Interior. Ben’s apartment. A lazy Saturday in Somerville, Massachusetts. Stage right we see a desk, a computer, all untouched. Center stage we got a second hand couch. Pan left we see various junk food  . . . Thus the stage is set—early on in the play Matt & Ben. Cut to November 2011: the interweb [...]

Sure, we here at Blog Will Hunting just had our most popular post of all time, a provocative piece by guest blogger Dorothy. And Matt & Ben have finally announced a project that will bring them and Boston back together on screen. And I had the pleasure of viewing a local production of the hilarious [...]

Guest blogger Dorothy Gambrell cartoons for Cat & Girl every Tuesday and Thursday and lives in an “up and coming neighborhood.” She went to college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I. Good Will Hunting is my Least Favorite Movie of All Time “Art” can mean a lot of things. Almost anything, really. But surely it has never [...]

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency featured “Patriotic Songs Reworked For The Modern Age” today for the Fourth of July. Their final entry, “Yankee Doodle,” just goes to show what a profound and encompassing effect Good Will Hunting has had on America’s perception of therapy. Happy Fourth of July, everybody! It’s not your fault! Yankee Doodle Yankee Doodle [...]

Harvard graduated this week, and Harvard Square swarmed with black and crimson caps and gowns. I was delighted to learn that Amy Poehler delivered the Class Day speech to the students and their families on Wednesday, and was especially delighted when I read on Salon (in a piece by pop culture contributor Drew Grant) that [...]

… Boston Movie. That oh-so-recognizable cue at the 1:05 mark brings tears to my eyes. I hope you all had a wonderful Evacuation Day.

And now for another in our occasional series, What We Tweet About When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting.

Thanks to reader LEK for letting us know: GWH was just name-checked at the Lakers-Celtics game, which came from a lengthy discussion of whether someone was natural at something or had to work at it, an analogy with piano-playing, and a “how d’ya like them apples,” at which point they cut to Damon in the [...]

The blogs are abuzz with the news that in a recent interview Jennifer Aniston confessed that she had always hated “The Rachel” — the Friends-era hairstyle that she made famous. “How do I say this? I think it was the ugliest haircut I’ve ever seen,” she told Allure. I think it’s time to revisit our [...]

Bostonians really, really like Good Will Hunting. We recently spoke via email with author Christian Lander of the famed blog — and subsequent book — Stuff White People Like. He has a new book called Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews. We asked [...]

What an unexpected context for a subtle Good Will Hunting reference — Saturday night’s SNL brought us a digital short with Pee-wee Herman, Anderson Cooper, and the memorable final line from Good Will Hunting.

The other day I heard a story on NPR about the meme-erific site xtranormal.com — you know, the one where you can type in a script and create a video with some computer-animated teddy bears or robots. As NPR says: Xtranormal’s computerized voices can give almost anything a touch of humor, even when it isn’t [...]

“Hey, Carmine! It’s me, Will! Remember — we went to kindah-gahden together!” And then, PUNCH! Thank Goodness, It’s Graphics Interchange Format Friday! In a draft of the screenplay of Good Will Hunting, Carmine was instead a character named Bobby Champa, but the film is otherwise pretty true to the scene as written — Champa/Scarpaglia gets [...]

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty died this week, and I’ve been hearing his hit song “Baker Street” play on the radio with an extra twinge of nostalgia. The song accompanied the big fight scene in Good Will Hunting that sends Will to jail, therapy, and onto his personal journey — and I played it pretty much [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Claire, mother of two, and a contributor to the blog Rants from MommyLand. Have you ever noticed that there are no parents in Good Will Hunting? There are brief references to Will’s biological and foster parents, Skylar’s wealthy father, Sean’s abusive dad, and Chuckie’s Ma (and her VCR…). Certainly, [...]

Minnie Driver is at her most adorable in the above moment — a deft portrait of pure joy — in which her dog wins it all at Wonderland Greyhound Park of Revere, Massachusetts. “I totally won!!” she beams. As we learn from the Good Will Hunting DVD commentary, the actress actually bet on a dog, [...]

From “Predictions for a wacky New Year” on IrishCentral: It’s that time of year again. Time to look back on the year that was and, more importantly, look ahead to the New Year. In January of 2011, for example, I suspect that a slew of big-time Hollywood actors and agents are going to relocate from [...]

Merry Christmas, everyone!! Read our introduction to TGIGIFF here, and check out all the GIFs in one place here.

