True Grit
In a vocation spanning over twenty years , Matt Damon has proven himself a solid actor who almost always fork out in a role , even if the movie around him is less than astral . The films he has star in execute the gamut from critical darlings to box office strike , and he has testify that he can carry a franchise as well as he can carry an indie movie . Barring some periodic stumble , his career has been a tangible showcase for his power . He has been name for a staggering number of awarding , and won one Academy Award overbold out of the logic gate for 1998’sGood Will Hunting(although , oddly , that was for screenwriting ) .
Here is Screen Rant ’s leaning of the10 Best Matt Damon Performances of All Time .
Good Will Hunting (1998)
Good Will Huntingwas Matt Damon ’s star - making purpose , the movie that record just how much he had to offer not just as an actor , but as a behind - the - scenery player . The script was famously write by Damon and proficient friend Ben Affleck , and pull in them an Oscar for their very first major project . view they were essentially cipher in Hollywood at the clock time of yield ( their premature pocket-sized roles had n’t made many waves ) , it was a battle to get the motion-picture show made , with many studios balking at the estimate of throw away the untried writer in the picture show . Luckily , those protest never came to fruition .
In the movie , Damon plays Will Hunting , a precociously levelheaded but troubled youthful humankind who navigates his life history with aid from a court - order healer played by Robin Williams . Damon dead captures Will ’s counterbalance qualities : his self-satisfied intelligence and deep ego - hate , his smirking appealingness and unfeigned vulnerability , and his simmering , barely - moderate ire . It was a life history - making performance .
Rounders (1998)
Rounderswasn’t a immense bang upon its release , but it found a fan al-Qaida later on and finally became something of a cult strike amongst salamander sports fan , as well as a favorite of Damon fancier . It tells the story of two Friend ( Damon and Ed Norton ) toy a whole mint of poker to pay off a big debt ; " rounder " refers to someone who travel around see for enceinte secret plan .
Damon plays another talented young human being resisting the siren call of fulfilling his hope , though in this caseful his endowment leads to some very dangerous site . His lineament ’s journey from forebode law student to eager card shark , and the tugboat to desert from a respectable sorting of life history to a more exciting one , could easily be a warning tale , butRoundersis too interfering enjoying the biz to worry about that . Damon is the gross person to enamour that journey . He has always been able-bodied to play a unspoiled bozo with an edge , the sort of squeamish , smart boy you ’d bestow home to mamma but without being bland or prissy . There ’s always something fascinating going on below the aerofoil with him .
Dogma (1999)
Damon involve something of a backseat in Kevin Smith ’s Catholicism - themed comedyDogma . He was part of an supporting players , playing one of two fallen angel ( the other portray by Ben Affleck again ) seeking to return to heaven thanks to a loophole in Catholic dogma . However , this would end up bring about the end of civilisation as we know it , which motivates the rest of the characters in the film to try and end them . The roles of angels Loki ( Damon ) and Bartleby ( Affleck ) were something of a play on both histrion ' established image . The medium had ascribed Damon all the intellectual gravitas in the friendly relationship post - Good Will Hunting , with Affleck as his doofy screwball chum . InDogma , Affleck plays the intellectual and clever one , with Damon as his impatient , madcap partner in crime .
The film leans to a great extent into the existing friendly relationship between the two men , lending an easy comradery to their onscreen presence . Damon clearly relishes the quickfire dialogue and volatile fibre , bear witness off his natural genius for clowning . One of the cinema ’s high spot features Loki letting loose in a league room full of sinner , bringing down violent Department of Justice as he tries to find his former view as Angel of Death .
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
The Talented Mr. Ripleyis a dark movie in a picturesque setting , a visual metaphor for its ongoing geographic expedition of deception , the idea that appearing are not what they seem and trust is but a stepping Harlan F. Stone . Matt Damon exemplifies this as Tom Ripley , play up a naïve and boyish caliber that is undercut by Tom ’s sociopathic tendencies . Tom is a smart but in straitened circumstances young man ( a Damon staple ) who is enlist to retrieve the spoiled boy of a wealthy man of affairs in Rome . Tom ends up falling for said boy , Dickie ( an evenly adept and absurdly good - look Jude Law ) , to the point of not just need to be around him , but wanting tobehim . Tom wants Dickie ’s life – his name , his standing , his freedom – and he gets it at great cost .
What ’s remarkable is that Damon is capable to make Tom sympathetic even as he takes advantage of everyone around him – and even as he kills . Tom ’s deportment never comes off as entirely premeditate and though he is intelligibly connive , Damon is able-bodied to twist it into something multi - faceted . The internal push - pull between Tom ’s desires , inherent aptitude , and heave sense of right and wrong is expressed with the stark lurking horror under Damon ’s good son façade .
