There aren’t many actors or celebrities who’ve had quite the same career trajectory as Ben Affleck. A breakout 1990s star that took home the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with his childhood friend Matt Damon for their highly personal work on Good Will Hunting, Affleck went through a period of critical decline at the beginning of the 21st century, but bounced back after making the switch to directing, and starring in films from directors like David Fincher and Terrence Malick.

Affleck’s directorial work is often surprising, as he seems to find personal entry points to wildly different types of stories. Affleck would later win the Oscar for Best Picture for Argo, a trophy he took home despite being left out of the Best Director lineup. Although his brief stint as Bruce Wayne in the DCEU didn’t become a success, Affleck returned to more interesting acting projects in the past few years with The Last Duel, The Way Back, The Tender Bar, and even a self-deprecating cameo in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He continues to add valuable insight in his interviews about the state of the film industry, and has returned to directing with the new Amazon film Air. Here is every film directed by Affleck.
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Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Gone Baby Gone was an unexpected directorial debut from Affleck: it’s a brutal, hauntingly cynical noir that explores the cyclical nature of the crime, drug abuse, and police corruption in Affleck’s hometown of Boston. While it’s the only film he directed in which he didn’t star, Affleck handed the leading role over to his brother Casey Affleck, who delivers one of the best performances of his career as the principled private investigator Patrick Kenzie.

It’s unsurprising that Affleck has often cited his admiration of Chinatown, because Gone Baby Gone feels modeled after the noir classic; it’s not as much about the case itself as it is about looking into the seedy institutional forces that allowed it to occur. As Patrick digs into the disappearance of the young girl Amanda McCready, he finds that no one has their hands clean entirely. Amy Ryan’s Oscar-nominated performance as Amanda’s cocaine-addicted mother is truly despicable in a realistic way, but it’s Morgan Freeman’s heartbreaking, complex turn as Patrick’s supervisor that allows Gone Baby Gone to leave the audience with a serious moral quandary.

The Town (2010)

Image Via Warner Bros.

The Town is Affleck doing his best Michael Mann impression, and that’s not a bad thing! While it’s set again in Boston, The Town at least allows Affleck to have a little more fun exploring the city’s quirks and notable landmarks. It also signified a maturity in Affleck’s self-awareness; he stars as the veteran bank robber Doug MacRay, but hands the more scenery-chewing role of his volatile best friend Jem Coughlin to Jeremy Renner, in a performance that scored him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. It’s as if he was doing his version of Mean Streets but giving the role of Johnny Boy to Renner.

It’s once again the personal details given about each character that shows Affleck’s mastery of genre. The trauma that Doug’s first targets Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall) endures feels real, the villainous Fergie (Pete Posthelwaite) is terrifying in his restrained nature, and even Chris Cooper shows up for a wicked performance as Doug’s father. The heist sequences, of course, are simply electrifying.

Argo (2012)

Argo is an incredibly accomplished thriller that also works as a Hollywood satire, allowing Affleck to once again shows Affleck’s mastery of suspense. Argo is the story of CIA Agent Tony Mendez and his plan to rescue American hostages in Iran by filming a fake science fiction film.There’s a lot of great humor at the beginning thanks to standout supporting turns by John Goodman and Alan Arkin as Hollywood veterans, but it’s the Middle Eastern sequences where Affleck flexes his muscular directing skills. Perhaps it’s only a slice of Mendez’s real mission, but the level of tension Affleck is able to get out of a plane taking off at the right time or a truck moving through a field of potential enemies is just great movie making.

Live By Night (2016)

Image Via Warner Bros.

Live by Night became an easy target for Affleck’s doubters; it was released in 2016 as a failed award-season title that is right after the disappointment of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and became one of the most significant box office disasters of Affleck’s career. While it’s his least accomplished narrative, Live by Night is a satisfying throwback to epic gangster movies that gave Affleck the freedom to play around with the 1920s mob scene. He gives one of his more mature performances as the gangster Joe Coughlin, the love-stricken son of a disappointed Boston Police Captain (Brendan Gleeson) who goes on the run after the apparent death of his lover Emma Gould (Sienna Miller).

While the film is a little too haphazard with its multiple location shifts and revolving set of supporting characters, Affleck certainly put a lot of effort into fleshing out the historical details. Live by Night starts to really drag by the end, but the conclusion of Joe’s romantic journey when he falls for the illustrious Cuban woman Graciela Corrales (Zoe Saldaña) is quite touching, leading to a poignant ending that somehow makes the entire journey feel worthwhile.

Air (2023)

Image via Amazon Studios

In his only film not featuring graphic violence and suspense, Affleck made his comeback with an old-fashioned crowd-pleaser. Air is simply a blast, it’s impressive that a film about the origin of a basketball shoe is even interesting, and it’s even more incredible that Affleck crafted a story where the audience is rooting for a major company to make even more money. It’s the minutiae of the sports references, the personal moments given to every character, and the genuine sincerity that make Air something special. It’s got just enough of the snappy wordplay of an Aaron Sorkin script and the controlled chaos of a Robert Altman film to find a healthy balance.

Air stars Affleck’s old pal Damon as Sonny Vaccarro, a Nike salesman who attempts to sign Michael Jordan as a client; Sonny’s obsession with Jordan’s potential leads to the development of the Air Jordan shoe. It may feel like an extended episode of Mad Men, but the sincerity with which Sonny describes how Jordan represents the American dream makes Air a feel-good success for anyone that can still be moved by a “Time After Time” music cue.