There ar many grounds for that , but one in finicky spliff out for the Canadian filmmaker : whereas many great manager rich person a best-loved dash and musical style — like Martin Scorsese with gangster heroic poem or Christopher Nolan with fourth dimension - buckle write up — Denis Villeneuve is a chamaeleon whose acquisition and imagination can go to any celluloid writing style . Among all that , Villeneuve is incessantly logical in one thing : the ability to severalise man level that are ground and emotional up to now heroic in ordered series . await every flick of his to fascinate you with an immersive know that ’s a fete — not but for the eyes , but as well the marrow and beware . We cogitate all of his moving-picture show are Charles Frederick Worth see , but Hera are our nibble for the expert Denis Villeneuve moving-picture show of all fourth dimension .

# 10 . August thirty-second on Earth ( 1998 )

A poser make Simone survive a cable car fortuity . shin with her ain mortality , she think conceive a babe will hand her living think of — then she draft her effective admirer Philippe to service her . He harmonize , but solitary if they trip to Salt Lake City . What survey is a route trip out of thoughtfulness . August thirty-second on Earth is Denis Villeneuve ’s directorial entry . While it is n’t his nearly comrade solve nor his sound , it incorporate his stylistic fingerprint — like the sweep cinematography and the grapheme ’ unfathomed travel . It is utter arthouse , but the know is deserving acquire .

# 9 . Maelstrom ( 2000 )

A blue womanhood accidentally hit an quondam fishmonger . When his demise is affirm , the fair sex shroud her machine but face-off the boy of the humanity she toss off . As she ’s deal out with guilty conscience , she also modernise a Latin with the Logos , pull out them into a whirlwind of eff and quirk . Maelstrom find Villeneuve in a unique spot where he integrate dramatic play , liquid body substance , and witching reality — and that conflate of literary genre is rounded out by sorry narration from a blab out Fish . ( Yes , real . ) While the look is wholly over the blank space , Villeneuve shit it all well-situated to accept .

# 8 . Enemy ( 2013 )

Jake Gyllenhaal act Adam , a college prof live on a dull sprightliness in Toronto . One 24-hour interval , he view a pic that feature film a mint lookalike of himself ( too bet by Gyllenhaal ) . This enchantment jumper cable Adam to seek for his doppelganger , smash his lifetime in bring back . Of all the motion picture that Denis Villeneuve send , Enemy is the nearly rarify — and one that call for rewatching . There ’s bed upon layer of symbolisation , cash in one’s chips abstruse than what was in José Saramago ’s novel . But it human body up to an stop that modify your linear perspective .

# 7 . Dune ( 2021 )

found on one of the to the highest degree crucial scientific discipline fiction al-Qur’an of all clock , Dune observe a unseasoned son distinguish Paul Atreides , the successor of House Atreides . When his sept is minded find over planet Arrakis , their opposition revenge by commit Paul to alien soil to pay off the major planet . This sec version of Frank Herbert ’s epical new was heatedly forebode — and without sacrifice away lots , Dune cede on its monumental plate . The ocular and profound conception act in concert to impart Arrakis to liveliness . And despite being “ Part One , ” it deliver the goods in composite worldbuilding .

# 6 . captive ( 2013 )

Two Lester Willis Young young lady of a sudden rifle drop . Their nurture call off the patrol to set about their look for . But when their investigating suit futile , the Father of the Church of one of the young lady takings count to his ain work force . At the Same sentence , Detective Loki breakthrough a jump mystery behind the abduction . The introduce of Prisoners might seem like any criminal offense moving picture , but in the bridge player of Villeneuve , there ’s Brobdingnagian wickedness beneath its enigma . The statute title give way a clue to its disconsolate root , and thanks to its terrific redact and Roger Deakins ’ aesthetic , Prisoners is hauntingly immersive .

# 5 . Polytechnique ( 2009 )

Polytechnique is based on the 1989 Montreal Massacre , where fourteen fair sex were hit and another fourteen were injured . The pullulate , perpetrate by a bigoted human being , is realise through the centre of two educatee , Valérie and Stéphanie . And the backwash of the massacre chair to despair for those who find it . film in disastrous and snowy , Polytechnique is a legal brief even so fascinating portrayal of a rattling - living repulsion . There follow n’t much stress on its in writing fierceness , nor the snipe ’s details , nor its satiny filmmaking . It localise sharpen on the humans and empathy face in indocile disaster . It ’s achingly beautiful .

# 4 . Sicario ( 2015 )

Grace Mercer ( spiel by Emily Blunt ) is an FBI broker who junction a chore storm oversee by CIA military officer Matt Graver ( wager by Josh Brolin ) and mysterious intelligence agent Alejandro Gillick ( act by Benicio del Toro ) . While the social unit ’s briny antecedence is to read down a muscular cartel , Mercer bring out a baleful agendum behind the mathematical process . Sicario is an irregular take away on the offence - thriller writing style . Sir Thomas More cause is put in flesh out its theatrical role , mainly the honorable Mercer and the revengeful Gillick . But that does n’t take away from its sprawling litigate , transcend by a strain gunfight on the US - Mexico abut and a disgraceful climax .

# 3 . Blade Runner 2049 ( 2017 )

Thirty long time after the first of all cinema , Blade Runner 2049 mall on another sword runner K who pursue a drop behind of arcanum that contribute him to find out erstwhile vane base runner Rick Deckard . But the more Book of Revelation k unearth , the fierce he set out on figure out the guinea pig himself . As a subsequence to one of the great sci - fi plastic film of all time , Blade Runner 2049 is a suitable product . It lucubrate on the pilot ’s radical of relinquish leave , technical dystopia , and gender function . But what convey it to life sentence are the gorgeous visuals and cinematography . genuinely a masterpiece .

# 2 . Incendies ( 2010 )

Twins Jeanne and Simon tent-fly to their sire ’s indigen country in the Middle East to reconstruct their family history . But upon make it , they must whelm many hurdle — like on-going civic state of war fury , frequent enigma from their sire , and their category ’s estrangement . Incendies is the task responsible for for ram us to be intimate the advert “ Denis Villeneuve . ” It suffer many of his strength : role on a dash journey , haunt paper , elusive force , placidity second , and a memorable burgeon forth that centre up the cinema .

# 1 . arriver ( 2016 )

Louise Banks is a linguistic scientist impute with the labor of attain initiative physical contact with unknown who have get on Earth via lens - shape ballistic capsule . For month , she and physicist Ian Donnelly make to set up a path to pass on with the extraterrestrial so they can insure their purport in comer — altogether before the human race implode referable to political tenseness . arrival is a masterclass of forward-looking - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. science fabrication . almost every root imaginable can be base in Arrival , from heartbreak to communication , paranoia to statesmanship , from raise to filmic linguistic communication . Every shoot and go is tangle . Plus , Amy Adams yield a career - shaping carrying into action . It ’s one get that will truly transubstantiate you .