Ben Affleck is a world-renowned actor, writer, director, producer, and one of Hollywood’s old-school sweethearts. Armed with multifaceted talent and an unmistakable visual presence, Affleck has worked side by side with some of the most influential directors of the modern age, including David Fincher, Gus Van Sant, Kevin Smith, Ridley Scott, David Ayer, Michael Bay, and Zack Snyder. Naturally, the experience the Daredevil (2003) actor has amassed throughout the years under the wing of these giants has been of priceless value to him as a writer and director, helping him to win academy awards in both disciplines.
Wearing the writer’s hat, Affleck has also managed to both heavily disappoint and shock the world with unmatched works of brilliance. In this article, we will take a look at every project written or co-written by Ben Affleck, ranked from worst to best.
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6 Live by Night
Based on the gangster novel by Dennis Lehane, Live by Night (2016) follows the story of WWI veteran Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) - from his puny beginnings as a common thief to his ascendance - to a big-time illegal alcohol producer during the prohibition era in the state of Florida.
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The movie was both written and directed by Ben Affleck, and even though it included big names like Chris Cooper and Sienna Miller, it was seen as a disappointment among fans and critics alike, with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 34% on the critics’ side and 42% for audiences. A solid letdown following the massive success of Argo, which won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Writing, and Best Achievement in Film Editing in 2012.
5 The Town
Directed by Ben Affleck and rocking a gold-lit cast, including Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Chris Cooper, and Affleck himself, The Town is a 2010 heist thriller that follows the story of a genius thief and his gang’s quest to score their biggest bank robbery ever while a persistent FBI agent breathes down their necks. To make things more complicated, the leader (Doug MacRay — Affleck’s character) unwillingly falls in love with one of the gang’s ex-hostages.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the style and atmosphere of what is Affleck’s second movie in the director’s chair is a “nod to” Peter Yates’s 1973 The Friends of Eddie Coyle. The Town has received mostly positive reviews from both audiences and critics alike but has not been a success globally.
4 Gone Baby Gone
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Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane and with Ben Affleck’s younger brother, Casey, in the lead role of Patrick Kenzie, Gone Baby Gone (2007) tells a heart-pumping tale of two Boston detectives on a mission to find and rescue a little girl who has been missing for more than three days. Despite a bulletproof cast, including Morgan Freeman, Michelle Monaghan, and Ed Harris, Ben Affleck’s directorial debut performed poorly at the box office, bringing in a mere $34.6 million from worldwide sales on a $19 million budget.
Interestingly, however, Gone Baby Gone has a rock solid 95% critics score and an 86% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, proving that money isn’t always proof of success in the hearts of cinema lovers.
2 The Last Duel
Based on a true story, cinema titan Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (2021) follows the events surrounding two medieval French knights named Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), who find themselves fighting to the death after Carrouges’s wife, Marguerite (Jodie Comer) accuses Le Gris of sexually dishonoring her. The story is told through the viewpoint of all three characters separately, and, in the end, it is left up to the audience to choose whom to believe, although the scales tip heavily toward Marguerite’s version. The screenplay was written by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Jodie Comer, respectively.
Although the film received fairly positive reviews, it wasn’t the success Thelma and Louise’s director had hoped it would be. Despite Scott’s good intentions to tell a powerful story about the injustice many women have suffered throughout history, The Hollywood Reportercriticized his structural approach by noting that “the division of responsibilities results in a lengthy, two-and-a-half-hour film that feels lopsided and unwieldy.”
1 Good Will Hunting
Miramax Films
Written by real-life pals Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting is a 1997 drama starring Matt Damon and the late Robin Williams in the lead roles of M.I.T. janitor Will, an unusually gifted mathematical mastermind in the making, and Sean, a concerned psychologist who helps the young phenomenon find the right path in life.
Good Will Hunting has gone down in history as one of American cinema’s most prestigious and rewatchable motion pictures, and won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Robin Williams) and Best Original Screenplay, making it one of Ben Affleck’s and Matt Damon’s most successful written works to date. In 2022, the film still stands tall on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 96% critics score and a 94% audience score.
