Tyler Perry is one of the most prolific filmmakers in recent memory, perhaps the most prolific. Not only does he release movies at an alarming rate, but most of them are deep, well-balanced projects that depict the world with a haunting accuracy. More impressive still is the fact that Perry writes and appears in most of his movies, giving him a skill-set that his contemporaries (with the possible exception of Quentin Tarantino) can only dream of.

Why is it, then, that Tyler Perry isn’t mentioned alongside Tarantino, Peter Jackson, or Christopher Nolan when people talk about big-name Hollyw...