If you take 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of somebody who creates a new language in film by what he was able to accomplish with art direction, photography, lighting, etc., it is still a gold standard for science fiction.

in 2011 he completed Jesus Was a Commie an avant garde-dialectical conversation about the world and the prominent issues of modern society. The film was awarded a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Modine co-directed the short film with Terence Ziegler the editor of I Think I Thought.

His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest and oversexed Sullivan Groff in Weeds.