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TheRealProtozoid t1_j6m9umi wrote

Absolutely yes.

All of his films post-Fast Company are strong. In fact, I think he has made the most movies that I like in a row of any director since maybe Kurosawa - 17 in a row and counting.

And personally, I think his "master period" started with Crash in 1995. That film, along with eXistenZ, Spider, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method, Cosmopolis, Maps to the Stars, Crimes of the Future... that's his master period. Maybe you could even extend it so that it starts with The Fly or Dead Ringers, but I feel like he reached new heights.

I say this as someone who loves his early stuff. Videodrome, The Fly, and Naked Lunch are still the Cronenberg movies I've watched the most times by far. Great films. Love them. But as I get older, and he his career continues, I really think the second half of his career is the best.

Here's the thing: he basically stopped making body horror, and so his fans stopped being excited about his movies. Aside from eXistenZ and Crimes of the Future, and some of them liked A History of Violence and Eastern Promises because of the carnage, he basically has two completely different fan-bases for the two halves of his career. The body horror people are disappointed he stopped making those kinds of films. But people who like arthouse dramas probably like at least a few of the movies he made after Dead Ringers.

Personally, I think his absolute best film is Maps to the Stars, or maybe A Dangerous Method. Those two are incredibly underrated. His mastery of his technique was complete at that point, and he had a lot of say with those films. You can rewatch them and get choked up on how much depth of thought and feeling went into each line of dialogue.

Crimes of the Future is a masterpiece, too, but I feel sad that people are calling it a "return to form" just because it's body horror. I feel like people who appreciate him beyond his genre work know that he's been doing great work this entire time.

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