I must say, I was surprised to recently discover that there was a music video for Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery.” “Miss Misery” is, of course, Smith’s song that plays during the Good Will Hunting closing credits as Will drives off to California. In 1998 it was nominated for Best Original Song (losing out to Celine [...]

Miramax production head Paul Webster told Harvey [Weinstein, regarding the prospective hire of director Gus Van Sant for Good Will Hunting], “Harvey, let’s hire him, he’s perfect. He makes movies with good-looking boys very well!” – Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures This may be one of the best examples in GWH of a quintessential [...]

It’s that time of year again — time to find that perfect gift for the Good Will Hunting devotee in your life. First, let’s make sure we’ve covered the basics. Does your GWH superfan have the film on DVD? Because it has 11 deleted scenes, including the following one, which is kind of amazing: Pick [...]

The following post (an actual Alchemy request) recently popped up as a part of the series WTF Alchemy on Regretsy. Etsy is a website that features handmade goods, crafts, and artwork; Alchemy is a “a space on Etsy where buyers can post requests for custom items.” I don’t see why they don’t just hire the [...]

Thank Goodness It’s Graphic Interchange Format Friday!! Ya suspect!! And if you liked last week’s GIF, you’ll love this.

Acting!

It all started in October. And then Twitter-user Eddie Alfano couldn’t stop. Quick, someone get this guy a CBS sitcom. Asked about his series of Good Will Hunting tweets, Eddie responded, “I loved that movie, and i just get a kick out of making those dumb jokes!” Leaving no fruit, vegetable, or legume wordplay untapped, [...]

Several weeks ago Jonah Weiner wrote an article on Slate about the appeal of antiquated and outdated media technologies — specifically the cult and culture of the animated GIF (“Christina Hendricks on an Endless Loop: The glorious GIF renaissance“) This early web format is having somewhat of a resurgence, particularly — it seems — delivering [...]

Last year after Thanksgiving, I came back to Boston having unearthed the receipt for my 1998 purchase of the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. This year I come to you (from my parents’ home, having dug through my teenage bedroom) with my original ticket stub from the first time I saw Good Will Hunting — January [...]

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for all the vertical reflective surfaces in the Boston area. Thanks to these windows and mirrors, our genius janitors (Good Will Hunting) and entrepreneurial college students (The Social Network) can work out their formulas in an aesthetically pleasing manner with an inherent visual metaphor for self-reflection, intellectual clarity, and access [...]

Another round-up of what we tweet about when we tweet about Good Will Hunting…

Boston.com has a slide show today on Matt Damon’s career, including this 1987 photograph of Damon playing Humpty Dumpty in a school production of “Bravo Cappuccio.” He looks more like a large tooth with a bow-tie, though, don’t you think? Check out the rest of the slide show here.

Just a quick post today, to commemorate what is surely the best moment in Ben Affleck’s The Town… John Hamm steals the show with his Bostonese –  listen to the moment here. Hmm, and what does that film still remind me of…?

“Will, why’d you come all the way out here?” Skylar exclaimed. “I wanted to see you. I wanted fate to take control. I let my heart lead me. You were right. I don’t hate you Skylar, I love you. Would you forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Without you, I don’t feel complete.” Will [...]

Okay, we know you’ve got ‘em. We’re looking for anecdotes about the time(s) you’ve seen Good Will Hunting. Maybe the first time you saw it. Maybe other times. Seeing a movie in a movie theater lends itself to a more textured experience, so maybe if you saw it back in 1997/1998 you have a couple [...]

I passed by Bunker Hill Community College on a rare use of the orange line the other day, and I was reminded of my biggest pet peeve in Good Will Hunting, which has got to be when Will comes in for his second therapy session, and Sean says simply, “Come with me.” In the next [...]

A back-and-forth with Kevin Smith, some crude remarks about Minnie Driver, and other notable recent tweets about Good Will Hunting. This is What We Tweet When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting…

This is the 100th post on Blog Will Hunting, and to celebrate, a little retrospective…. Here is a list of some of my favorite of the hundreds of search terms that have brought people to the site. I’m not sure everyone got what they were looking for. Nevertheless, enjoy. how to style hair like matt [...]

Last week, Alex posted the trailer for The Town, a movie that looks like this: guns! Charlestown! Jon Hamm! The dude from The Hurt Locker! Jon Hamm! Fenway Park! Stubble! Jon Goddamn Hamm! There’s a new Affleck trailer up, and while it’s not as exciting as the one for The Town, it’s certainly compelling. First [...]

