Summary

• The shift in technology, audience taste, and new filmmakers have redefined modern cinema in the 2010s.
• Damien Chazelle emerged as a prominent director in the decade, despite some divisive films like Babylon.
• Whiplash marked Chazelle's breakthrough, showcasing his talent and placing him on the Hollywood map.

The 2010s were a pretty substantial decade in the evolution of modern cinema. As we’ve progressed into the 21st century, the art of filmmaking has continued to evolve and reshape itself. These changes are primarily seen on three fronts: the shift in available technology, the sizable shift in audience taste regarding franchises and big-budget blockbusters, and the shift to a new generation of filmmakers who have come up within this new Hollywood system. Of all the new talented directors that emerged in the 2010s, few were as talked about as Damien Chazelle.

Chazelle, who made his directorial debut in 2009, went on to make a name for himself as one of Hollywood’s hottest auteurs. Throughout the 2010s, he directed three Academy Award-winning films, and he was nominated for three Oscars himself, going as far as winning the award for Best Director in 2017. However, the director is far from having a flawless filmography. Some of his films have become quite divisive and controversial, with the director now fighting to make his way out of “director jail” following the financial disappointment of his 2022 feature Babylon – fittingly doing so with a film reportedly set in prison.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Chazelle’s breakout film, 2014’s Whiplash. With that in mind, we’ve decided to look back at the various phases of the director’s career and rank each of the films that he has directed. This includes the two short films that he has produced. Here’s how they stack up.

7 The Stunt Double (2020 Short)

One of the most recent entries in Chazelle’s filmography is the 2020 short that he directed called The Stunt Double. The film was produced in collaboration with Apple as a part of its “Shot on iPhone” campaign. As you could probably guess, this short film by Chazelle was shot entirely on an iPhone. With the entire thing shot vertically, the film is a loose collection of vignettes about Hollywood’s history all shown through the perspective of a single stuntman who worked in a variety of different genres and styles of film.

More of an Advertisement, Really

Including The Stunt Double on this list mostly feels like a formality. While, yes, it is technically an original film produced by Chazelle (with a runtime of about nine minutes), it primarily feels like an advertisement for the iPhone. While Chazelle is able to do some interesting things with this “Vertical Cinema” approach, it’s not necessarily a benchmark moment in his career. If anything, it’s a vaguely interesting footnote, which is why it lands at the bottom of this list. The Stunt Double is currently not available on streaming.

6 Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009)

The most forgotten film of Chazelle’s career also happens to be his directorial debut, 2009’s Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. In a lot of ways, this film is the perfect debut for the director. It’s a movie musical that is clearly inspired by classic Hollywood films like An American in Paris, but it also has a deep love of music (specifically jazz) built into its core. Its black-and-white cinematography gives the film an even more intensive old-school cinema aura. It also marks the first collaboration between Chazelle and Justin Hurwitz, his former college-roommate, who has composed the music for all the director’s films to date.

Being the First Doesn't Mean Being the Best

Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench falls this short on the list not for any fault of its own, but primarily because it is clearly Chazelle’s first major exercise in moviemaking. The film was originally envisioned as the director’s thesis project for his undergrad degree at Harvard, though he ended up stepping away from his education for a time to focus solely on directing the movie. Guy and Madeline is a great showcase of Chazelle’s ambition as a young filmmaker. While everything may not come together perfectly, it’s an excellent debut and certainly worth checking out if you’re a big fan of his work that followed. Buy or Rent Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench on Apple TV.

5 Whiplash (2013 Short)

The beginning of Chazelle’s arrival in Hollywood came in 2013 with Whiplash. No, not the full feature film starring Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons. Rather, this is a short film that the following Academy Award-winning feature would be built off. Whiplash started out as a short film that Chazelle wrote as an outlet for his frustration during his early years as a filmmaker. The story was largely inspired by his own experiences in his high school jazz band, which he has described as an immensely competitive environment.

The Foundation for Something Better

The Whiplash short film got a major boost when its script was picked up by Blumhouse Productions. With Jason Blum as a producer, the film was able to draw the likes of J.K. Simmons to star, with the lead role of Andrew Neiman portrayed by Johnny Simmons rather than Miles Teller. The film made a big splash upon its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013. This acclaim led to Chazelle and Blumhouse getting the finance needed to turn the film into a feature-length project. The only reason that the short version of Whiplash lands on the bottom half of this list is that it pales in comparison to the feature that followed. It’s a solid short, but it's far from the complete experience that the full film provides. The original Whiplash short is currently unavailable on streaming.

