Matt Damon is one of our finest actors. Year after year and movie after movie he continues to churn out interesting, nuanced, emotionally complex performances, no matter what genre the movie may be. Just this year he has turned in two terrific performances in Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone and Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter, plus an assuredly compelling performance in this week’s release of the Coen Brothers’ True Grit. He’s an exciting actor, one that always makes a movie better with his presence, and here’s hoping he’ll continue acting for another fifty years. With True Grit opening this week, it’s time to take a look back at the five best movies Matt Damon has appeared in.
Here are the five best movies of Matt Damon’s career…
The Departed (2006)
Matt Damon has worked with truly the best directors in the business. Greengrass, Eastwood, Gus Van Sant, Steven Spielberg, Anthony Minghella, Steven Soderbergh, and lots more. In 2006 he finally teamed up with Martin Scorsese in the hugely successful The Departed, which finally earned Scorsese his Oscar. While the movie isn’t in the same league as Scorsese’s work 1990 and prior, the movie has plenty of surprises and fine moments, and a great lead role for Damon.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Featuring one of Damon’s most courageous and dark performances, The Talented Mr. Ripley is a fine piece of filmmaking, one that features exotic locations, big twists and turns, and an incredible cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
All three are great, but the one that seems to work the best in subsequent viewings is the second installment. While the first one was still trying to find its voice, and the third one starts to feel a tad redundant by the second half, the second installment is pure excitement from beginning to end, with a devastating opening, a handful of great fights, and an awesome supporting performance by Joan Allen.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Steven Spielberg’s enduring masterpiece still ranks as one of his finest efforts, and Damon’s title role performance is one of his best, coming in toward the end of the movie. Those mind-boggling opening twenty minutes to this day still feature some of the most raw, chilling images ever committed to celluloid.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
It’s the movie that gave Damon a career, and it still is his best. Written by Damon and his pal Ben Affleck, who has come into his own as a filmmaker this year with the brilliant The Town, Good Will Hunting is one of those seminal 90’s movies that has aged extremely well, featuring touching performances by Damon, Minnie Driver, and an Oscar-winning Robin Williams. Here’s hoping Damon writes another screenplay some day. He’s clearly as good a writer as he is an actor.
