YMMV / Sam Mendes

• Tough Act to Follow: American Beauty was considered this for a while, to the point where it overshadowed much of his later films (in an interview, Mendes himself thought the film's critical reception was a bit overpraised despite it winning awards). With that film gaining a rather contentious reputation in recent years, the critical and commercial successes of Skyfall and 1917, and the positive re-evaluation of his other films, Mendes seems to have broken out of this trope.