Looking Beyond 'The Town' with Ben Affleck
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 1:00PM 
Shooting the shooting in The TownKurt here from Your Movie Buddy.
Ben Affleck may have been just fine in The Company Men (a film that eluded me, seeing as it lives in that imaginary void between 2010 and 2011), but with the success of The Town, the focus has shifted almost entirely from Ben Affleck, the actor, to Ben Affleck, the filmmaker. That is, outside of the Academy, of course.
Like his 2007 debut, Gone Baby Gone, Affleck's sophomore effort garnered only a supporting acting nod from Oscar. The critical community, however, along with the moviegoing public, wrapped their loving arms around The Town, and now all eyes are on what this tabloid-target-turned-auteur will do next. Will he break out of Beantown? Direct a film starring old bestie Matt Damon? Try his hand at comedy?
While I'm all for creative flexibility, I'd personally love to see Affleck stick with his genre of choice. Turns out he's bloody good at helming crime films. Admittedly, I wasn't really on board with the acclaim for Gone Baby Gone (I'm not really keen on Mystic River retreads that are in fact two movies in one), but I was stunned by what he did with The Town. I kept waiting for that movie to disappoint, and it never came close. In fact, the superbly-choreographed urban action tricked me into thinking I was watching Michael Mann's latest, while the overall lack of tonal compromise put me right into a Martin Scorsese film. At many points, I had to step back for a mental pause: all this from Fred F***ing O'Bannion? From Daredevil? It still blows my mind.
And so, I'm happy to report what outlets like EW already have – that Affleck, apparently, will indeed keep playing to his strengths. The multi-hyphenate is now in talks to direct the George Clooney- and Grant Heslov-produced Argo, a political thriller about a CIA rescue mission in Tehran circa 1979. Not exactly gritty neighborhood violence, no, but in the same general ballpark, with bank heists upgraded to international espionage.
And on that note, word is that Argo features an elaborate, CIA-devised scheme involving disguises. Might we be seeing those creepy nun masks again? And, more importantly, might Oscar finally warm up to this other golden boy?
For the comments: Which project/genre would you like to see Affleck tackle?
Reader Comments (10)
I don't know when Oscar will warm up exactly but i feel it'll be soon. I also think it's totally interesting that both of his films have garnered exactly one nod: supporting acting. So the supporting cast of Argo can already start plotting their Oscar campaigns.
The idea of Affleck actually making the film in Tehran made me smile.
that will never happen though, Iranian filmmakers are having enough hard times there, let alone Affleck.
But the premise sounds interesting.
I actually find Affleck a really interesting director now, which is something I, along with everybody on the planet i assume, never saw coming when gigli was out.
I like Affleck and crime drama. I think if he were to branch out, he could use those skills to sell a really twisted thriller in the Repulsion what's really going on oh God why won't you find someone to help you no don't do that style. I think it would be a good fit.
I honestly do not get the acclaim for this film. I found it to be completely craptastic.
Now, did I enjoy watching it? You bet. I watched with a group of five of us who howled all the way through it. But we also enjoy watching "The Room".
It screamed camp classic to me:
"My brother died on a day like today..."
Affleck's never ending monologue to R. Hall: "A week later, we lost the dog..." WHAT?!
The self-indulgent training shots of his six-pack
Chris Cooper turning in quite possibly the worst performance of his career
John Hamm's ridiculous performance
Spoiler: what really got me was the surprising moment at the end of the film where one of "the four" stands up in the garage and is shot in the head. It should have been upsetting but I realized at that moment: "this is one of the four bank robbers in a movie about four bank robbers and I don't even know his characters name and I can't even remember him speaking more than two lines of dialogue in the whole movie!" why should I give a rip about him dying?
Jeremy Renners interesting performance notwithstanding, I actually thought this was just a crap movie. Afflecks performance was the worst of all. That last shot of him on the porch of that shack? WTF?! Bwah hah hah!!
I know I'm in the minority but I would love someone, anyone, to agree with me.
And if anyone ever starts midnight showings of this thing, I'm there.
I thought The Town was good but I feel like you're overpraising it. The ending did kind of fall apart. The whole Fenway Park sequence was overblown, and the "happy" ending was stooooopid. That said, it was a very good, very gritty movie. I loved a lot of the performances, especially Rebecca Hall and Pete Poselthwaite. Jon Hamm did his level best but he was miscast. I'd have liked, I dunno, Charles Durning twenty years ago; maybe an Oliver Platt kind of guy; heavy, older, world-weary.
Still, it was a good movie. I liked it about as well as Gone, Baby, Gone, but it was more commercial and more playing to the audience, and you know what? I appreciate that. It was deft.
I'd kind of love Affleck to stick with Boston the way Stephen King sticks with Maine. He has a feel for location filming and I hope it translates to work in other places.
Amir -- I was determined to not bring up "Gigli" in this post, but I was sure someone else would. That did seem like the end of the line for him, and people just can't let it go (not to say you're one of those people). When searching for pics for this post, I went to type "ben affleck the town" into Google Images, and by the time I got to "ben affleck the..," the top search was "ben affleck the worst actor ever." Poor guy.
Richard -- I'm really surprised you had all of those reactions. I was truly struck by the film's lack of self-indulgence, considering how much opportunity there was for that. And I thought Affleck gave a very solid performance, never more evident than in the understated, if low-income-misery cliched, monologue that rubbed you the wrong way.
Deborah -- The ending, of course, with its sun and sap, strikes one as too cheery and tidy. But honestly, by that point, I felt such an unexpected pride for what this once-mocked actor had accomplished, that that's precisely the sort of ending I wanted. To risk sounding sappy myself, it felt symbolic of where this guy is now. A good deal of my enjoyment of this film was hinged on what it meant for its maker. Add that to the cast, the pace and the other virtues mentioned, and it's quite worthy of my impassioned praise.
I think you have to applaud what he got out of blake lively in under 10 mins.
Mark G -- agreed. he is good with actors.
Deborah -- agreed. i actually think had hte ending been much different and stronger, it would have shown up with other Oscar nominations. The takeaway is just not there though the film is highly watchable (which is always a plus)
Kurtis -- This part "I went to type "ben affleck the town" into Google Images, and by the time I got to "ben affleck the..," the top search was "ben affleck the worst actor ever." Poor guy." is so sad. It is weird how some people cant' shake certain parts of their rep. And how many people really saw GIGLI anyway? I feel like no one saw it and yet everyone hates him for it?
I hope Affleck goes the route of director rather than actor. The acting image I can't shake of him is in State of Play, where one critic said he looked like an Easter Island head (and he does).
But I hope as a director, he will go with a strong script adapted from a novel. What I see as his weakness is that he understands scenes very well (from an acting background), but doesn't get the overall story. If there wasn't an end already in the novel, he wouldn't figure out how the story should end or what should come next. So actors get great scenes (maybe indulged too much), but some of those scenes should probably be cut and shaped so that the narrative moves more quickly and efficiently.
I wish him well because he's married to Jennifer Garner. Love her, don't care about him..
:) thanks