Almost every notable filmmaker has kicked off their career with an unforgettable debut movie. David Lynch established his uniquely surrealist style in Eraserhead, Quentin Tarantino made his name as the master of cinematic homage with Reservoir Dogs, and Lynne Ramsay introduced audiences to her harrowingly beautiful view of humanity in Ratcatcher.
The 2010s brought a bunch of memorable directorial debuts. From Jordan Peele to Greta Gerwig to Ana Lily Amirpour, a ton of acclaimed filmmakers started their careers with unforgettable movies over the course of the decade.
A Star Is Born (Bradley Cooper, 2018)
Bradley Cooper had been an A-list movie star for years before making his directorial debut with the latest remake of A Star is Born. It’s not easy to humanize celebrities, but as true-to-life superstars painfully familiar with the realities of fame, Cooper and Lady Gaga managed to make the leads of A Star is Born surprisingly relatable.
Tackling the story from the other side of the looking glass, Cooper doesn’t focus on his characters’ fame or the glitz of show business. Instead, he focuses on what’s really important: the tumultuous emotions of their relationship and the strain caused by Jack’s addiction.
This Is The End (Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, 2013)
After observing directors like Greg Mottola and David Gordon Green translating their scripts to the screen for years, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made their own directorial debut in 2013 with the apocalyptic comedy This is the End.
One of the funniest comedies in recent memory, This is the End tells the story of the Christian Apocalypse through the eyes of Rogen, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, et al as themselves partying in the Hollywood Hills. The post-apocalyptic antics exhibit Rogen and Goldberg’s signature pitch-black humor and the fact that the actors play themselves adds a self-aware angle. Visually, This is the End isn’t shot like a comedy; its gloomy lighting is straight out of a horror movie.
Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham, 2018)
It made sense that Bo Burnham, who started his career as a teenager shooting his own YouTube videos in his bedroom, would eventually cross over into filmmaking. When Burnham took a hiatus from performing live to make his directorial debut, he told a quintessentially modern coming-of-age story about the insecurities of teenagers growing up in the social media age.
Anchored by a revelatory performance by Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade is a poignant, authentic look at Generation Z’s struggles with sexuality, mental health, and self-awareness.
Son Of Saul (László Nemes, 2015)
László Nemes’ sobering directorial debut Son of Saul takes place in the Auschwitz concentration camp. It follows a day and a half in the life of a prisoner played by Géza Röhrig as he tries to arrange a proper burial for his son amidst the horrors of the Holocaust.
Most movies about the Holocaust, like Schindler’s List or The Pianist, set out to capture the enormity of the tragedy. But Nemes’ movie, focused on the everyday activities of a single prisoner, looks at the Holocaust from a much more relatable perspective. Nemes frames Saul intimately, following him through his daily routine in long takes and over-the-shoulder shots, which resonates much more deeply.
Booksmart (Olivia Wilde, 2019)
Olivia Wilde had been a renowned movie star for over a decade before proving she had just as much to offer behind the camera with her feature-length directorial debut, Superbad concept through a more inclusive lens, Booksmart takes place on the last day of high school and follows two overachievers’ night-long quest to make up for all the partying they missed out on.
The screenplay offers a string of hilarious gags, but keeps focused on the ups and downs of Amy and Molly’s friendship. The movie’s perfectly matched stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein share fully believable chemistry as lifelong best friends (making their scripted banter even funnier and their arguments all the more heartbreaking).
Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler, 2013)
Before successfully reinventing the the heart-wrenching real-life tragedy of Fruitvale Station. Michael B. Jordan, who has appeared in all of Coogler’s films since, stars as Oscar Grant, a young Black man who was killed by police officer Johannes Mehserle in 2009.
Rather than focusing on the actual shooting like all the headlines surrounding the incident, Coogler’s movie humanizes Grant himself by focusing on his warm personality and the most important relationships in his life.
Sorry To Bother You (Boots Riley, 2018)
After a decades-long career as a musician and communist activist, Boots Riley added the filmmaker feather to his cap with Sorry to Bother You, one of the most incisive and inventive anti-capitalist satires ever committed to film. Lakeith Stanfield stars as a Black telemarketer who works his way up the corporate ladder and uncovers a shocking truth at the top.
Audiences should go into this movie knowing as little as possible. It’s a wildly original, boundary-pushing comedy gem from the offset, but Riley takes the story to completely unexpected places along the way.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)
One of the most visionary horror films in recent memory, Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night was marketed as “the first Iranian vampire western.”
Being undead gives the titular “The Girl” a sense of freedom and agency she wouldn’t normally be afforded in the kind of lawless, crime-ridden setting where the film takes place. In this regard, Amirpour subverts women’s stereotypical role in horror cinema. The Girl doesn’t have to flee from monsters; she is the monster.
Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
When it was announced that sketch comedian Jordan Peele would be making his directorial debut with a horror movie, nobody anticipated that an Academy Award was on the horizon. By tackling the racial tensions in America through a genre lens, Get Out.
Drawing from Ira Levin classics like Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, Peele creates an overriding sense of paranoia as Black photographer Chris travels out to his white girlfriend’s parents’ gated community, where things don’t seem quite right.
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017)
Greta Gerwig had previously co-directed the mumblecore gem Nights and Weekends, but 2017’s Lady Bird marked her solo directorial debut. A deeply personal coming-of-age story, Lady Bird captures life as a teenager in Sacramento in 2002 in a series of beautifully naturalistic vignettes.
The movie is anchored by two powerhouse performances: Saoirse Ronan as Lady Bird, an outgoing yet awkward high schooler trying to reinvent herself, and a perfectly matched Laurie Metcalf as Marion, her temperamental but ultimately loving mother.
