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David Gordon Green (1975 - )



"I'm not a director that's about precision and control and perfection, I'm about creating an atmosphere that's organic and interesting and then letting people loose..."

Filmography

Features
George Washington (2000)
All the Real Girls (2003)
Undertow (2004)
Snow Angels (2007)
Pineapple Express (2008)
Your Highness (2011)
The Sitter (2011)
Prince Avalanche (2013)
Joe (2013)
Manglehorn (2013)
Our Brand is Crisis (2015)
Stronger (2017)
Halloween (2018)
Newsflash (2019?)

Shorts
"Pleasant Grove" (1997)
"Physical Pinball" (1998)

Television
Eastbound and Down - S01E02 - "Chapter 2" (2009)
Eastbound and Down - S01E03 - "Chapter 3" (2009)
Eastbound and Down - S01E04 - "Chapter 4" (2009)
Eastbound and Down - S02E03 - "Chapter 9" (2010)
Eastbound and Down - S02E05 - "Chapter 11" (2010)
Eastbound and Down - S02E06 - "Chapter 12" (2010)
Eastbound and Down - S03E02 - "Chapter 15" (2012)
Eastbound and Down - S03E04 - "Chapter 17" (2012)
Eastbound and Down - S03E06 - "Chapter 19" (2012)
Eastbound and Down - S04E03 - "Chapter 24" (2013)
Eastbound and Down - S04E04 - "Chapter 25" (2013)
Eastbound and Down - S04E06 - "Chapter 27" (2013)
Red Oaks - S01E01 - "Pilot" (2014)
Red Oaks - S01E02 - "Doubles" (2015)
Red Oaks - S01E10 - "Labor Day Luau" (2015)
Red Oaks - S02E10 - "The Verdict" (2016)
Red Oaks - S03E01 - "Summer in the City" (2017)
Red Oaks - S03E06 - "Action!" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E01 - "Tiger Town" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E02 - "Slaughter" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E03 - "The King" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E04 - "Think Change" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E05 - "A Compassionate Man" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E06 - "The Most Popular Boy" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E07 - "Spring Break" (2017)
Vice Principals - S02E09 - "The Union of the Wizard & the Warrior" (2017)
There's... Johnny! -S01E01 - "Andy Goes to Hollywood" (2017)
There's... Johnny! - S01E02- "Dog Day Afternoon" (2017)

Web Resources
2001 interview with Danny Leigh, The Guardian
2006 interview with George Ducker, The Believer
2013 interview with Simon Abrams, Esquire
2013 interview with Emma Brown, Interview Magazine
2016 interview with Kaleem Aftab, The Independent
2017 interview with Tiffany Pritchard, Filmmaker

Forum Discussion
152 George Washington
All The Real Girls (David Gordon Green, 2003)
Snow Angels (David Gordon Green, 2008)
Pineapple Express (David Gordon Green, 2008)
Joe (David Gordon Green, 2014)
Halloween (David Gordon Green, 2018)
Eastbound & Down

LukeM wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:When I saw Garden State for the first time, I did not guess in a million years, say what you will about that (unfairly trampled upon) film, that this is the trajectory that Braff's career would take.

Similarly, I don't understand how David Gordon Green went from George Washington to Your Highness.

Ick. Well, Zach Braff reportedly remains wealthy from syndication royalties off his sitcom, but if you read Green's interviews for his pre-studio films, a frustration is definitely there - when you make film after film for peanuts and every single one still manages to lose money despite the good press, I can't blame Green for going a different route.

hearthesilence wrote:Ick. Well, Zach Braff reportedly remains wealthy from syndication royalties off his sitcom, but if you read Green's interviews for his pre-studio films, a frustration is definitely there - when you make film after film for peanuts and every single one still manages to lose money despite the good press, I can't blame Green for going a different route.

Also, Pineapple Express is legitimately one of the best studio comedies of the last several years, and it looks terrific from a visual perspective. It's not like his talent has disappeared.

