By Drew Grant 10/19/11 2:16pm

Crimes

'The Town!'

Brooklyn Looters Try to Recreate ‘The Town’

Usually when someone wants to become a criminal, they either have to be born into it (like Michael Corleone) or spend years proving their mastermind skills (Sean Connery in The Rock). That’s just how the law works. Very rarely are bad guys just allowed to watch a Ben Affleck movie and then recreate the scenarios in order to get off with heists. Which is just the sort of ingenious thinking a group of Brooklyn crooks used to evade the police when they did exactly that: taking the best plot devices from The Town to get away with…well, not murder. But a bunch of robberies. And they didn’t wear the nun masks. Read More

By Rex Reed 12/08/10 3:00am

movies

Up the Creek Without a Paycheck: The Company Men Paints a Moving, Nuanced Picture of Life After Layoffs

Ostriches with heads buried in the sand, or even moviegoers seeking diversionary entertainment stripped of all burdensome snags such as thought-provoking issues about the way we live now, be warned in advance: The Company Men is a timely, intelligently written, beautifully acted film of great sensitivity and wisdom about corporate downsizing that will make you Read More

By Andrew Sarris 4/14/09 4:51pm

The Crowe Flies! Russell Rules as Rusty, Truth-Seeking Journo

State of Play
Running time 127 minutes
Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray
Directed by Kevin MacDonald
Starring Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman

Kevin MacDonald’s State of Play, from a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray, is based on the six-hour BBC miniseries created Read More

By Sara Vilkomerson 2/03/09 8:18pm

The Movie That Made Me Never Want To Date Again

I was really looking forward to seeing He’s Just Not That Into You. Don’t judge! Admit it—you were, too. It’s been a cold, dark and depressing winter (and I’m not just talking about the weather), so is it any wonder that the ubiquitous and sunny trailer for the film—chock full of beautiful people like Jennifer Read More

By Felix Gillette 6/26/08 5:12pm

Beyond Gigli: Ben Affleck Takes Nightline To The Congo

Tonight on ABC’s Nightline, Ben Affleck will report an "essay" on his recent fact-finding mission concerning the humanitarian crisis in the Congo.

"It’s fairly clear that in the modern age that there is a currency to celebrity, or celebrity is a currency, really," Mr. Affleck told David Bauder of The Associated Press. "I’ve Read More

By John Koblin 10/31/07 12:13am

Was Affleck Misquoted? It’s All In the Details

Details editor in chief Dan Peres was caught in a journalistic quandary on Tuesday afternoon, left wondering about misquotes—whether one was made by himself, or by one of his freelancers, Bart Blasengame.

In the letters section of the magazine’s December issue that hit newsstands Tuesday, Mr. Peres wrote in an editor’s note: “Our November Read More

By Rex Reed 10/23/07 6:06pm

The Bread of Affleck-tion

GONE BABY GONE
Running Time 114 minutes
Written by Ben Affleck and Aaron Stockard
Directed by Ben Affleck
Starring Casey Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris

At the movies, 10 months of junk are over and we’re moving into the 2007 homestretch with an avalanche of serious works so dour you’ll just want to kill Read More