The Art House Powerhouse 100

[ACTORS] [DIRECTORS]

Every year, magazines and other media outlets release their critics’ picks. In 2007, Paste spotlighted films ranging from indie darling Juno to legal thriller Michael Clayton to smart-but-broad comedy Superbad to the commercially overlooked Syndromes and a Century.

Another annual tradition at many media outlets is the Power List. Apparently, there are a lot of people out there dying to know know how Paramount stacked up against Disney, how Tom Cruise drew versus The Rock, how Michael Bay’s films grossed versus Jerry Bruckheimer’s. People who aren’t us.

But two years ago, we did ask a related set of questions: Who are the power players in the world of quality cinema? What individuals and organizations make intelligent, well-crafted movies and have the profile, financial resources and/or critical esteem to attract discerning audiences? In short, we looked for those at the intersection of art and commerce who make independent film the viable and sustainable industry that we’ve come to enjoy.

In 2007, Viggo Mortensen and David Cronenberg re-teamed for yet another powerhouse of a film. Martin Scorsese finally won the validation of a golden statue he’s been earning repeatedly for decades. Joe Swanberg helped popularize the new “mumblecore” genre. And Paramount Vantage proved that late bloomers can finish strong.

We once again celebrate these and many others in this, our 3rd Annual Art House Powerhouse 100.—Tim Regan-Porter

[Above: Viggo Mortensen]

Art House Powerhouse Key:
RH: recent highlights
U: upcoming
S: screenplay

ACTORS

Viggo Mortensen
{ RH: Eastern Promises, A History of Violence U: Good, Appaloosa } During a pivotal nude fight scene in Eastern Promises, Mortensen (playing a calculating Russian mobster) literally goes “balls to the wall,” matching his cerebral intensity to a sheer physicality that would do Jackie Chan proud. Mortensen’s body-and-soul of commitment to his roles makes him the closest thing American cinema has to a warrior poet. And you know what? He actually is a poet.

Laura Linney
{ RH: The Savages, Breach, The Nanny Diaries, The Hottest State U: City of Your Final Destination } Linney moves with ease between commercial and independent work, and slips effortlessly into myriad characters, so it’s no surprise that she treats her distracted playwright in The Savages with such compassion and humor. As she continues to garner praise in diverse roles, including a much-anticipated upcoming stint on Broadway, she’ll likely continue to show up on this list.

Forest Whitaker
{ RH: The Last King of Scotland, The Great Debaters, American Gun, The Air I Breathe, Ripple Effect U: The Night Watchman, Powder Blue, Vantage Point, Where The Wild Things Are, Winged Creatures } Underappreciated for years, Whitaker finally made everyone take notice with his commanding performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, and he continues to inspire awe with films such as The Air I Breathe. With at least five films on the horizon, this year will find the A-list actor as busy as ever.

Philip Seymour Hoffman
{ RH: Charlie Wilson’s War, The Savages, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead U: Synecdoche, New York; Doubt } The hits just keep on coming for the talented Mr. Hoffman. Any one of his three most recent performances deserves Oscar consideration. Good fortune continues as he stars in the upcoming Synecdoche, New York, the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Naomi Watts
{ RH: Eastern Promises, Inland Empire, The Painted Veil U: Funny Games, The International } Radiant and fragile, Watts can be a revelation when the camera scans her nervous system—as it did in Mulholland Dr. and 21 Grams. Too often, she’s subsidiary (Eastern Promises, King Kong), but new thrillers from Michael Haneke and Tom Tykwer promise to put her front-and-center, where she belongs.

Cate Blanchett
{ RH: I’m Not There, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Notes on a Scandal, Babel U: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button } Like Meryl Streep, this Australian actress may be the best of her generation. All the auteurs love her: Scorsese, Anderson, Iñárritu and now Spielberg. Her performance as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There was not so much impersonation as repossession. Be afraid, Indiana Jones, be very afraid.

Evan Rachel Wood
{ RH: King of California, Across the Universe, In Bloom, Running With Scissors U: Brontë } Vulnerability becomes the young Wood, who made a splash as the delinquent daughter in Thirteen, and has found herself in a subsequent string of thoughtful, offbeat projects. She has the style of a 1930s starlet, but shines brightest when she grubs it (as in King of California). Next stop? Likely Broadway, where Julie Taymor’s Spider-Man musical looms.

