MATT DAMON
One writer. Six films in a row. No mercy
THIS LIST COULD have been a lot longer (thank the Lord it wasn’t). Matt Damon is prolific. For my money, he’s one of the top five current movie stars because he never stops trying. Can you ever say of Damon that he’s repeating himself? Just playing ‘a Matt Damon type’? Over the next 13 hours I will see him transform many times over, and eat a great deal of snacks.
9am Good Will Hunting (1997)
–– The internet seems to think it’s 21 years since
Good Will Hunting came out, but that can’t be right because that would make me old. Damon looks so alarmingly young. He was 26 but he looks like a nine-year-old cosplaying as Leonardo Dicaprio. The film itself really holds up, especially the scenes with Robin Williams. There’s the merest hint of actorly excess from Damon when things get really emotional, but it’s a proper ‘a star has arrived’ performance.
11.15am ––The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
I thought I’d seen this, but it becomes apparent after five minutes that I have not; I’ve just seen many clips. It’s very good! Do people know this? It gets a bit boggy in the second half, but Damon’s work is stellar. He subtly shows how it becomes harder for Ripley to keep the mask up, not just when he’s under pressure but when he starts to want to trust people. Little bits of a different man leak out. Wait a second, he wasn’t Oscar-nominated for this? That is enormous bullshit. Oh okay, it was a strong year (Spacey/ Crowe/denzel), but still.
1.35pm Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
–– After being forced to watch Ocean’s Twelve last time — sweet relief. This is the perfect movie-star movie. I couldn’t care less what the plot is; I just like seeing famous beautiful people blowing the place up with charisma (it’s a bonus that the plot is also good). Damon’s willingness to exist just on the edge of the spotlight while Clooney, Pitt and Roberts take the centre is to his credit. I would happily watch this nine times, but won’t because there are still three to go.
3.45pm ––The Bourne Identity (2002)
Remember when we assumed this would be terrible because production was a disaster? Fools. While obviously the bulk of the credit for its success goes to Doug Liman (who, lest we forget, started the whole franchise, before Paul Greengrass took it over), Damon nails it. He’s so economical in his movement. No milking it. My dog ran out of the room during the apartment fight, so I hope I never have to rely on him if I’m attacked by a goon with a machine gun.
5.50pm ––The Martian (2015)
Love this movie. Love it. The last thing I should want after the eight hours I’ve already spent with him is another 144 with just Matt Damon for most of them, but he’s perfect in this role. Mark Watney could easily come off cocky and annoying, but he instead just seems like the sort of person you wouldn’t mind being stuck in space with, except when he started spreading shit around to grow his potatoes. No, thank you.
8.20pm Suburbicon (2017)
–– It’s a shame we’re ending on this. As both a thriller and a satire, about racial tension and a suspicious robbery, it’s stumbling around with its shoelaces tied together. It’s not Damon at his best, either. I wish we’d gone out with a bang. We had such a good thing going, Matt. Maybe I should end on a high by watching one of his better movies, like Interstellar, Margaret or the very underappreciated The Adjustment Bureau. But I won’t because it’s been 13 hours and my bum’s gone to sleep.