Review of The Town (2010) by Shane S — 25 Apr 2013

Ben Affleck's on a roll as of recently. Not only is the guy breaking out of his mainstream-actor role, he's also managing to create auteur work exploring his past and the relationships he has with various facets of his life. This is especially prevalent in his 2010 work "The Town," where he explores the morality and character of bank robbers residing in Boston. Yes, I've heard the cut I saw (the theatrical) was this extremely lean cut that got rid of a majority of character development (the character of Fergie suffers immensely from this), but from what I saw, it worked not only as a police procedural showing how immoral both sides of the coin are (the dehumanization of good-cop-bad-cop routines; the dehumanization of valuing money as more important than human life) but also as a drama about a man who just wants to make a name for himself without becoming the colossal screw-up his father is known as.

Works surprisingly well. I wouldn't be surprised to see if Affleck went on to directing full-time.