Natalie Portman
{ RH: Hotel Chevalier/The Darjeeling Limited; Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium; Paris, Je T’aime U: My Blueberry Nights, The Other Boleyn Girl } The buoyant former child star defies convention: She’s an even better performer now that she’s come of age—a Jodie Foster, not a Lindsay Lohan. Not that there ever was much doubt. Portman is fiercely intelligent and unafraid to take risks (stripping in Closer, rapping on SNL), which makes her a natural for directors as varied as Wong Kar-Wai and Wes Anderson.

Don Cheadle
{ RH: Talk to Me, Ocean’s Thirteen, Reign Over Me U: Hotel for Dogs, Toussaint } Everyone’s known for years that Cheadle would someday make a fine leading man, but it’s only now—after Hotel Rwanda and Talk to Me, the latter of which he played a silver-tongued ex-con who becomes a beloved D.C. radio host—that he has been granted the opportunity to prove everyone right. And he has taken full advantage, delivering powerful performances in the clutch.

Charlotte Gainsbourg
{ RH: I’m Not There, The Science of Sleep, The Golden DoorU: City of Your Final Destination } Hauntingly fetching as a romantic lead, Gainsbourg has Bohemian passion in her blood. Mom is actress Jane Birkin, and Dad was 1960s legend and enduring hipster icon Serge Gainsbourg. An art-house regular since her teens, the actress has been increasingly working sans subtitles, and as one of the only stars of I’m Not There who didn’t play Bob Dylan, her sad-eyed lady lent a much-needed emotional resonance.

Juliette Binoche
{ RH: Dan in Real Life, Breaking and Entering, Paris je t’aime U: Flight of the Red Balloon } Versatility often means blandness, but not with a jack-of-all-trades like Binoche. She gets better every year, shining anywhere she’s given space—whether it’s a romantic comedy with Steve Carell or a slice of life by Taiwanese minimalist Hou Hsiao-Hsien.

Daniel Day-Lewis
{ RH: There Will Be Blood } Since his Oscar-winning role in 1989’s My Left Foot, Day-Lewis has averaged two years between movies, but his searing portrayals burn bright enough to linger through the gaps. He blinds us once again in PT Anderson’s latest, drilling into the oily depths of a character as large and complex as Charles Foster Kane.

Josh Brolin
{ RH: No Country for Old Men, American Gangster, Grindhouse } Brolin had a banner year in 2007, including a couple of villainous roles—a corrupt cop and a sinister zombie-treating doctor. But it’s his hardboiled, tenacious cowboy in No Country for Old Men that should firmly plant him on the cinematic map; he absorbs even the tiniest mannerisms of his characters, turning in finely nuanced performances.

Christian Bale
{ RH: 3:10 to Yuma, I’m Not There, Rescue Dawn U: The Dark Knight, Killing Pablo } Bale has the cocksure drive of a commando, and a face that conveys his characters’ psychic twitches with a live-wire spark. He’s a little like Tom Cruise, without the forced smile, and a lot like Robert DeNiro in his Taxi Driver prime. He made Batman seem human, and revealed yuppie scum as the serial killers we always knew they were. So what if he seems a little psycho? He’s our psycho!

Cillian Murphy
{ RH: Sunshine, The Wind That Shakes the Barley U: The Dark Knight, The Edge of Love } Murphy is just a shade too unusual to make a standard leading man, so the roles he takes tend to emphasize his lackadaisical charm. Thrust into unbearably intense situations—dying suns or countries emerging from the womb—Murphy hangs back, letting others panic as he stays preternaturally, mesmerizingly calm.

Parker Posey
{ RH: Fay Grim, Broken English U: The Eye, Spring Breakdown } After two decades as “queen of the indies,” this screwballsy actress has finally grown up. Though she still takes sidekick roles for the Hollywood payday, smart directors are beginning to write movies specifically for her, and the wonderfully heartfelt, complicated women she embodies.

Jason Schwartzman
{ RH: The Darjeeling Limited, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story U: The Marc Pease Experience } As Max Fischer he was ambitious and organized, but even Rushmore’s fans never expected Schwartzman would build on his deadpan, cerebral, hipster-geek image to become one of independent film’s most interesting leading men.

Jack Black
{ RH: Margot at the Wedding, Be Kind Rewind U: Tropic Thunder, Ye Olde Times, Year One } Black showed a previously unseen emotional side in Noah Baumbach’s Margot, flailing and weeping his way through the film’s depiction of a train-wreck wedding weekend. That he did so without tossing aside his comic chops is a reflection of Black’s own triple-threat status—music, comedy and now drama.

