Hunk of the Month Club: Casey Affleck

If you dropped by Miss Soft Crab yesterday, you'll know that it's time to once again sing a song of praise to a hunk - this time a very special hunk that first came to the attention of Miss Soft Crab in 1995 through the film To Die For.

Personally, when I saw To Die For many many moons ago, I was struck by a few things.

First, Nicole Kidman can be really really great, and its such a relief when she is because I guess some part of me wants to like her.

Second, Joaqs is a stone cold fox, and really really awesome in this movie.

Third, Ileana Douglas is also really great in this movie, and she should work more. (Remind me to tell you all about the awesome movie Grace of my Heart  some time. I effing love that movie. It's basically a melodrama with heaps of singing in it, but is not a musical. And everyone is in it!  John Tuturro. Eric Stoltz. Matt Dillon. Chris Isaak. J Mascis. Everyone! And Ileana Douglas is awesome in it.

Fourth, and most importantly, who is Casey Affleck?

People, this is Casey Affleck.

Come for Joaqs, stay for Casey

Despite being a nobody and despite playing a minor character in a film with all these awesome people, he is the most compelling of them all and from then on, MSC has had trouble taking all four of our eyes off him.

So Mate, tell me, why is Casey Affleck so rad?

J: Why is Casey Affleck so rad? That is a great question! A really great one. Almost as good as why you love the movie Grace of My Heart so much but I guess we will leave that for another day.

It is pretty mindbending that such a minor and creepy character as Casey's in To Die For could capture our imaginations the way he did. The thing about Casey is that he is kind of handsome and kind of not. Kind of creepy and kind of not. It's like his awesomeness is balancing on a knife's edge and you just need to see more to figure out  what the hell is going on under all of that.
  

Period hunk.

K: It's so true. When hotness has shades of not-hotness, the overall impression is so much hotter than if the dude was just straight up hot. Also, Casey doesn't play the hot card and he doesn't really play leading men. It's like he's just there doing his thing and being hot is the furtherest thing from his mind. And that's hot.

J: Yes! Casey never plays the hot card! And it's just about the hottest thing a person can do! Back to his complexity for a sec, it's also that he has this kind of vulnerabilty but also a likely arsehole streak. So hot complex!

So I guess it was around the time of To Die For or possibly Good Will Hunting that we used to watch the movie Race the Sun all the time. I'd like to think that's because it was conveniently being played on your Foxtel all the time rather than because we sought it out. Right? Right! Have you seen the poster for that lately?

To think Casey could be attractive in that! Well it really his testimony to his genius and atractiveness.

K: Oh geez, I can't believe that such a great film (to watch when you're a bored teenager and you'll pretty much watch anything that is on) could have such a shit poster.

Further to your comments about Casey's genius and attractiveness, I just went to IMDB to have a look at his back catalogue and realised that I have not seen a whole bunch of his films, yet he looms large in my mind as a hunk. Genius and attractiveness!

I also discovered that he is going to be in some movie with Christian Bale and Sam Shepherd. Schwing!

J: Casey Affleck and Christian Bale?! Schwing! Schwing! Two of Hollywood's creepiest hunks together at last!  I can't wait for Out of the Furnace. To be fair though Bale beats Casey in the creep stakes. Yes he does.

Come on you guys, just one.

Anyway, did you know that Casey is more than just an almost pretty face and captivating screen prescence? According to Wikipedia he studied physics, astronomy, and Western philosophy at Columbia!

K: Bale beats everyone in the hunky creep stakes. He is the Phar Lap of hunky creeps. But Casey is a very competitive challenger.

And Casey, way to go on all that study, you clever hunk. A creepy hunk with a huge, huge brain? Hot.

And way to go on marrying Joaqs' sister, and producing babies that will potentially combine your hunky creepiness with the hunky vulnerability/volatility expressed so well on the Phoenix line.
#dynastiescanbesohot

J: Yeah, the Phoenix/Affleck combo is so natural. Joaqs has a bit of the creepy too. And Casey has a twist of vulnerability. There would be plenty of overlap in the Venn diagram of their hotness. Still, Casey is not the father of Joaqs' kids.

I guess we can't talk about Casey without acknowldging that his brother Ben is more famous and, weirdly, more widely considered the hunk. Is he? Is Ben Affleck considered a hunk still? Who knows. And who cares. There is only one Affleck for me.

K: And me.

But it's fine if Casey wants to hang out with his hit friends, right?

Mighty hunk triumvirate