Boston, The Cradle of Modern America, is again the setting of Ben Affleck's latest film, The Town. Like it's predecessor Gone Baby Gone, which is Affleck's directorial debut, it also has the grimy and hard knock outlook from the squalor in Boston. Unlike Gone Baby Gone though, he venture into the heist-genre.  Being his second endeavor as a director, he successful and skilfully captured scenes with intensity and  momentum. All credit's due to the acting and set pieces. You may compare it to Michael Mann's Heat or most notably from strictly plot similarities to F. Gary Gray's Set It Off, either way Affleck put his own mark on the heist-genre. Jeremy Renner character Jem, who's Doug's (Affleck) right hand man and best friend, did a great job playing the trigger happy and hot head person on the job but still kept his posture and cool throughout the film. Jon Hamm, who is well known as the main protagonist of AMC's Mad Men plays FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley, who'll go out his way to get Affleck and his gang. He did a good job but I have a hard time not seeing Don Draper playing a cop. Hopefully in future roles he'll spice up his abilities as an actor and not play the straight face serious guy in the scene, he needs a comedy soon. The most impressive performances were the women, most notably Blake Lively, who's Jem's sister and Doug's ex-girlfriend, Krista. I've never seen Gossip Girl, but I do know she usually play the sweet innocent girl in many television shows and films. In this role she transform herself into the opposite of what she usually plays. Rebecca Hall also did a good job playing Affleck's love interest, Claire. As for the set pieces, they were subtle and incredibly directed. The cinematography is on par with Martin Scorsese's The Departed or Clint Eastwood's Mystic River. We get to see Boston again, but I think Affleck wanted it's narrow neighborhoods as it's main aspect for the film. This is personally one of top films this year and seeing Affleck molding into a great director is quite amazing.