What are the greatest Ben Affleck movies? It's a tough question to answer. Not since Ted Williams of the Red Sox has there been a man as synonymous with Boston as Ben Affleck. And there's a reason for that status: Ben Affleck has been in some of the best (and, to be blunt, the worst) films ever made. But there are at least 32 movies starring the award-winning actor that are well worth your time.
Born in California but raised in Massachusetts, Ben Affleck – who inherited his acting chops from his estranged father, a former theater actor – began his own career in local commercials at the age of seven. Though his mother, a teacher, hoped her sons (both Ben and Casey Affleck, also a major actor) would pursue other careers, acting was simply in the family blood. In high school, Affleck grew closer with a childhood friend, Matt Damon; the two eventually created a joint bank account that would pay for their trips to New York for auditions.
While his acting career can be traced back to PBS children's specials, Affleck's time in Hollywood saw him zig-zag as uncredited extras (such as in 1992's Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and minor roles (such as his unnamed bully in 1993's Dazed and Confused) before eventually finding his stride. After 1997's Good Will Hunting, Affleck (along with best buddy Matt Damon) was never the same.So, grab yourself a nice tall Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and settle in: here are 32 of the greatest Ben Affleck movies of all time.
32. Bounce
Year: 2000
Director: Don Roos
Ben Affleck transforms from playboy to repentant would-be lover in Don Roos' romantic drama Bounce. Affleck stars as an advertising executive who switches seats with a family man (Tony Goldwyn) only for the plane to crash in a huge disaster. After connecting with the man's widow (Gwyneth Paltrow), his chance to make amends becomes an unexpected shot at love. While its understated tone might come off as too sleepy for some, Bounce boasts solid performances by both Affleck and Paltrow.
31. Hypnotic
Year: 2023
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Ben Affleck and director Robert Rodriguez team up in this mind-bending action thriller. In Hypnotic, Ben Affleck plays a detective who discovers that his missing daughter and some high-profile bank robberies might be connected somehow, leading him on a chase aided by a fortune teller (Alice Braga). Though Hypnotic isn't as refined as anything from its obvious inspirations of Christopher Nolan and David Fincher's works, it's pure popcorn entertainment that doesn't demand too much brain power.
30. Boiler Room
Year: 2000
Director: Ben Younger
Ben Affleck's total screen time in Ben Younger's Boiler Room is short, but it's by far one of his most memorable moments. In this white-collar crime drama, a group of ambitious and hyper-aggressive twenty-somethings try to make their millions at a cutthroat Long Island brokerage firm. Ben Affleck has a minor role as established broker Jim Young, whose five-minute monologue about getting what's yours can inspire anyone to hustle the day away. In the spirit of Glengarry Glen Ross and future works like The Wolf of Wall Street and HBO's Industry, Boiler Room cranks up the heat.
29. Forces of Nature
Year: 1999
Director: Bronwen Hughes
A meet-cute between Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock is something of an act of God. In Bronwen Hughes' surprisingly dreamlike rom-com, Affleck plays a copywriter on his way from New York to Georgia for his wedding when his plane is grounded in a freak occurrence. With time running out, Affleck's character – named Ben, funny enough – joins up with a free-spirited drifter (Bullock) to get to his wedding on time. Together, they tempt fate and Ben's commitment while learning from each other over many, many miles.
28. Mallrats
Year: 1996
Director: Kevin Smith
Wildly immature sexual politics aside, Kevin Smith's Mallrats is a '90s slacker cult classic that casts an ember on the cultural influence shopping malls had on American youths. In Smith's sophomore movie following his seminal hit Clerks, two best friends, T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee), spend the day causing chaos at their local shopping mall after their girlfriends dump them. Ben Affleck, dressed like a wannabe Calvin Klein model, plays slimy Shannon Hamilton, who has already scooped up T.S.' girlfriend Rene (Shannen Doherty).
