I never thought much of Ben. Especially not blockbuster Ben when he was starring in things like
Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Daredevil and
The Sum of All Fears, which also coincides with most of the off-screen time he was the front half of the overexposed Bennifer J-Lo thing. I mean when you look at those movies plus
Gigli, Paycheck, Surviving Christmas, Reindeer Games...what's to like? And I'm no huge Kevin Smith fan, which I know is blasphemy to some, but the guy's movies just don't do it for me. However, I definitely like Ben in
Chasing Amy and
Dogma more than I like him in
Armafrickingeddon. And while I don't think the movies themselves are particularly special, I think he's passably decent in things like
Bounce, Boiler Room and
Changing Lanes. And the first person to say "Affleck was da bomb in
Phantoms, Yo!" gets coal in their stocking from me.
But having said all that, the last couple years have truly changed how I see Ben Affleck. I thought he was perfectly cast and did a superb job in
Hollywoodland, and even better than that his debut behind the camera for
Gone Baby Gone is quite good stuff. Based on the strength of those two projects alone, I find myself reevaluating and even liking the guy. Pretty shocking.
Now Casey, he's a different story.
As much as I've generally disliked Ben for most of his career, I have always found myself liking Casey Affleck on the screen. Ever since I saw him in Gus Van Sant's
To Die For (1995) as the even dumber foil to Joaquin Phoenix's murderous teen, I've liked him. He did a slight variation on that but sweetening him in
Drowning Mona and
200 Cigarettes (not good movies, but he's good in them), and did more complex and grown up version in the static
Gerry then took it as far as it can go in
Lonesome Jim, where he was terrific as a sad sack in a family of sad sacks. And while I found
The Last Kiss to be insufferably and tediously average, one of the only bright spots in it was the minor subplot involving Casey's character, which I would have liked to see a whole movie about instead of Zach Braff's dull character. He's also very funny in Soderbergh's
Ocean's movies, mostly playing off of Scott Caan as his on-screen bickering brother. The bit from
Ocean's 13 where Casey dons a ridiculous mustache to infiltrate the Mexican factory and winds up leading them in their labor strike is maybe the funniest thing out of all three of those movies.
And as much as I already liked him, his work this year is catapulting him even higher. First was
Ocean's 13, but then this autumn came the one-two punch of starring in
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Ben's
Gone Baby Gone. He's very good in
Jesse James, which is a very flawed movie but has elements that are fantastic, including Casey's performance. It's a performance I would have been even more impressed by if I hadn't seen
Gone Baby Gone literally the day before. That's his greatest piece of work to date, and big brother Ben gave it to him.
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