Move over Southie and Dorchester… there’s a new candidate for “one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of Boston… no place for the weak or innocent.” A one square mile neighborhood called… Charlestown!! I incidentally did a quick Google search of Charlestown and “bank robberies” and came up with this article about a series of [...]

Another in our occasional series: What We Tweet About When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting.

The therapy scene from the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers; it sounds a lot like Good Will Hunting.

Slate recently had an article on”10 wildly ambitious—or just wildly misguided—movie projects that were doomed by financial difficulties, casting issues, their very premise, or, commonly enough, all three,” including a version of The Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles. Nestled in at number eight is the following, a film project I had not heard [...]

Another in our occasional series, What We Tweet About When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting….

Everyone’s giddy for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Inception, including New York Magazine‘s culture blog “Vulture,” which has been looking over a bunch of newly released stills from the film.  This one (above) in particular had them considering the canon of great chalkboards of film and television, which inevitably lead them to one Good Will Hunting [...]

The Dodgers are in town, and the Celtics are done for the season….

This evening I was walking into the Harvard Square T station, on my way to a Red Sox game, and a group of college kids were walking ahead of me.  They came to a stop — a couple of them were looking around — and as I walked by the group I heard one guy [...]

Ah yes, it was just a year ago when we first began blogging about Good Will Hunting here on Blog Will Hunting. And as a part of our ongoing series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL; WHY NOT ME, please enjoy a piece of birthday cake with us. If a blog about ill-constructed cakes can get [...]

Via Wonder-Tonic, it’s “a useful simulator for all those times you wish you had Robin Williams there to counsel you.” Launch the simulator.

As a part of our occasional series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL WHY NOT ME, Blog Will Hunting is putting out our first call for work. To celebrate our upcoming first birthday, we want your best/worst Good Will Hunting themed cake or dessert item, à la Cake Wrecks. Send photos to contact@blogwillhunting.com by June 13.

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Elizabeth, of Chicago, Illinois. Let’s be honest: I was a complete disaster my senior year of high school, in the spring of 1998. My best friend was going to the prom with my ex-boyfriend and I was going a little crazy. And, remember 1998? Matt Damon and Ben Affleck [...]

NBC’s Community riffed on Good Will Hunting this week.

Browse through Wikipedia’s List of films that most frequently use the word “fuck,” and you’ll find that the film Good Will Hunting scores somewhere in the middle of the pack. Good Will Hunting uses the word more than 150 times, but not more than 200 times — and certainly not more than 400 times; that [...]

I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed. So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C. I [...]

Looks like Good Will Hunting made an appearance on TBS the other day and brought America’s productivity to a standstill. Here’s another of our occasional round-ups of what people on Twitter have been saying about Good Will Hunting.

Hello! Today Blog Will Hunting is pleased to introduce a new series we’re calling “They got a book deal; why not me??” Perhaps the publishing deluge has slowed down in recent months, but for a while there it seemed that every blog that tipped into the pop cultural consciousness would proceed to fall into a [...]

Just some more wise words from the twitterverse…

GET IT??  Bananas!

But this is too Bostony to pass up posting. If you haven’t seen The Super Secret Project‘s “Granite State of Mind” New Hampshire tribute (and Jay-Z send-up), go do that, quick, because it’s amazing. Then check out their recreation of the Perfect Strangers opening, Boston-style…. (They also did the Good Will Hunting Louder “remake” we [...]

In the summer of 2007 I went on a European adventure.  Late one evening, strolling the streets of Vienna, Austria, I encountered the above scene.  It was a grungy video store with a Good Will Hunting poster in the darkened window.  How odd it felt to encounter this very local-feeling film as a cheesy, sun-bleached [...]

New York Magazine‘s entertainment blog Vulture has delivered some delightful Damon/Affleck material over the past few days. At the end of March, it reports, the American Cinematheque will be honoring Matt Damon in a televised event called Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon: An American Cinematheque Tribute. On hand to salute Mr. Damon: Ben Affleck, Greg Kinnear… [...]

Part of the legacy of Good Will Hunting is that a vast number of auditions and acting exercises have used its script as source material.  The web is full of Good Will Hunting scenes recreated, mostly with fairly appalling results.  If you have any doubt that Damon and Affleck (and even Williams) excel in this [...]

Until last weekend the only time I had been to the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in 2005 with a friend from high school, a friend of my friend, and a my friend’s friend’s 8 to 12 teenage English-as-a-second-language students.  I really only remember three things. It was crowded. Some guy was selling [...]

At least, Jimmy Kimmel thinks so.

