As they’ve become the central pillar of entertainment, superhero movies have attracted increasingly prestigious directors, writers, and stars—Chloé Zhao’s Eternals came out the same year she won dual Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Nomadland. But the genre remains a lightning rod, especially for directors who haven’t directed one—or simply won’t. Asking critically acclaimed auteurs for their thoughts on the genre has become a small cottage industry.
You can practically set your watch to it: a cinema legend chimes in on a genre that was never really made to appeal to them in the first place, comic fans lash out in response, and the whole thing devolves into a meandering argument about art versus popcorn schlock on Twitter. It’s tiresome, but it’s also kind of hilarious at this point, so here’s a list of every director who’s had beef with the likes of Marvel-heads lately.
formerly Mad Cornish Projectionist.