27. Paycheck
Year: 2003
Director: John Woo
Paycheck was panned by critics during its release in 2003, dismissed as another lunkheaded action flick by John Woo where guns go bang and explosions go boom. And sure, that is Paycheck in essence. But it has some merit, too, being one of the only sci-fi movies made by action auteur John Woo. Ben Affleck reinforces his action lead chops as a top-rate engineer who undergoes regular memory wipes but must now race against time to piece together what he's forgotten. Paycheck is a Hitchcock imitator with some of Woo's heroic bloodshed flair; a middling movie is a small price to pay to see something so unusual.
26. Jersey Girl
Year: 2004
Director: Kevin Smith
Departing from his "View Askewniverse" continuity and sensibilities, director Kevin Smith reveals his skill at conventional studio romantic comedies with the 2004 movie Jersey Girl. Ben Affleck stars as a widowed single father and former celebrity publicist who raises his daughter in his New Jersey hometown. After meeting a pretty grad student (Liv Tyler), Affleck's character finally gets a new lease on life. Although Jersey Girl bombed hard at the box office, it is lovely stuff from Affleck and Smith, who are not usually so wholesome.
25. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Year: 2001
Director: Kevin Smith
It may only be a supporting role, but Ben Affleck has never been more chill than in his return as Holden (from Chasing Amy) in Kevin Smith's laugh-out-loud road trip flick Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. In this Avengers-like sequel to Smith's shared universe of New Jersey comedies, the titular Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) set out to Hollywood to get royalties for a major movie based on their comic book likenesses. Affleck plays both an exhausted Holden and a version of himself, whose work on the hypothetical film "Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season" is interrupted by some loud extras. No one but Jay has seen Phantoms, but apparently, Affleck was the bomb in it.
24. Extract
Year: 2009
Director: Mike Judge
Mike Judge's Extract may not have the same footprint as the creator's other memorable works like Beavis and Butt-Head, Office Space, or Idiocracy, but this laid-back workplace comedy has some juice. In the footsteps of his own cult comedy Office Space, Judge returns to roasting workspaces, this time at a flavor factory. Jason Bateman plays factory boss Joel, whose personal and professional lives collide when a beautiful con artist (Mila Kunis) starts working at the factory as a temp. With a shaggy haircut and an unkempt beard, Ben Affleck plays against his own type to appear in the supporting role of bartender Nathan, Joel's sleazy best friend and confidant.
23. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Year: 2016
Director: Zack Snyder
Though his casting set the internet ablaze, Ben Affleck wound up being the Batman we all deserved – just maybe not the one we needed circa 2016. In Zack Snyder's highly divisive DC epic, Ben Affleck debuts as a world-weary Batman who squares off with Superman (Henry Cavill) in a superheroic showdown of the ages. While Snyder's baroque and exceedingly grim vision for the DC Universe polarized audiences, leaving the superhero movie to attract overwhelmingly negative reviews, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has aged rather well as a director-oriented take on the biggest superhero icons of all time.
22. To the Wonder
Year: 2012
Director: Terrence Malick
A floating camera, minimal dialogue, and unconventional means of cinematic storytelling make To the Wonder a polarizing but no less provocative work of art. From auteur Terrence Malick, this experimental romantic drama sees Affleck fall for a beautiful French woman (Olga Kurylenko) in Paris. But upon their move to rural Oklahoma, their romance fizzles, leaving Affleck's troubled lead Neil to rekindle a romance with an old flame (Rachel McAdams). To the Wonder might captivate you or leave you snoozing, but its meditative spiritualism makes it undeniably one of a kind.
21. Armageddon
Year: 1998
Director: Michael Bay
You don't want to miss a thing about Michael Bay's Armageddon. This wham-bam sci-fi blockbuster, a massive hit in 1998, stars Bruce Willis as blue-collar deep-core driller Harry, whose team is recruited by NASA to break up an asteroid before it destroys all life on Earth. Ben Affleck co-stars as A.J., who plans to marry Harry's daughter (Liv Tyler) upon their return, much to Harry's dismay. Superfluous and furious, Armageddon is just too big to fail, especially with Aerosmith's all-time arena rock ballad "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" as an end credits needle drop.
