Ben Affleck is an incredible director, and I'm expecting a blizzard forecast from the bowels of Hell any day now..

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 2010)

The director is the most important single person in the production of a motion picture. Like on a football team, each player has a role, but the Quarterback is the difference maker. A director has to be exceptional at two things to master his craft, the first being that they must be able to overcome the limitations of the camera. By this I mean, most people think of the camera as a tool, the cinematographer would certainly say that it is – but to the actual story-teller (i.e. the director) the camera, and the limitations of its movement and the constraints of the frame, are an obstacle, one that must be traversed with deft skill to get the story across. The second element to master is what I call "building a set," this is not to suggest actual physical set construction, but rather an atmosphere on location of the shoot that allows your actors to achieve their best work. This last element is very difficult. If you've ever been on a motion picture set, you know that literally everyone except the director and actors involved in that shot – from the camera operators, to the sound techs, to the grips and teamsters are all tapping their feet, impatiently waiting to go to the Kraft Table and get some food. It's amongst this atmosphere that a director must ask his actors to pretend they are someone else, somewhere else – with all the subtleties of 'reality' interjected – and make it completely believable. The director must make the actors feel no rush, no pressure, and to gently ease them into the skin of another person. Its even far more difficult than it sounds. Usually the best directors at this second trait are often former actors – for obvious reasons. Once you've worked in the craft, you respect the subtleties required to master it. Hollywood has a laundry list of Luke-warm actors who turned out to be excellent directors for this exact reason – both Richie Cunningham and Dirty Harry come to mind. Well, believe it or not, Ben Affleck now belongs on this list. And the two traits I mentioned above, he possesses in spades. I know, I know impossible to believe, right? Mikey's lost his mind, right? Go see 'The Town,' and tell me I'm wrong. The Town, co-written, co-produced, directed by and starring Ben Affleck is a by-the-numbers heist thriller, that has no real surprises or twists – and yet is exceptional for one reason = Affleck. Scenes where you know the outcome before it begins are still gripping because they are so well acted and shot. But Ben's not alone in his brilliance – almost every actor involved gives one the best performances of their careers including both Blake Lively and Jon Hamm (who jigs like Nero with his Fiddle while playing a wicked evil cop) and part of that must be attributed to Affleck's direction. And Chris Cooper has only one scene, but his gravity is so severe I felt myself being pulled into the center of the Earth by it. But the stand-out performance here belongs to Jeremy Renner who plays the type of friend you love because he's your ally, yet you'd fear and loath him if his loyalties lied elsewhere. A dragon of a friend, one who would eat you if he didn't love you. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a landmark film (like say Inception) or a possible Best Pic nod, in fact the film is very simple and straight forward. If you like action films with razors' edge dialogue and a healthy dose of moral ambiguity – you are going to love this film, but it ain't Citizen Kane. It didn't reinvent formula or advance the genre or anything like that, instead its proof that a well made film doesn't have to break convention or change the way scripts are written to be worth the price of admission. What I loved most about the picture was it had some of the best dialogue in a film since Tarantino convinced everyone with Pulp Fiction that campy, unbelievable dialogue is how people in action movies are supposed to talk. Instead the film portrays dangerous, uneducated, unpredictable people who talk like dangerous, uneducated, unpredictable people. It was so refreshing it felt like cool spring water from a hose in 110 degree weather. Furthermore, it convinced me that Affleck wrote more of Good Will Hunting's epic dialogue than I ever thought possible beforehand. Frankly, I thought Damon wrote that script while Ben smoked weed on the couch. The Town proved I was wrong, in fact some of the best dialogue in that film was Affleck's alone – cutting riffs and dry comebacks are Ben's literary specialty. So tomorrow you might look out the window and see a pig flying to work, or Dana Carvey might wake up with monkeys literally flying out of his butt, because Ben Affleck is a major directorial talent. Who knows maybe Carrot Top is waiting in the wing with a script that will become the next Rashomon, at this point I believe anything is possible... but I doubt it.