Spring 2014 #1: Good Will Hunting (1997) - Gus Van Sant

So I decided that I had so much fun doing my Winter Movie Bucketlist of 15 critically acclaimed films in 15 days, that I would do it again with my Spring Break. Because of some traveling I decided to cut it down to a simple 5 films, and that instead of the theme being “Those culturally significant films that always come up in conversation that I’ve never seen,” it would be “Directors who always come up in conversation whose films I’ve never seen.” This first film doesn’t fit that as well, but last night I saw Matt and Ben’s (Oops, I mean… Gus Van Sant’s) Good Will Hunting.

So I’ve been trying to read up on this, and as far as I can tell, Matt and Ben were neighbors in Boston, Ben being a child actor and Matt being a Harvard student, and they were just two best friends who decided in their early 20s to write an OSCAR WINNING SCREENPLAY. Well damn. Okay. When Ben Affleck won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 1998, he became the youngest winner ever for the category at the age of 25. Matt was 27.

Okay well as jealous as all of this research makes me, I have to say that I actually loved the movie. The critique on higher education is so rewarding to watch as a college student, the intersection of opinions on genius versus privilege is powerful and entertaining, and the incredible performance of Matt Damon as a janitor working at MIT as a court-mandated probation who is actually a mathematical genius is very moving. 

So Matt’s character, Will Hunting, is an orphan who suffered from several broken homes and multiple physical and emotional abuses is discovered by MIT math professor after Will solves a theorem that puts him on a genius level above all of the staff at MIT. He is taken on as an assistant, but must also go to therapy with Dr. Sean Maguire, played by Robin Williams.

What I think makes the film so great is that the individual scenes all feel genuine and authentic, in both the writing and the acting. The internet tells me that Robin Williams ad-libbed some of his best lines, and Matt Damon just had to sit there and try to stay in character.

Also, I want to point out that it was a very odd experience for me to watch this movie after having seen the almost season-long plotline of Community that works as an homage to Good Will Hunting, where Troy Barnes is a college student who is a janitorial genius, as opposed to a janitor who is an academic genius.

Another reason I knew so much about this movie was because Mindy Kaling owes her rise to fame to Matt and Ben, since she wrote a off-Broadway parody play about their friendship that caused her to get her job as a staff writer for The Office. She played Ben.

Anyway, I loved the movie for its very thought-provoking take on how intelligence is different from life experience which is different from book smarts. Will Hunting’s girlfriend helps to combat Will’s underprivileged, innate genius with her hard-working but privileged upbringing. She is played by Minnie Driver.

Anyway. The film was nominated for 9 Oscars, but was unfortunately up against Titanic, which as we all know took home 11 Oscars in one night. Good Will Hunting did, however, get the Best Original Screenplay for Matt and Ben, as well as Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams.

Oh wait. Wrong movie.

There we go!

Argo (2012) - Ben Affleck

So I’ve seen Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Les Miz. I’ve decided that none of them are in the running to win Best Picture tomorrow night, so I decided to finally sit myself down and watch the real frontrunner, Argo.

I don’t know what it is about this movie. It won Best Drama at the Golden Globes, Best Cast at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, it won the Director’s Guild Award, the Producer’s Guild Award, Best Picture at the BAFTAs, and the Critics Choice Awards Best Picture. This film is DOMINATING Awards Season. It’s a clear favorite for the Academy Awards, and I don’t think anything can stop its momentum. I feel bad for the other movies, but who knows, anything can happen at the Oscars. But if any of the other films win, Ben Affleck will run on stage and say this line:

I thought Argo was going to be specifically about the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis. I thought, why on earth would I want to watch a historical movie about political turmoil in the middle east? (I didn’t want to watch Lincoln either, and I still haven’t seen Zero Dark Thirty). But the film actually specifically follows the “Canadian Caper,” a popularized name for the CIA operation in which six U.S. diplomats who had escaped the American Embassy in Tehran, Iran on the day the Iranian Hostage Crisis began were saved by CIA agent Tony Mendez because of a fake movie he used to get them out, entitled “Argo.” Now that my run-on sentences are over, I can talk about my opinion of the movie.

The story is compelling, intense, and entertaining, which didn’t surprise me at all considering how many awards it has already won. Ben Affleck manages to make an event that is probably still sensitive to some Americans (not Zero Dark Thirty sensitive, but still, controversial) and turn it into a fictionalized drama that has you on the edge of your seat. For the first half of the movie, the film stresses “this mission is extremely dangerous.” The CIA considers a plethora of ideas on how to get the diplomats out of Iran. Weirdly enough, the film hardly cares to follow the 52 Americans that were held captive in the American Embassy in Tehran for a STAGGERING 444 days by Iranian students and militants (yeah I do my research). But I think this specific mission gave the film a lighter, more goal-oriented tone. And I liked that.

Another thing I loved is that the film had John Goodman. You probably recognize him as this.

Another awesome thing about John Goodman is that if Argo wins, he’ll have been in two Best Picture winners in a row (he played Al Zimmer in The Artist). Good for him!

Anyway, the film was much more entertaining than I expected, and it also goes into the crazy stuff involved in making a film! Affleck’s character uses Goodman’s character as well as another character played by Alan Arkin to be the Hollywood producers to help him plan the film out. They have a real script, a real producer, and use real marketing to make the film as legitimate as possible for the Iranian government to believe them. Affleck goes in with stories and identities for each of the six diplomats, and the seven of them leave together as a film crew that is scouting a science fiction film in Iran. The whole process is nail-biting, jaw-dropping, and even funny at times. But I am not kidding when I say you will look like this the entire movie.

And when they finally get on the plane to go home, but even more intense drama is thrown into the scene:

I had a great time watching it, and I’m glad I finally got around to it. Do I think it deserves Best Picture? Meh… I’ll accept it if it does, but I wouldn’t have voted for it myself.