We Read To Know We're Not Alone: Three flawed directors who still make me love film

(Note: these directors and movies are not films I qualify as the best of all time. They are films that, at three in the morning, make me joyful that film was invented so that such beauty could come into the world, fallen though it is)

Brad Bird: his visual sensibilities (found in his character and production design), commitment to quality both in technical (the textures, details, and smoothness of his animation), writing (the sheer intelligence and connectedness of his scripts, no matter how zany or improbable his concepts), and powerful characterizations in The Iron Giant, Ratatouille, and above all, The Incredibles.

M. Night Shyamalan: I believe his scriptwriting developed uphill until Signs, then started a rapid downward turn which steepens every movie afterwards (we'll see about Last Airbender). However, in The Village, despite the horrifyingly grating writing and screechingly artificial direction (especially of poor William Hurt, who I hated for years after I saw the film until I finally saw him in things he was natural in, such as Dark City or Jane Eyre), there are two things in this gaspingly flawed movie that yet make me love film: Ivy's character and love for Lucius (due mostly to the incredible Bryce Dallas Howard), and the framing, colors, textures (oh, the textures - I feel the images as much as see them) of the cinematography.

Joe Wright: his direction and conceptions of his characters are profoundly immature; his interviews and personal behavior careening from loutish to priggishly arrogant. His films also are deteriorating (The Soloist and Atonement were interesting, but mostly in their failures, I believe). However, his ability to capture beauty, isolation, clarity, and incredibly powerful extended takes stays with my heart when I think of why I care about the medium so deeply.