"Film is like a battleground," Sam Fuller once said. Although he was speaking not as himself but in a cameo role as a filmmaker in Jean-Luc Godard's "Pierrot le Fou," the comparison applies perfectly to his own directorial work. Cigar firmly planted between his lips, Fuller has been getting tough in

Angry, Anxiety, Dramatic, In-your-face, Political

Todd Haynes' biography reads as if he were an unlikely mix between Cheech Marin, John F. Kennedy Jr., and Quentin Crisp. Haynes was born in Los Angeles and educated at Brown University, where he was awarded an honors degree in Art and Semiotics in 1985. He is also the first -- and possibly only -- ar

Anxiety, Funny, Neurotic, Queer

In 1988, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" asked all the right questions about secrecy, technology, and female orgasm. The elite clan at Cannes awarded the maverick production the Palm d'Or, and mainstream theaters opened their doors to Andie McDowell asking the camera -- and the mainstream audiences behind

Absurd, Melancholy, Repetition, Whimsical

"Faggot-Retard" was Todd Solondz's initial title of choice for his second feature film. He opted instead for the less inflammatory "Welcome to the Dollhouse," which fortunately did nothing to dilute the tenderly misanthropic cult classic about a pubescent protagonist taunted by the alternating appell

Dark, Depressive, Domestic, Neurotic