Ben Affleck Thinks His Armageddon Commentary May Be His Best Work

Ben Affleck can’t believe Armageddon is in the Criterion Collection either. “I didn’t think of it as that kind of movie when he did it,” he admits, his feelings about Michael Bay’s end-of-the-world thriller more than apparent from his audio commentary on the film. “I didn’t know any better than to be really honest,” he admits, “but it’s an achievement I’m proud of and didn’t intend to be as good as I now think it is.” The petulant, snarky Affleck on display in the Armageddon commentary is a far cry from the wizened, raspy-voiced Affleck who now carries himself with a gentle, Diet Pepsi–infused gravitas. While current press-tour staples like visiting the Criterion Closet or listing your Letterboxd top four can be an exercise in proving your celebrity bona fides, there’s no better clout or legitimacy than being genuinely enthusiastic about your art. In that sense, Affleck takes to the Criterion Closet like a fish to water, plucking movie after movie.

With the exception of Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game and Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Affleck goes for a number of classic American films: Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, and Richard (“Rick,” as Affleck calls him) Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. “Here’s a movie I’m in,” he says with a grin as he pulls that one off the shelf. Per his own admission, several of the movies he picks inspired him both as an artist and as a human being; he cites Linklater’s approach to improvisation and collaboration as well as how Robert Townsend took authorship over his life and art in Hollywood Shuffle. As if his own earnest affection for movies weren’t enough, Affleck also whips out a handful of impressions, most notably of Sean Penn’s Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Did we know that Affleck did impressions? Well, we do now.

Once considered the dopey counterpart to Matt Damon’s profound intellect, Affleck continues to prove himself an increasingly astute and grounded movie star in the face of an ever-shifting industry. He approaches the Criterion Closet both as a genuine fan of Hollywood and as a filmmaker, keen to credit directors like the Coen brothers for their influence on his work. He concludes his haul by grabbing the late David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, a movie special to him because watching it was “the first and only time” he saw his father cry. The present-day Affleck and titular accountant from The Accountant 2 seems to briefly reach out and touch the Sad Affleck of days of yore in this final memory, his eyes almost misty and voice quiet. The Affleck of the past might have told us that Bull Durham is great because it’s horny. This Affleck is the one who tells us that Bull Durham is about “the dignity and courage and humanity of people who aspire to greatness, and maybe not reached it, but find a place where they can be at peace with that and who they are.”

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