20. The Tender Bar
Year: 2021
Director: George Clooney
We can all use an Uncle Charlie. In George Clooney's warm adaptation of Pulitzer-winner J. R. Moehringer's 2005 memoir, a young J.R. (Daniel Ranieri, with Tye Sheridan also playing an older version of the character) learns the ropes of manhood from his wisecracking, street smart uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck). Over many years of sitting at Charlie's bar, J.R. hones in on his destiny of becoming a writer. Though The Tender Bar doesn't aspire to much beyond the sentimental patina of first-wave Gen X nostalgia, the movie is a winning turnout for Affleck, whose Uncle Charlie is the surrogate father figure we wished we had.
19. Going All the Way
Year: 1997
Director: Mark Pellington
Just before the breakout success of Good Will Hunting, Ben Affleck played a Korean War veteran who comes home to disappointment and disillusionment in Mark Pellington's Going All the Way. Based on the novel by Dan Wakefield, Ben Affleck and Jeremy Davies play high school alumni who reconnect as Korean War veterans. But back home in Indianapolis, the soldiers have a new mission: to navigate their estrangement to once-familiar surroundings. While the theatrical version of the film drew mostly positive reviews in 1997, an extended "director's cut" version was released in 2022 with an additional 50 minutes of scenes that alter the movie to include more thematic darkness and sensitivity towards the characters' existential crises. It's become one of the best war movies that too few have actually seen.
18. The Sum of All Fears
Year: 2002
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Picking up where Harrison Ford left off, Ben Affleck steps into the shoes of Jack Ryan in Phil Alden Robinson's The Sum of All Fears. The world is on the brink of total nuclear destruction when a billionaire Neo-Nazi attempts to trigger a war between the US and Russia. As the world's superpowers come closer to activating armageddon, Affleck's Jack Ryan races against time to stop it. Big and bombastic, The Sum of All Fears is slightly dumber than its predecessors, but its alarming depiction of domestic terrorism was potent in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.
17. Changing Lanes
Year: 2002
Director: Roger Michell
In this dramatic thriller that quietly functions as an exercise in ethics, Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson co-star as two men from different worlds whose car accident in crowded New York City ignites a bitter war of personal vendettas. As Affleck and Jackson trade devastating blows that ruin both of their lives, Changing Lanes raises questions about what is right and what is just. Though Jackson may be the better actor of the two to watch, Affleck is no slouch, inhabiting the role of an over-privileged jerk eerily well.
16. The Way Back
Year: 2020
Director: Gavin O'Connor
The Covid-19 pandemic buried what could have been the movie universally recognized as holding one of Ben Affleck's greatest performances in years. Gavin O'Connor's The Way Back sees Affleck play a former high school basketball star who works to make amends by coaching his alma mater's team. Though The Way Back treads very familiar narrative ground, Affleck's stand-out performance suggests an intimate understanding of his character. Though the movie saw a muted release due to the pandemic, critics heaped praise on Affleck's work.
15. Zack Snyder's Justice League
Year: 2021
Director: Zack Snyder
In a nutshell, the disaster that was the 2017 movie Justice League inspired a years-long, somewhat problematic fan campaign for Zack Snyder's original cut of the movie. In 2021, Warner Bros. yielded and – with some touch-ups by Snyder, including new scenes – finally released Zack Snyder's Justice League. Though Snyder's "director's cut" still buckles under the weight of its ambitions, the "Snyder Cut" is a far more complete film with heart and soul beneath its Teflon surface. Ben Affleck anchors the movie as Batman, who returns to unite the world's greatest heroes and resurrect the now-dead Superman to save Earth from an alien threat. This is also easily one of the best DC movies ever made, so it's well worth your time and attention.
