List filmmakers whose work is cynical about the world (without being super dark).

[Yeti4928]

The characters are nuanced. Moral greyness abounds. Cynical, but not nihilistic.

Kind of a tricky balance.

Mike White is a good example of what I' looking for.

[DKLou]

David Lynch - always a woman in trouble. But, sometimes a guy like Lost Highway. His films usually have very nuanced characters and interesting situations they end up in.

[Watershipdownisgood]

The Hughes Brothers directors of Menace II Society, and Dead Presidents
F. Gary Gray
John Frankenheimer
Kinji Fukasaku
Hideo Gosha

[CSM101]

Terry Zwigoff

[Star Lord]

Sean Baker

[sanriel]

Lars von Trier, David Cronenberg

[Martoto]

Originally Posted by Yeti4928

The characters are nuanced. Moral greyness abounds. Cynical, but not nihilistic.

Kind of a tricky balance.

Mike White is a good example of what I' looking for.

Cynical movies means that the movies view the world and characters that feature in them as being as insincere, fake and self absorbed, despite what they might pretend to be.

Mike White might be a good example. But satirizing the idle wealthy for being insincere and fake is like shooting fish in a stanley cup.