Jake Gyllenhaal
{ RH: Zodiac, Rendition U: Brothers } Filmmakers look to Gyllenhaal—who is younger than most of his Powerhouse peers—to bring a fresh outlook to institutions like big-city newsrooms and the CIA, where his inquisitive nature is often the conscience of the film. He’s a fitting choice for the Hollywood remake of Susanne Bier’s home-front drama, Brothers.

Ryan Gosling
{ RH: Lars and the Real Girl, Fracture } Gosling’s naturalistic downward spiral was the focal point of the multi-layered Half Nelson, and he’s been a must-watch actor ever since. His usually astute film choices seemed in question when he decided to take the role of a man with an inflatable girlfriend, but he brought a touching humanity even to hapless Lars.

Nicole Kidman
{ RH: Margot at the Wedding, The Golden Compass U: Australia } While she continues bombing with her commercial film projects, Kidman’s ferocious performance as neurotic writer Margot Zeller proves there’s still an actress beneath that increasingly immobile face of hers. Piece of advice, Nicole—keep a low profile, stick with the indies, and you’ll do just fine.

Javier Bardem
{ RH: No Country for Old Men, Love in the Time of Cholera, Goya’s Ghost U: Vicki Cristina Barcelona, Killing Pablo } With his critically acclaimed role in Before Night Falls, Javier Bardem became the first Spaniard to be honored with an Oscar nomination. He’s got plenty of reasons to smile, but he managed a chillingly inscrutable demeanor as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men—a masterful, haunting performance—leaving audiences bristling and awe-struck.

Johnny Depp
{ RH: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End U: Shantaram, Sin City 2, Public Enemies } We know, we know. There’s something mildly ludicrous about including Johnny Depp on a list of the most influential art-house talents. After all, this is the guy who carried the Pirates of the Caribbean movies to some of the biggest commercial box-office numbers in history. But if you look at the roles he takes—especially in Tim Burton’s pictures—this is someone who’s always loved playing the deeply compelling weirdo, box-office tallies be damned.

[Above: David Cronenberg]

Art House Powerhouse Key:
RH: recent highlights
U: upcoming
S: screenplay

DIRECTORS

Joel & Ethan Coen { RH: No Country for Old Men U: Burn After Reading } The Coens put their experience and sensibility to work in No Country for Old Men, producing their finest work and one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2007. With their darkly humorous, distinct style, they deftly straddle the cinematic divide, creating art house films with widespread audience appeal.

Martin Scorsese { RH: The Departed, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan U: Shine A Light, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt } Call him Little Big Man. Scorsese continues to make indie-style films on a blockbuster scale. Last year’s Oscar winner (The Departed) is set to release his Rolling Stones’ concert epic Shine A Light while working on a Teddy Roosevelt bio starring his perennial leading man Leonardo DiCaprio. And he’s still found time to produce The Young Victoria, about the Queen of England and her romance with Prince Albert.

Jason Reitman { RH: Juno, Thank You For Smoking } While Thank You for Smoking and Reitman’s shorts—like Consent—were funnier than they were sweet, they were smart enough that we suspected he had a tender side. Now, with Juno, he’s proven that you can be laugh-out-loud funny and still respect your characters.

Paul Thomas Anderson { RH: There Will Be Blood } Anderson’s latest flees the modern southern California settings of his best works (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) for the early-20th-century oil rush and taps a real gusher. An enthralling exploration of American greed and madness, Blood is all the more surprising for how stately and conventional it turns out to be.

Wes Anderson { RH: The Darjeeling Limited U: The Fantastic Mr. Fox} Scenes in slow-motion set to Kinks songs, overwhelmingly quirky production design, dramatic family rivalries—Wes Anderson just can’t seem to escape himself. But this is OK. Because underneath the deadpan humor of each of his movies is a true sense of melancholy and loss unmatched by any other filmmaker of his generation.

Ken Loach { RH: The Wind That Shakes the Barley } Loach shot the scenes in his Irish historical epic The Wind that Shakes the Barley chronologically, allowing his actors to grow with the characters. The result won the Palm d’Or at Cannes, and it’s likely that Loach’s brand of innovative, socially conscious and fiercely independent filmmaking will continue to garner critical acclaim.

