Todd Haynes is an American director whose career seemed to have hinged on just how much he could push the envelope in his films in his earlier days. Obviously it paid off since he’s kept going and his works have actually done something to earn attention and acclaim throughout the years. This is of course the aspiration of every director and whether people like what they’re selling or not, Haynes has managed to push past criticism and a smattering of controversy to show that he’s still here and still doing what he wants to do. It doesn’t matter that his content can sometimes be a little confrontational to some, it’s the fact that he’s trying to tell a story without really pushing an agenda of any sort.
Here are some of his top efforts thus far.
5. Wonderstruck
The journey’s we take are sometimes the most important part of our lives when it involves finding something, or someone, that we feel will complete us in some way. What we find might not be what we’re expecting but the truth of the matter is that we had no idea what we were looking for in the first place, as the ideal is not always the same as the reality.
4. Carol
You can’t always fight who you are, and in some instances the fight to deny those feelings is harder and more painful than the act of admitting them and possibly losing everything. Haynes’ films tend to have a very big lean towards secrecy and what it means to withhold something that could eventually come back to damage the individual keeping said secrets.
3. Far From Heaven
Finding out that the person you stood by and supported for so long isn’t the person you believed them to be is a tough and emotional hit that many people couldn’t possibly come back from without help. In this film a wife finds out that her husband is secretly a homosexual and it turns her life upside down understandably. Thankfully however there is someone willing to give her the attention she happens to need in her time of struggle.
2. Velvet Goldmine
The 70’s were a very strange time that a lot of people have tried to forget without much success. Back then the glam scene kind of dominated the music culture, and it was something extremely unique and sometimes difficult to fully understand. What Haynes was trying to do with this film was obviously show a different world that many people didn’t fully grasp about the culture, and he did it in a very interesting way.
1. I’m Not There
If you couldn’t already tell the main scope of this film is about Bob Dylan and the many different faces this iconic figure has shown throughout his long career. Dylan has been an absolute boon to the music culture but there have also been times when he and his works have been highly scrutinized and even vilified to some extent. He’s been an interesting artist throughout his life thus far and this film shows a good number of ways how this has happened.
Todd Haynes definitely makes a compelling film.
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