You are stretching the meaning of the word "several." Pineapple Express came out eight years ago. George Bush was still President. You are old.

If you had a gun to my head I would've said it was like three years old. Jesus.

Hot Fuzz is my pick for the best comedy of the last 10 years

Hot Fuzz is even older--just two months shy of 10 years old. We are all *this* close to starring in Zach Braff's next movie.

Roger Ryan wrote:By the way, if folks want to see some recent good work being done by David Gordon Green, check out the two seasons of Amazon's 80s period comedy Red Oaks. The second season (just recently uploaded) also features five episodes directed by Hal Hartley and a couple each by Greg Araki and Amy Heckerling.

Hartley and Heckling also directed episodes in the first season (with Hartley doing one and Heckling doing two, including the very '80s body-switch episode which was pitched by executive producer Steven Soderbergh as a story they should do).

Green has actually been very prolific - he had two features released last year alone, neither of which I've seen but both with high profile stars.

Avoid Manglehorn twice as hard as you're already avoiding Going in Style

Shouldn't that apply to about 70% of Green's theatrical work?

George Washington is great, Pineapple Express and Prince Avalanche are good, Joe is fine, The Sitter is shit. Haven't seen the rest, but the rest are three low budget indies, three badly received studio films.

It should also be emphasized that Red Oaks really belongs to Greg Jacobs (Soderbergh's long-time right-hand man) and Joe Gangemi, they're the show runners. Remember what David Cronenberg said about TV - directors are mainly traffic cops. There are exceptions (The Knick, the new upcoming season of Twin Peaks, Scorsese's pilot for Vinyl), but for the most part, Cronenberg is right and with Red Oaks the director's role is no exception.

I quite liked "Manglehorn," actually. Certainly Pacino's best work in quite a while. But I'm not sure Green will ever again reach the heights of his introductory quartet of "George Washington," "All the Real Girls," "Undertow," and "Snow Angels."

hearthesilence wrote:It should also be emphasized that Red Oaks really belongs to Greg Jacobs (Soderbergh's long-time right-hand man) and Joe Gangemi, they're the show runners. Remember what David Cronenberg said about TV - directors are mainly traffic cops...

Agreed. In retrospect, I should have said that Red Oaks is consistently good work and some notable directors are associated with that work.

swo17 wrote:You are stretching the meaning of the word "several."

"More than two but not many". Never would have guessed that.

MoonlitKnight wrote:I quite liked "Manglehorn," actually. Certainly Pacino's best work in quite a while. But I'm not sure Green will ever again reach the heights of his introductory quartet of "George Washington," "All the Real Girls," "Undertow," and "Snow Angels."

Adding Snow Angels to this post is maybe this forum's most tragic use of the Edit button I've ever seen

The only thing I remember from that movie is the funny speech Tom Noonan gives as a high school band teacher. And I'm pretty sure the rest of it is straight drama, which makes it a little odd.

Green's next movie will be a new entry in the Halloween series, cowritten by him and Danny McBride, with John Carpenter and Blumhouse producing.

Well, we all saw that coming. Typical predictable DGG

Well, remember when he was trying to remake Suspiria?

Big fan of David Gordon Green. I like his smaller indy films, as well as his much "bigger" Hollywood flicks.

George Washington, All the Real Girls, Undertow, and Snow Angels were all amazing.

I was amused by The Sitter - hilarious movie. Some may not realize this, but the film was a pseudo-remake of the 1987 comedy Adventures in Babysitting.

The Pineapple Express was also very funny - in parts.

I have been asking for years why Snow Angels was the one that split Green fans before his went full blown studio. I thought it was in line with his debut and everything leading up to it so why is it such a divisive film? the closest I ever came to an explanation was that it was pretty forced drama but I don't completely buy that.

We have a thread for it here, perhaps it will provide more info