Moviemakers who don’t need you to like their movies.

Commercial directors can do very well. Ridley Scott, for example, has been very successful doing commercials and movies. Harmony Korine and Nicholas Winding Refn do so well with commercials that they can afford to make films that may or not be, uh, commercial.

Korine made a big splash with “Spring Breakers,” which featured several former Disney girls in bikinis, behaving badly. James Franco has an out-there part as a Florida drug dealer with whom these bad girls get involved while on Spring Break. The film is a testament to youthful exuberance, to say the least. It also goes completely bonkers. The Spring Break scenes feature hormonal urges let loose. It’s also a curious bit of female empowerment; our heroines aren’t victims, but players.

Refn (who puts a “NWR” logo on his films, much like Creed Taylor used to imprint his jazz productions “CTI”) is typically even darker. His “Bronson” (with Tom Hardy) and “Drive” (with Ryan Gosling) are pretty brutal. His latest, “The Neon Demon,” got wildly mixed reactions at Cannes. Elle Fanning (who was cast at 16) plays a naive but beautiful girl who comes to L.A. to get into modeling; she was captivating in the part. It’s a bit of a horror movie, ultimately, as her character discovers that they’re not kidding when they say it’s a “cutthroat business.”

Why would you watch these?  For starters, Korine and Refn are successful doing commercials because of their art direction, lighting and editing. Many young filmmakers are studying their every move. They can finance their own films, and, win or lose, keep going. It’s pretty cool.

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