David Lynch { RH: Inland Empire } As visionary as ever, Lynch no longer settles for just making his movies—as rich, strange and beautiful as they are. Now he’s pioneering new ways to distribute and market films, rolling with the digital revolution, and using his hip website as a platform. Coming soon, Eraserhead ringtones!

David Cronenberg { RH: Eastern Promises, A History of Violence } How do you follow up a career-defining film? If you’re David Cronenberg, you top it. A History of Violence richly deserved its accolades, but this year’s Eastern Promises was even better, its nerve-rattling suspense a convenient hanger for the film’s meditation on fate, the hidden side of urban life, and the roles we all play.

Noah Baumbach { RH: Margot at the Wedding, The Squid and the Whale U: The Fantastic Mr. Fox (S), The Emperor’s Children (S) } The Squid and the Whale took us by surprise with its refreshingly honest observation of a family in disorder. And now he’s done it again with Margot at the Wedding. Next up is a co-writing reunion with director Wes Anderson for the animated Fantastic Mr. Fox and an adaptation of The Emperor’s Children for director Ron Howard.

Woody Allen { RH: Match Point, Cassandra’s Dream U: Vicky Cristina Barcelona } A true auteur unconcerned with critical or popular success, Allen still writes and directs a new feature every year in whatever genre or style happens to catch his fancy. While not everything he creates is a gem, Allen has shown time and time again that he’s one of the all-time-great directors.

Tim Burton { RH: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street U: Alice in Wonderland, The Spook’s Apprentice } Tim Burton’s playfully grim, oddball aesthetic has proven dizzyingly consistent over the years. His screen adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd, about a revenge-obsessed barber who gives the closest shave in London (wink, wink), manages to humanize his characters in spite of the tale’s broad, black humor. Burton’s career longevity is an inspiration to idiosyncratic art-house directors the world over.

Todd Haynes { RH: I’m Not There } Though he can often seem dry and formal (the kind of director only the French can truly love), Haynes is a savvy deconstructionist of American pop language, exploding myth to see what lies beneath. Bob Dylan must have seen a kindred spirit when he signed off on I’m Not There. The film is a virtuoso gambit that promises Haynes is here to stay.

Michael Winterbottom { RH: A Mighty Heart, The Road to Guantanamo U: Genova } Some directors make the same movie over and over. Winterbottom barely makes the same film once. Eclectic sometimes means erratic, but the prolific Brit is as adept at socially aware biopics as he is at rock ’n’ roll sagas and gonzo literary comedies and lefty documentaries. His versatility is a virtue more filmmakers should embrace.

Guillermo del Toro { RH: Pan’s Labyrinth U: Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The Orphanage (producer) } Long a cult favorite, Del Toro broke through to the mainstream with the dark, ornately imagined Pan’s Labyrinth, which was nominated for six Oscars and took three home. Next up for Del Toro? A sequel to 2004’s Hellboy.

Sidney Lumet { RH: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead } His classic films—from 12 Angry Men to Network—echo through the work of younger directors, but now Lumet has reciprocated by taking a powerhouse cast through some of the leanest, darkest material he’s ever put to film: a robbery gone even more wrong than Al Pacino’s in Dog Day Afternoon.

Stephen Frears { RH: The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents U: Skip Tracer } A director who hails from the workaday tradition of British filmmaking, Frears is the very definition of an “old pro.” Yet, his movies—including Dirty, Pretty Things and The Queen—are crisp and engaged, alert to the tremors on every stratum of an English society in the midst of pivotal changes. Bonus: He’s peerless with actors. Long may he reign.

Michel Gondry { RH: Be Kind, Rewind; The Science of Sleep } When film critics snicker at directors who cut their teeth on music videos, the most convincing counterexample is the ever-inventive Gondry, who uses visual flair not to tickle our lizard brains but to explore our dreams, whether romantic, melancholy or comic.

Werner Herzog { RH: Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man U: Encounters at the End of the World } Nothing human is strange to Herzog. A cultural anthropologist with a movie camera, he makes documentaries that are more gripping than most features, and features that have the raw vigor of mortal life at its most extreme. A man who will eat his shoe and survive a random gunshot wound is a man to watch, and the prolific German continues to offer plenty such occasions.

Marc Forster { RH: The Kite Runner, Stranger Than Fiction U: Bond 22, Land of Roses } A few years after Finding Neverland, Forster has discovered Hollywoodland, where all dreams come true. Though he reportedly turned down 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the indie award winner has agreed to direct the new 007 action film Bond 22. But not before giving us one of the year’s best in The Kite Runner.