4 Babylon (2022)

2022’s Babylon is perhaps one of the most debated films of the 2020s so far. With an incredible cast consisting of Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Tobey Maguire, Katherine Waterston, Samara Weaving, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Garlin and many more, Babylon seemed like a surefire success. The film was Chazelle’s first feature in almost five years, and it once again was created as a love letter to cinema. Specifically, the film focuses on the earliest days of movie making in Hollywood, as its story is primarily set in the silent era of the 1920s. With a particular interest in depicting the hedonism of the era, Babylon is a three-hour epic that proved to be too much for many audiences to handle.

Babylon Is a Little Bloated

There are a lot of great things about Babylon. Chazelle clearly still knows his way around a film, as his directorial flare is all over the movie, often providing incredible visuals and evocative storytelling that are designed to get a strong reaction from the viewer. Meanwhile, collaborator Justin Hurwitz once again delivers an outstanding musical score that serves as the film’s beating heart. However, Babylon is a lot, and it's often too much. It is Chazelle operating with no restrictions whatsoever, and this proves to be a double-edged sword on more than one occasion. While this freedom allows Chazelle to occasionally reach new levels of greatness, it also allowed him to bring some of his most unappealing, abrasive and nauseating ideas to the screen. Babylon is currently streaming on Paramount+.

3 First Man (2018)

After the incredible success of La La Land in 2016, there was a lot of anticipation about where Chazelle would go next. His follow-up would be the first film that he directed without also writing the screenplay. 2018’s First Man, written by Josh Singer (The Fifth Estate, Spotlight, The Post), was a biopic about Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to step foot on the moon. Ryan Gosling starred in the film, re-teaming with Chazelle immediately after their mutual success with La La Land.

The Pieces Were There, but They Just Didn't Click

First Man had all the making of a major hit, but for whatever reason, it just failed to connect in any major way. The film is easily the most underrated of Chazelle’s career, as he tells this story with incredible depth and emotion, while Gosling gives one of the best performances of his career to date. The film went on to receive four Oscar nominations, though they were all in technical categories, such as Sound Editing, Sound Design and Production Design, with it winning the award for Visual Effects. Buy or Rent First Man on Prime Video.

2 La La Land (2016)

La La Land needs no introduction. It was one of the most buzzed-about films of 2016, as Chazelle’s throwback Hollywood musical-romance starring Gosling and Emma Stone was able to really connect and resonate with audiences. There is an entire generation of film fans for whom this film was a landmark moment. The movie was a passion project for Chazelle, as he had been attempting to get the movie produced for over five years after he originally wrote the screenplay in 2010. It wasn’t until after 2014’s feature-length Whiplash connected that Chazelle had enough sway to actually get the movie made.

A Stellar Musical Film

While the film’s legacy has been overshadowed to some degree by it infamously being mistakenly awarded Best Picture at the Academy Awards, when Moonlight was the actual winner, La La Land is still considered to be one of the best films that the 2010s had to offer and one of the best musicals of the century. Despite losing Best Picture, La La Land is still a historic film for the Oscars, as it tied 1997’s Titanic and 1950’s All About Eve as the film with the most nominations (14 total). It ended up winning six of those Oscars: Best Actress (Emma Stone), Best Director (Chazelle), Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Original Song (“Audition (The Fools Who Dream)"), and Best Production Design. Stream La La Land on Apple TV.

1 Whiplash (2014)

Finally, at the top of this list, unsurprisingly, is the 2014 feature film version of Whiplash. No matter who you talk to, almost everyone is going to crown either La La Land or Whiplash as Chazelle’s best. While both films are fantastic, we’ve placed Whiplash in the top spot for a few reasons. The biggest is the film has a bit more bite to it than La La Land does. With an absolutely outstanding performance by J.K. Simmons at its center, Whiplash is one of the most stressful films of the last decade and it makes for an experience that you won’t forget anytime soon.

Whiplash Put Chazelle on the Map

Whiplash also feels like an appropriate film to top this list as it was the movie that established Chazelle as one of the biggest names to watch in Hollywood. Prior to this film, very few people knew his name and those that did primarily knew it as the screenwriter behind films like 2013’s The Last Exorcism Part II. This movie changed everything for Chazelle, and it established a new talent for film fans to eagerly anticipate new movies from. While Babylon may have damaged Chazelle’s reputation to some degree, the immense good will established by Whiplash may not ever be able to be undone. Stream Whiplash on Prime Video.