nolan is susceptible to some incredibly corny tendencies as well.

 

[WhoShotCha]

Good question. I'ma gonna say PTA, I think he's the best director of this generation. But Nolan, Tarantino, and Fincher are right there.

Also I think Nolan's artistry is under-minded because his movies are commercially successful.

 

[Streetcar]

They're very different but PTA and it's not really close IMO.

 

[mtg]

Yea Nolan is fine but pta is already one of my all time favorites. He reminds me a lot of altman and his films seem to have a lot of replay value.

 

[obarth]

There Will Be Blood>>>any Nolan film(with Memento being closest), so PTA gets it

 

[Sensitive Blake Griffin]

this is tough... two very different directors

 

[TheGodling]

The ol' Spielberg/Scorsese comparison. One is great but makes movies mostly aimed for the masses, whereas the other is greater but makes less accessible stuff.

 

[obarth]

@FlyRy How do you feel about this thread, fam?

 

[Dominic Brehetto]

Agree with the above. Christopher Nolan makes good, conventional, mass-market movies, but Anderson is a better director and artist. About this, there can be no debate. Nolan is susceptible to some incredibly corny tendencies as well.

There is absolutely nothing conventional about memento.

 

[Bobhoward]

These guys are on completely different ends of the spectrum.

I think I enjoy Nolan's films more.

PTA is clearly the better artist.

Ive seen The Dark Knight about 10x more than I've seen There Will Be Blood and if you're giving me the choice to watch one of them now I'd probably go with TDK but at the end of the day I know There Will Be Blood is a better film.

I think Nolan's worst is better than PTA's worst.. . I'd say Insomnia, TDKR > The Master, Punch Drunk Love.

 

[wire28]

Nolan. Next question

Also I think Nolan's artistry is under-minded because his movies are commercially successful.

Yep

 

[Danie84]

The GAWD that made Boogie Nights and Magnolia