14. The Company Men
Year: 2010
Director: John Wells
In this post-financial crisis drama, Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, and Chris Cooper play affluent businessmen whose lives are changed suddenly by corporate downsizing. As the three all pursue new livelihoods – including Affleck's Bobby, who picks up manual work with his older brother Jack (Kevin Costner) as a home renovator – they re-learn what it means to be a provider and to start from zero. In this tender examination of masculinity and identity, The Company Men feels like a balm to anyone struggling to navigate the new normal of the modern economy.
13. Hollywoodland
Year: 2006
Director: Allen Coulter
It's easy to have a laugh over Ben Affleck wearing a Superman costume before his time playing Batman, but Allen Coulter's Hollywoodland is nothing to sneer at. Set at the end of Hollywood's Golden Age, Ben Affleck plays real-life actor George Reeves (best known as the star of TV's Adventures of Superman), whose untimely death still leaves some unanswered questions. While the movie is half a glitzy murder mystery – with Adrian Brody leading as a private detective – the other half is a meditation on the difficulties of fame. That part Affleck shoulders like a Man of Steel, portraying a vulnerable man who only looked invincible on TV.
12. Triple Frontier
Year: 2019
Director: J.C. Chandor
Kicking off with a Metallica needle-drop ("For Whom the Bell Tolls"), J.C. Chandor's masculine heist thriller Triple Frontier follows a team of former Delta Force squadmates who band together to steal a Colombian kingpin's personal fortune of $75 million. That team consists of Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunham, Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal, and, of course, Ben Affleck, whose Tom "Redfly" Davis gets them on the mission before nearly jeopardizing it for them all. As heavy as artillery, Triple Frontier is a propulsive shoot-'em-up heist flick that ditches the slickness of Ocean's Eleven to ask what a soldier's life really costs.
11. State of Play
Year: 2009
Director: Kevin Macdonald
While a remake of a 2003 British television series of the same name, Kevin Macdonald's State of Play grapples with the unique bloodsport that is modern American politics. In this taut thriller, Russell Crowe prowls the underbelly of Washington, D.C., as a journalist who investigates the death of an assistant engaged in an affair with a prominent Congressman, played by Ben Affleck. A solid, well-made thriller, State of Play is a fine throwback to Watergate-era political conspiracies with modern touches.
10. The Last Duel
Year: 2021
Director: Ridley Scott
A spiritual reincarnation of Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon for the #MeToo era, Ridley Scott's handsome period epic The Last Duel – based on the 2004 nonfiction book by Eric Jager – dramatizes the last-ever recorded trial-by-combat in French history. Matt Damon and Adam Driver square off as former knights turned bitter rivals, after Damon's Jean de Carrouges accuses Jacques le Gris (Driver) of assaulting his wife (Jodie Comer). In the middle of it, all is Ben Affleck as the oft-tipsy womanizer Count Pierre d'Alençon, who delivers some welcome levity to the movie's heavy theatrics.
9. Dogma
Year: 1999
Director: Kevin Smith
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are angels from hell, so to speak, in Kevin Smith's delirious religious satire and cult classic Dogma. Affleck and Damon star as exiled angels whose mission to return to heaven via a divine "loophole" on Earth threatens all existence, compelling a woman-in-crisis named Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) to spring into action. Dogma is a sinfully good time with surprising sweetness, a comedy anyone of any faith can enjoy with no small jabs thrown at the Catholic Church – an attribute that conjured serious controversy from pro-religious groups during the movie's initial release in 1999.
8. Air
Year: 2023
Director: Ben Affleck
A shoe is just a shoe until Michael Jordan steps in it. In this true-to-life sports drama, the origins of the revolutionary "Air Jordan 1" sneaker are dramatized in Ben Affleck's breezy Air. Matt Damon plays real-life marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, who gambles on up-and-coming basketball player Michael Jordan (played by Damian Young) to save his career – but in doing so, he changes popular culture forever. Affleck, who directs, also co-stars as eccentric Nike CEO Phil Knight, whose loud tracksuits and bare feet make him the movie's true MVP. Air isn't a game-changer, but it's a laid-back biopic that might inspire you to sign up for Flight Club.
