Destin Daniel Cretton directed one of the best films of the 2010s, and not enough people know his name. Short Term 12 came out in 2013, made almost nothing at the box office, and then quietly became the movie that every serious film person you know has seen and keeps telling you to watch. It has that quality. It earns it.
Backlot members keep rating his movies this month, and it makes sense. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters and it is doing exactly what the best superhero films do: it cares about the person inside the suit as much as the action around them. That is a Cretton signature.
What he does, across the indie work and the big studio films, is pay attention to people who are not supposed to be the main character. The foster kids in Short Term 12. The wrongly convicted men in Just Mercy. He builds around characters who tend to get overlooked, and he takes them seriously without making them symbols.
Shang-Chi was proof that the scale could grow without losing that attention. He kept the family stuff anchored even when the third act went full spectacle. Brand New Day continues that.
The through-line is patience. He holds on faces longer than you expect. He trusts his actors in a way that a lot of filmmakers at this level do not. Brie Larson in Short Term 12. Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx in Just Mercy. Simu Liu in Shang-Chi. The performances land because he gives them room.
Start with Short Term 12. Then watch his whole run. You will understand why he ended up with this job.
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