Ben Affleck, the Auteur: How Does His New Directorial Effort ‘Animals’ Stack Up to ‘Argo’ and the Rest?

Maybe what Ben Affleck really wanted to do was direct. 

That might explain why the actor who’s played Batman and starred in everything from Dazed and Confused and Chasing Amy to Armageddon and The Accountant is, arguably, better behind the camera than in front of it. And that’s why we greet any new Affleck-as-director effort with significant expectations; his early track record as a filmmaker is extraordinary, yielding Oscar winners in both writing (Good Will Hunting, alongside lifelong pal Matt Damon) and best picture (Argo). 

And he’s returned with another directing and co-writing effort with Netflix thriller Animals, the very serious follow-up to his very unserious 2023 dramedy Air. Whether he’s scripting or running the show, Affleck has shown considerable acumen as a storyteller with purpose, thus prompting us to rank his eight filmmaking efforts from worst to best:

1. Live By Night

   Here we have the Affleck movie that time forgot, the follow-up to the gilded Argo that’s further evidence of the fabled post-Oscar slump. Set in Florida in the 1920s, this gangster thriller saw a heavily fedora’d Affleck gently fumble a Dennis Lehane adaptation — and lose tens of millions when few bothered to see it in theaters. It seemed like a Perfectly Fine genre exercise at the time, but the years have compelled no one to revisit it, if they ever visited in the first place.

   Where to Stream Live by night

1. Animals

   This is destined to be Affleck’s most-watched directorial effort simply due to it being a Netflix original — and many will therefore see his most tonally muddled and visually generic filmmaking effort. The film’s thematic ambition is admirable, Affleck playing a Los Angeles mayoral candidate besieged by financial challenges, his son being kidnapped, his wife’s infidelity and the troublesome optics and political spin lurking like vultures as he tries to handle it all. Gillian Anderson enlivens the proceedings as an icy-flinty fixer, but the film feels too, well, Netflix for its own good.

   Where to Stream animals

1. Air

   Amazon is a superior streamer when it comes to financing movies, taking a relative quality-over-quantity approach — not to mention respect for the theatrical experience — compared to Netflix. And it shows in this bio-comedy, which manages to get us rooting for gigantocorp Nike, then a perennial third-stringer behind Converse and Adidas, as it scores a landmark endorsement deal with one Michael Jordan.

   Matt Damon plays the scout who chases him, Jason Bateman is a marketing dude, and Affleck has an amusing supporting role as mega-moneyed perm-wearing yoga-doing Nike CEO Phil Knight. Affleck takes the subject matter seriously enough so we feel the dramatic stakes, but ultimately nobody takes a story of rich people getting richer too terribly seriously, much to the movie’s benefit.

   Where to Stream air

1. The Last Duel

   This medieval-era #MeToo riff on Rashomon found Affleck and Damon collaborating on their first screenplay — this time with contributions by Nicole Holofcener — since Good Will Hunting. They piece together a saga set in the 1300s that’s simultaneously funny and serious as it tells three different perspectives on a traumatic episode of sexual assault. Damon dons one hell of a mullet as he duels with Adam Driver over Jodie Comer’s honor, Affleck playing a foppish twat in what may be the most entertaining performance of his career. It’s also the best movie Ridley Scott directed in the last decade.

   Where to Stream the last duel

1. Gone Baby Gone

   Affleck’s directorial debut — notably the only film he directed that he doesn’t also act in — seems to draw influence from Clint Eastwood’s directorial efforts, in terms of dramatic intensity and classic-Hollywood storytelling sensibilities. Of course, a few years prior, Eastwood had also helmed a Lehane adaptation, Mystic River, and Affleck may have been drafting on its success to a degree. But on its own terms, Gone Baby Gone is a riveting drama that shows how Affleck’s work as an actor informs his work as a director, earning Amy Ryan an Oscar nomination for playing a fraught single mother whose daughter has been kidnapped. This also finds Casey Affleck truly coming into his own as an actor of considerable merit.

   Where to Stream gone baby gone

1. The Town

   Say it with me: BAHH-STIN. And here’s the point in our list where Affleck’s work feels truly vital, his youthful passion and energy channeled into this one-last-score action-thriller about Masshole townies staging a heist of Fenway freakin’ Park. He directs himself, surrounded by one hell of a cast, including Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, and Chris Cooper, and the result is rich with urban atmosphere and tightly wound tension. It’s as rewatchable as movies get.

   Where to Stream the town

1. Good Will Hunting

   So what’s better, the surprising debut Oscar winner or the big rousing accomplished Oscar winner? Both are classics of their time. Coin flip, then, and we land on Affleck and Damon, the Hollywood wunderkinds who penned a script about a rough-around-the-edges janitor-slash-math-genius who forges a warm relationship with college professor Robin Williams and pursues love with Minnie Driver. The dynamic duo’s screenplay is a warm, funny winner, marking their emergence as generational talents. Them apples? They’re delicious.

   Where to Stream good will hunting

1. Argo

   A mark of a true filmmaker is an ability to hold audiences in suspense even when they know how the story ends. And that’s what Affleck does with remarkable skill and precision, dramatizing this BOATS (Based On A True Story) thriller about a CIA operative who staged the filming of a sci-fi movie as cover to extract Americans from Iran during the hostage crisis. Weirdly, Affleck didn’t get an Oscar nod for best director, but Argo won best picture, and his producer credit means he got to deliver a speech anyway, tinged as it was with a little Argo-f-yourself energy. The Oscars can be dumb, and the Oscars can be great, but this movie is only the latter.

   Where to Stream argo

John Serba is a freelance film critic from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Werner Herzog hugged him once.