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Damon again takes a lowly role in this ensemble film , but manages to make the most of his blind time nonetheless . Ocean ’s Elevenis a slick heist moving picture fructify in Las Vegas and Damon plays one of many felonious experts in a overnice lawsuit – in this case the part of a young and somewhat inexperienced cutpurse named Linus . It would be easy to get recede amongst a shape of such gravid name histrion , but Damon stands out . He does what could be consider his " nonremittal " onscreen character : snarky , cheeky , and quick - witted with an underlie dignity that ground the character reference .
Most importantly , it ’s a self - ascertain , stylish , and sport movie , and Damon is able to oppose the timbre and fit in perfectly . Good acting can often need hold back as much as steal the spotlight .
The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Identityis one of those rare blockbuster that was a smasher both financially and critically , going on to engender a franchise that ’s still going . While it was n’t Damon ’s very first with child budget film , it was his first action film and plausibly the biggest flick to rest alone on his shoulders up until that detail . It make a bridge between the beginning one-half of his career to the next , and was a natural step after the winner ofOcean ’s Eleven .
In the plastic film , he play a CIA agentive role with amnesia who is trying to track down answers to who he is and why he was injured at the commencement of the film . While the flick was criticize in some reviews for a thinness of plot , Damon ’s hearty presence and dedication to the material hit up for it falling short in other places .
The Departed (2006)
A huge commercial and critical strike , Martin Scorsese’sThe Departedfocuses on intersections of the police violence and the rabble in Boston . Damon plays Colin Sullivan , a corrupt police force military officer in secret answering to mob boss Frank Costello ( played by Jack Nicholson ) and a hydrofoil to Leonardo DiCaprio ’s Billy Costigan , an secret ship’s officer infiltrating the rout . Both gentleman’s gentleman terminate up try on to out the other , and this drive a dower of the movie ’s tension .
Damon continues his career - recollective custom of playing character with something to cover . He is an expert at appearing calm and in control while internally being a mess of tension and anxiety . Such extreme point can not coexist for long , and watching Damon as Sullivan ramp up to a crescendo and then break through is exhilarating .
True Grit (2010)
A Coen buddy film , True Gritis a Western about a adolescent girl ( Hailee Steinfeld ) who hires a U.S. Marshal ( Jeff Bridges ) to track down her Fatherhood ’s killer ( Josh Brolin ) . Damon plays a Texas Ranger also on the killer ’s trail for an unrelated crime , and the unlikely three goal up together on the quest , which takes them late into the Arkansas wilderness .
It ’s inching towards more of a character actor type of performance for Damon , with a put - on twang to his voice , a rather slapdash expect moustache , and a fair amount of fringe on his costume . It ’s visually decided and different from a lot of Damon ’s work , though the level of complexity and particular is a trademark . He takes what could be ludicrous and imbues it with genuine warmness , make for the character to life instead of just playing direct to the moustache and fringe .
Behind the Candelabra (2013)
Behind the Candelabrais unequaled in the Damon oeuvre not for its glitzy subject thing , but for the very contained operation he give in it . The film tells the account of Scott Thorson ( Damon ) and his tumultuous romance with magnificently camp piano player Liberace ( Michael Douglas ) in the years preceding Liberace ’s death . While Douglas is fittingly flashy in his role , Damon ’s Scott is the opposite : reserved , clumsy , ineffective to give tongue to himself adequately , and probably not really all that bright . It stands out amongst Damon ’s other role for how internal it is , as well as for his ability to make such a quiet character so engrossing .
The film was produced for tv set by HBO after languishing in development underworld for roughly five years ( though managing director Steven Soderbergh had had the theme for the moving-picture show as far back as 2000 ) , with Douglas and Damon remaining adamantly sign on the entire time . Many studios did n’t want to fund it because of subject affair , but upon its release it was critically acclaimed .
The Martian (2015)
Damon ’s most late triumph , The Martian , is a distance - set picture wherein Damon ’s Mark Watney is an astronaut incidentally leave alone on Mars after he is presumed all in . He then must do whatever he can to survive as he attempts to contact NASA for aid . The film received kudos for its profoundly human story , as well as the fondness and wittiness Damon brought to it .
The film could well become something of a one man show for Damon , who spends big stretch of its running time alone as Watney records himself and his various attempts to both quell alive and keep his team spirit up . His leisurely demeanor and comfortable charisma make him engaging to watch even when he only has the photographic camera to play against . It is n’t well-heeled for an actor to carry such a bombastic exercising weight ( even though it is an ensemble motion-picture show at heart , that is still a draw of lonely playing ) but Damon take a leak it attend casual .
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