Ben Affleck's Best Movies, Ranked by Metacritic
Ben Affleck
Elisabetta A. Villa / Getty ImagesAcademy Award winner Ben Affleck has taken on many roles since his childhood in the 1980s. His acting career started with small roles (including uncredited ones) in movies and television shows from Field of Dreams and The Voyage of the Mimi to School Ties and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
His acting career began to pick up in the early to mid 1990s, with roles in cult classics Dazed and Confused and Mallrats, and a little later that decade, Chasing Amy. However, he really broke through in 1997 with Good Will Hunting, a film he not only acted in but also co-wrote with Matt Damon and for which he won his first Oscar.
That skyrocketed him to fame, leading to leading man roles in action flicks (Armageddon), romantic dramas (Forces of Nature), thrillers (Changing Lanes), and even comic character adaptations (Daredeviland eventually playing Batman in several films).
Affleck continued to write behind-the-scenes, even while achieving so much on-camera success, and in 2007 he parlayed those skills and industry credit into directing his first feature film, Gone Baby Gone, which he also wrote. He quickly followed that up by helming a few more features, from The Town and the Oscar-winning Argo, to Live by Night and the upcoming Ghost Army.
He co-founded Pearl Street Films with Damon in 2012, and the company has allowed him to produced projects across screens big and small, including many of the movies in which he stars, as well as such television series as Showtime's City on a Hill.
Here, Metacritic ranks the best films Affleck has acted in and/or directed, by Metascore.
Shakespeare in Love
Metascore: 87
Best for: Fans of Shakespeare and romantic dramas about historical figures
Where to watch:
Runtime: 123 minutes
This 1998 movie looks at the love life of playwright William Shakespeare, as played by Joseph Fiennes. In the film, he is in a relationship with Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) and in the middle of writing Romeo and Juliet, which becomes inspired by her. The story is a meta tale that mixes together fictionalized versions of real-life figures with plot points and pieces of dialogue directly inspired by Shakespeare's works. Affleck plays Ned Alleyn, an actor who takes on the role of Mercutio in the play-within-the-movie.
"Shakespeare meets Sherlock, and makes for pure enchantment." — Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
Argo
Metascore: 86
Best for: Drama fans and history buffs
Where to watch:
Runtime: 120 minutes
Affleck directs, produces, and stars in this film based on true events. The movie follows the story of Tony Mendez (Affleck), as he carries out a covert mission to rescue six Americans during the Iran hostage crisis. He comes up with a plan to disguise himself as a sci-fi film producer to help them escape. Even after backlash and criticism, this plan just might be crazy enough to work. Argo won the 2013 Best Picture Oscar, which counts toward Affleck's career tally because he was a producer on the film.
"Affleck's third directorial outing, is an entertaining, real-life, race-the-clock thriller that nabs you at the start and never makes a wrong move." — Joe Neumaier, NY Daily News
Gone Girl
Metascore: 79
Best for: Fans of thriller adaptations and mysteries
Where to watch:
Runtime: 149 minutes
When Amy (Rosamund Pike) is reported missing, her husband Nick (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance in David Fincher's 2014 adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel of the same title. Nick struggles to cope while also trying to prove his innocence, but the more he reacts, the more guilty he appears. In a succession of twists and turns, it becomes evident that things are not always what they seem.
"Ultimately what makes Gone Girl so watchable is the three-headed monster of Fincher, Pike, and Affleck." — Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Dazed and Confused
Metascore: 78
Best for: Comedy fans
Where to watch:
Runtime: 102 minutes
Written and directed by Richard Linklater, this coming-of-age movie follows several different groups of teenagers and their hilarious high jinks in the late '70s. From jocks to stoners, all these cliques navigate the last day of school, mixed with partying and contemplating their next big steps in life. Affleck plays Fred O'Bannion, a second-year senior who relishes hazing.
"One of the most exciting movies of this, or any other, year. It's smart, funny, and wonderfully crafted and performed." — Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
The Town (2010)
Metascore: 74
Best for: Fans of crime dramas with action and thriller moments
Where to watch:
Runtime: 125 minutes
Affleck directs and stars as Doug MacRay in this drama about a group of guys from Boston who lead a crime of life. During a particular bank robbery, the crew takes bank manager Claire (Rebecca Hall) as a hostage. Things get messy for Doug when he ends up falling for Claire, though. He begins living a double life but soon is forced to make a decision to stay loyal to his crew or to his newfound love.
"It's rare to see an ensemble movie like this, so loaded with talented actors, in which virtually all of them get an opportunity to make an impression. Affleck is the boss and the star, but he knows how to share." — Mary Pols, Time
Gone Baby Gone
Metascore: 72
Best for: Fans of drama packed with mystery
Where to watch:
Runtime: 114 minutes
Gone Baby Gone is a story that takes place after a 4-year-old girl goes missing. Her family is fed up with local police and hires detectives Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to investigate the abduction. New to this type of case, the detectives begin their investigation and soon start to uncover unsettling truths about the city's corruption. The further they go, the worse things get. This marks Affleck's feature film directorial debut, and it is also a rare film he directed (and also wrote) but does not also star in.
"In his strikingly downbeat directorial debut, Affleck has created something of a blue-moon rarity: an American movie of genuine moral complexity." — Jim Ridley, Village Voice
Chasing Amy
Metascore: 71
Best for: Romcom lovers
Where to watch:
Runtime: 113 minutes
Best friends Holden McNeil (Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are successful comic book writers living the bachelor life. When Holden meets fellow comic writer Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), he is instantly smitten. However, heartbreak swiftly comes when he realizes that he's not Alyssa's type.
"This tough and tender movie, like its characters, is prepared to take emotional risks, and the comic book milieu is deftly sketched in." — Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Good Will Hunting
Metascore: 70
Best for: Those who want to watch a star-studded cast
Where to watch:
Runtime: 126 minutes
Troubled genius Will Hunting (Damon) works as a lowly janitor at MIT. When he solves a challenging math equation, he catches the eye of Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgård) who sets out to help him reach his full potential. After Will is arrested, Gerald makes a deal that earns Will his freedom, under the stimulation that he seeks therapy with Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) in hopes of a better life. Affleck stars as Chuckie Sullivan, a lifelong friend of Will, and he and Damon also wrote the screenplay, for which they won an Oscar in 1998.
"This beautifully realized tale is always engaging and often quite touching." — Emanuel Levy, Variety
The Company Men
Metascore: 69
Best for: Drama fans
Where to watch:
Runtime: 109 minutes
Bobby Walker (Affleck) is living the American dream. He has the career, the family, the house, and the fancy car. But when the company he works for begins downsizing, he and coworkers Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper) and Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) lose their jobs. They must then begin to see what life is like outside of their executive suites and reshape their lives from a new perspective.
"A juicy, judicious drama, and one of the few current movies to address an issue that affects many of the people who will see it - or, because reality is too depressing, avoid it." — Richard Corliss, Time
Changing Lanes
Metascore: 69
Best for: Thrill-seekers
Where to watch:
Runtime: 98 minutes
Two complete strangers' lives are turned upside down after a fender-bender. After Gavin Banek (Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Samuel L. Jackson) both suffer big losses in the aftermath of a car crash, they begin a dangerous game of cat and mouse trying to regain what they lost — even at the expense of each other's lives.
"A slickly shot, intelligent thriller, it's buoyed up by an exceptional performance from Jackson, who brings crumpled dignity and pathos to his habitual loser." — Robert Koehler, Variety