America is vastly overrated when it comes to cinema. Old Hollywood looks so good because of the substantial contributions from European emigres (Hitchcock, Lang, Sternberg, Wilder, Stroheim, Preminger, Lubitsch, Sirk, Murnau, Tourneur, Ophuls, Curtiz, Ulmer, Renoir, et al) who brought a European mentality and style with them. I don't deny there are some talented American-born-and-raised directors, but *per capita* America's yield is underwhelming. It's also amusing that some of the best American-born directors (Welles, Kubrick) relocated to Europe later in life because they found the U.S. inhospitable to their vision.
The Tree of Life is one of the worst critically acclaimed films of all time. So is It's A Beautiful Day.
Michael Mann's Thief is a mediocre film.
Zardoz is unironically a good film. If people could get past the image of James Bond in a red diaper, it'd be easier to appreciate it for the zany art house film it is. If you watch it back to back with a movie like The Holy Mountain, you can see what I mean.
Japanese cinema has the best overall balance between art and entertainment.
I have others, but I have to go eat now.
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