7. The Accountant
Year: 2016
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Ben Affleck inhabits a whole different side of his artistic spectrum in Gavin O'Connor's razor-sharp action thriller The Accountant. Affleck stars as Christian Wolff, a spectacled public accountant and mathematics savant who secretly makes a fortune cleaning up the accounting records of the world's worst criminals. After taking on a legitimate client, Affleck's Christian makes a startling discovery that jeopardizes not just his living, but his life. Though it received mixed reviews at first, The Accountant slowly grew a cult audience whose passion for it led to a sequel, The Accountant 2, in 2025.
6. The Town
Year: 2010
Director: Ben Affleck
Only Ben Affleck would make an A-plus heist thriller set in his native Boston. Affleck directs and stars in The Town as Doug, the ringleader of a gang of thieves who gets romantically involved with a pretty bank manager (Rebecca Hall) following a traumatic heist. The action climaxes in one final score where the prize is over three million dollars from Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox. (Go, Sox!) A hard-nosed action thriller mixed with doomed romance, Affleck exerts his muscle as not only a leading man but a director whose commercial appeal isn't at the expense of his craft.
5. Argo
Year: 2012
Director: Ben Affleck
Based on impossibly true events, Ben Affleck directs and stars in his Oscar-winning feature Argo, playing real-life CIA agent Tony Mendez, who spearheaded a most unlikely rescue mission during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. After the US embassy in Tehran is stormed by Islamic extremists, Mendez (Affleck) and the CIA invent a production for a fake science fiction movie that is actually a cover for an operation to rescue six diplomats still left behind. While Argo aggravated historians – and even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter – for its exaggerated storytelling and factual inaccuracies, Argo earns its Best Picture Oscar as a popcorn thriller that relishes the fantasy of Hollywood coming to the rescue.
4. Chasing Amy
Year: 1997
Director: Kevin Smith
There's just something about Chasing Amy. Kevin Smith's third directorial feature, and perhaps the most grown-up movie in his body of work, has been equally celebrated and reviled since its release in 1997, being an intimate indie drama about a straight comic book writer (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian artist (Joey Lauren Adams). Though Chasing Amy has drawn widespread criticism over its problematic narrative, it's easily one of Smith's best works as a director. It is one of Affleck's best, too, with the future tabloid fixture looking scraggly and jagged-edged and goateed in a way we all remember the mid-'90s.
3. Shakespeare in Love
Year: 1998
Director: John Madden
John Madden's period rom-com Shakespeare in Love controversially won the Oscar over fan favorite Saving Private Ryan, which has regrettably dimmed its reputation. But Shakespeare in Love is still a well-made Hollywood romance and easily one of the greatest for Ben Affleck, even if Affleck doesn't take center stage as the Bard. While the film primarily centers on the fictional love affair between William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) and his muse, Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), Ben Affleck plays a supporting part as Ned, a character heavily inspired by real-life Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn.
2. Gone Girl
Year: 2014
Director: David Fincher
Based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike star as the world's most toxic married couple in Gone Girl. In this psychological thriller, ice-cold pseudo-celebrity Amy Dunne (Pike) orchestrates her own disappearance from her cheating husband Nick (Ben Affleck), subjecting him to public scrutiny as the number one prime suspect in her assumed "death." While Pike is the movie's true star in her portrayal of a dangerous woman, Affleck holds his own as her flummoxed husband who can't help but dig a bigger hole for himself with every passing comment.
1. Good Will Hunting
Year: 1997
Director: Gus Van Sant
The movie that launched Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to superstardom is still among the best movies of their careers. Written by Affleck and Damon (who originally conceived it as a high-concept action thriller), the Oscar-nominated drama follows an MIT janitor and a self-taught savant, Will (Damon), who undergoes court-mandated therapy with a life-changing therapist (Robin Williams). Along for the ride is Ben Affleck as Chuckie, Will's lifelong best friend who insists there's a better life for him beyond Boston. Plenty has been said about Damon's star-making performance and Williams' unforgettable monologues. Still, Affleck contributes his own share as the best friend we all need to push us beyond our comfort zone.
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