Medicine for Melancholy Saw Barry Jenkins Hit The Ground Running As An Exceptional Filmmaker

Barry Jenkins is best known today for directing two of the best movies of the 2010s, Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, but those weren't his first two forays into the world of feature film filmmaking. Prior to those two outstanding features, in 2009, he directed a small indie feature entitled Medicine for Melancholy that saw Jenkins channeling his inner Agnes Varda and Richard Linklater in telling a story about two people just spending a day together walking around a city and exchanging dialogue. Watching the film now, it's interesting to see how various parts of Medicine for Melancholy compare to his subsequent directorial efforts, with individual elements of the movie coming off as direct precursors to Jenkins' future directorial work.

Watchmen Review (Classic Write-Up)

Perhaps the greatest testament to how much of a pop culture phenomenon 300 was upon its initial 2007 release was that director Zack Snyder somehow got Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures to pony up $130 million for him to film an R-rated adaptation of one of the most beloved graphic novels of all time, Watchmen. This adaptation would have no A-list stars, tons of blue penis, graphic violence and would contain numerous monologues centered on weighty themes and concepts. Total crowd-pleaser right?