The Ranking
The films of Danny Boyle
CHOOSE A GREAT BRITISH DIRECTOR. CHOOSE FOUR EMPIRE WRITERS. CHOOSE RANKING HIS FILMS
SELMAN HOŞGÖR
OUR CRITICS
CHRIS HEWITT His favourite Danny Boyle? The 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, yeah?
MIKE MUNCER Disappointed 127 Hours wasn’t in real time.
HELEN O’HARA Remembers seeing Yesterday like it was just last week.
BEN TRAVIS Once accidentally visited the worst toilet in Scotland.
Chris: Danny Boyle, then. What an incredible career he’s had. Arguably one of the greatest directors Britain has ever produced. He’s only made 13 films since his debut with Shallow Grave in 1994, but when I think of someone who’s formally and visually really daring, who knows his way around a great soundtrack, but who you can’t pin down...
Ben: You can absolutely identify a Danny Boyle film within a few seconds, and yet the way that he can genre-hop from all-out horror films to intergalactic sci-fi and even romcoms is really strong.
Mike: There’s a vibrancy and energy that comes through in his films. There’s something kind of joyous even though he tackles a lot of really dark subject matter.
Helen: If we were ranking all of his work, and not just his films, I can tell you that the Olympics Opening Ceremony of 2012 would have placed extraordinarily highly for me. I think it’s an astonishing feat of both storytelling and spectacle.