underground subcultures

His films like Requiem for a Dream and The Wrestler intimately explore the darker underbellies of addiction, desperation, and marginalized communities living outside mainstream society.

Through films such as Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, Van Sant documents the lives of street youth, hustlers, and drug subcultures with poetic authenticity and social empathy.

His socially conscious films like Kes and I, Daniel Blake shed light on working-class struggles and those pushed to society's margins, capturing underground realities of poverty and resistance.