Although it is just plain fun to rank a director's movies, it may also help me think about the director's oeuvre of work as a whole. Comparisons can help me to discover elements of film that I am drawn to, what the director finds value in revealing through their movies and possibly how the director has grown artistically.
Payne makes movies about normal people. There are no heroes or villains to be found. In fact, his protagonists often are prickly, in one way or another, but really not that hard to love. He still presents the humanity in his flawed characters and explores how these flaws complicate their lives.
Every character in Payne's movies are in a particular and nuanced…
