Comments on: ‘The Machinist’ Director Brad Anderson Is Looking For A ‘Restart’

By: David

David — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:08 +0000

Whether they were hits or simply forgotten, most of his films have the critical acclaim that would be envious of most working directors. With all due respect for The Machinist, that wasn't close to what he's shown to be capable of. I'm thinking of the underrated Session 9 and of course, Next Stop Wonderland.

Even studio gigs like The Call benefitted from his direction.

By: Nico

Nico — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:08 +0000

The Machinist hasn't aged well? Oh Playlist, just when I think you couldn't possibly sink any lower you find a way to take a deep, deep lunge. Oh, well.

By: swell

swell — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:08 +0000

Anderson was known and respected prior to The Machinist, as has already been stated. His debut Next Stop Wonderland was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. There's no doubting his career has hit a creative lull following the interesting trainwreck that was Vanishing on 7th Street and the middling but certainly not bad director-for-hire gig The Call (which, again, made $50 million on a $10 million budget… his biggest commercial hit by far) when compared to his previous 5 films, but that's a pretty solid batting average. His TV work has been strong and he's hardly alone these days in taking time off from filmmaking to work on cable (I guess Rian Johnson was washed up when he went to do Breaking Bad and Terriers). So try to dial back the impotent blogger rage maybe? It's not appealing or humorous or clever, its just tiring and emblematic of the worst of the internet.

By: bedtimebonzob

bedtimebonzob — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:08 +0000

That is a really weird take on Anderson's career. Transsiberian didn't set the box office on fire but got rave reviews (and is a pretty great movie). The Call may have been a critical failure but was a big financial success — his biggest ever, in fact. Plus, he's done consistently strong work on TV, and he was already well-known prior to The Machinist. Session 9, Happy Accidents, and Next Stop Wonderland all have sizable cult followings of their own, especially the Session 9, which routinely shows up on "horror best of" lists.

By: Alan B

Alan B — Fri, 13 May 2016 09:27:08 +0000

The article's narrative of Brad Anderson's career is … curious. I find it a little weird that 'The Machinist' is deemed not to have aged well because I saw it recently and it seemed to have aged quite fine. 'The Call' may be his 'nadir', but it was also the box office success he badly needed and the reason why this film was able to be made so soon after his previous one. His television work is really exceptional: his understanding of staging – especially left-to-right/right-to-left composition – is exceptional on 'Boardwalk Empire'. And it's a little odd that you didn't mention 'Next Stop Wonderland' considering that Weinstein screwed him over bigtime on that film. He has ALWAYS been a very talented and visually accomplished director who maybe hasn't had some of the best projects or budgets (he manages to get a lot from the miniscule budget of 'The Machinist').