Actor Spotlight: Ben Affleck
Plus: we go in-depth on one of the best movies of the year
We had to double check that we hadn’t already done a Ben Affleck edition of this newsletter before, considering how important Good Will Hunting, Affleck, and Matt Damon are to Do You Like Apples. But this week we’re finally giving Ben the solo spotlight. He stars this weekend in The Accountant 2, a sequel to the 2016 action-thriller that played like his version of John Wick. After reading our Affleck recommendations, make sure you head over to the podcast to listen to our full review of Sinners.
Drew recommends…
The Way Back
Ben Affleck has been many things throughout his career: charming movie star, celebrity tabloid fodder, high-caliber director, and much more, but not typically as an actor of deep personal emotion. He has two Oscars (Good Will Hunting for screenplay and Argo for Best Picture), but Affleck has never even been nominated as an actor. In The Way Back, the 2020 sports drama where he stars as an alcoholic recruited to coach a high school basketball team, Affleck delves into his own personal struggles to deliver one of the finest performances of his career.
Affleck plays Jack Cunningham, a construction worker that’s been wrecked by addiction and loss. When the high school where he used to be a basketball star calls to offer him the head coaching gig of a losing team, he eventually takes it hoping it’s the change his life needs. Affleck has wrestled with alcoholism for most of his life, entering rehab multiple times, most recently in 2018. His family has a long history of addiction issues as well. It’s difficult to imagine what it must have been like, as a recovering alcoholic fresh out of rehab, to play this character that partially (and painfully) mirrors your own life.
It’s important to remember Affleck’s career was at an odd crossroads at the time. “Batfleck” was coming to a close, as his decent portrayal of a dour middle-aged Caped Crusader in Zack Snyder’s very poor DC movies received mixed notices. Live by Night, his directorial follow-up to Oscar winner Argo, had been a disappointing flop. He had modest successes around this time in crime thrillers like The Accountant (very flawed) and Triple Frontier (very underrated), but he probably felt like it was time to do something different by getting a little more personal with his role choices.
“It took me a long time to fundamentally, deeply, without a hint of doubt, admit to myself that I am an alcoholic,” Affleck said during the press run for The Way Back. With this unequivocal acknowledgement in tow, he brings a merely solid downbeat sports movie to life with raw and vulnerable work on screen. He had to feel exposed and emotionally out on a limb, but in the end he called the experience “very therapeutic.” Without his committed performance, this is a formulaic underdog basketball drama that winds up pretty forgettable. Fortunately, Affleck took a risk and allowed his deeply personal issues to guide an authentically lived-in character.
Available to rent digital on demand
Billy recommends…
The Last Duel
There are some actors that are given the title of “a character actor with a leading man face.” Brad Pitt being the most cited, but I don’t see our boy Ben Affleck given this title too much. Maybe it is because people don’t see him as that great of an actor? Does him directing as much as he acts make such a claim obsolete? Or did he “want” to be a leading man too badly? Good news is, I think he is starting to understand this about himself. Throughout his career he has shown he can be a convincing leading man for a variety of genres. His Oscar-snubbed performance in Gone Girl being the ultimate example (only Bradley Cooper not winning for A Star is Born at the Oscars has me screaming more, come on Academy). But, he is at his best in a supporting role where he can flex his charm and goofiness a bit more.
The Last Duel had Matt Damon and Ben Affleck writing together again (and Nicole Holofcener, who probably deserves most of the praise). Naturally we thought they would be the two co-leads opposite one another, but the decision was made to have Ben play the “boys will be boys,” playboy, nepo baby, Pierre d’Alencon. Affleck and Damon playing adversaries is plenty fun, but Ben Affleck has the most fun (only fun) role of this entire movie. And he chews up every scene he is in.
The concerning costume design from the marketing is immediately vanquished as soon as Affleck’s unserious portrayal of this character is introduced. What is pompous and out of place makes complete sense for this character and feels like the person Affleck is always trying to prove he is not in real life. Or at least is not anymore. Affleck seems to be very aware of what he is good at now and The Last Duel feels like one of the markers of that transition for his career.
Streaming on Hulu
From the DYLA Archive
DYLA Podcast
The first great big-budget movie of the year has arrived, and we broke it all down in this week’s episode. Before we get to the gangster/action/vampire extravaganza that is Sinners, Drew gives his quick review of Warfare, the harrowing A24 war film from co-director Alex Garland in theaters now. Then, we dive in fully on Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s original action-horror movie starring Michael B. Jordan. We talk through the film’s box office haul, the outstanding cast, the brilliant music, and some of the story choices before getting into spoiler territory near the end.
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