Determining the genealogy of celebrities has become an odd pop-cultural phenomenon as of late, and wouldn’t you know it, last October the New England Historic Genealogical Society did some digging and determined that Matt ‘n’ Ben are 10th cousins (once removed).  Their common relative was an Ipswich bricklayer in the 1600s.  Now, I know what [...]

I think it’s time to take a look back at Matt and Ben’s acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay at the 70th Annual Academy Awards back in 1998. (Watch it here.) A couple of things to note: 1) The award is presented by the original odd couple. (I’m gonna have to say Matt Damon is [...]

Join us at twitter/blogwillhunting.com.  Is it still a live tweet if we’re not actually there?  I mean it will be live.  But with tape-delay.  Fine its a tape-delay-tweet. Matt Damon recognizes the vicious heat/buzz/smear-machine warming up this time of year.  The New York Times spoke with him (and describes him as “among the most charming [...]

From now on, every time I leave a bathroom I’m going to shout out “It’s Good Will Hunting; it’s amazing!” Director Kevin Smith worked with Matt and Ben in Chasing Amy, preceding Good Will Hunting, and also directed each of the films in which they’ve appeared together since.  The story goes: Matt and Ben wanted [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Rolando Garcia. I once jokingly referred to Miramax as “the house Ben Affleck built.” That’s not true. Miramax has existed since at least 1980. (My friend recently showed me a poster for a stoner Star Wars parody Miramax released that year. Think about that. They’ve been pulling the whole [...]

I tend to save things. I suppose it should be no surprise that while home for the holidays last fall, in going through folders of old papers, I came across a receipt for a notable purchase from February 23, 1998.  It was from my local record store on College Avenue, and on that day I [...]

Turns out the upcoming Damon-Affleck project will likely be The Trade, the story of two New York Yankees in the seventies who swapped wives.  The blogosphere is all atwitter with the notion that we may soon see the Boston duo in pinstripes. You can thank the crackerjack photoshop staff at the MTV Movie Blog for [...]

A post from Universal Hub — a car in the parking lot of local eatery Kelly’s Roast Beef (discussed here on Blog Will Hunting).

Sorta! Matt ‘n’ Ben are re-forming their production company for a “first look” deal at Warner Bros. In movie lingo, “first look” refers to this exchange: “First, look – Ben, I wish you hadn’t sold my Oscar on eBay to fund Gone Baby Gone. But what the hell, let’s re-form our production company!” Of course, [...]

I once watched Good Will Hunting with a math student, and she scoffed at the so-called impossibility of the problems on the hallway blackboard. Her skepticism is validated by Professor Robin Wilson of Gresham College: That’s right, homeomorphically irreducible trees of degree ten have nothing to do with function analysis.  And this particular problem isn’t [...]

Blog Will Hunting wishes you a good day, Valentine’s, or otherwise.  Have a bunch of caramels or something.

But which Kelly’s shall we go to? A while back the Blog Will Hunting crew payed a visit to the Christopher Lee Playground, the South Boston location in which the GWH boys watch some little league before picking up some burgers (and then getting into some street fights). The screenplay, as written, is a little [...]

Tired of hearing about the iPad?  Everyone loves it!  Everyone has a complaint about it! Among the over-hyped complaints about the revolutionary new Apple device is that certain accents and regional pronunciations make the terms “iPod” and “iPad” indistinguishable. Cult of Mac blogger John Brownlee writes: I wanted to point out quickly why I think [...]

Seeing Boston on film or tv is like watching the Red Sox play well — it’s not actually that unusual, but it’s always a pleasant surprise. So I was thrilled to see tv’s 30 Rock come to Boston last week. Much has been made of guest star Julianne Moore’s “thick,” “terrible,” “atrocious,” “ridiculously broad,” “worst-attempt-ever” [...]

Howard Zinn died today, and how astounding is it that the Associated Press couldn’t get through the obituary of the legendary historian without mentioning Good Will Hunting? Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in [...]

While browsing at my favorite local bookstore, I flipped through Barbara Lynch’s new cookbook Stir. Check out this choice bit of jacket copy: Lynch’s cuisine is all the more remarkable because it is self-taught. In a story straight out of Good Will Hunting, she grew up in the turbulent projects of “Southie”, where petty crime [...]

A “non-essential mnemonic,” from McSweeney’s

Lots of politically slanted GWH references among Twitterers this past week. Hmm.

Rachel Maddow and MSNBC covered the much ballyhooed election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts on Tuesday night, and as seems to be true of all news segments regarding Massachusetts these days, did so from a bar.  (Governor Deval Patrick appeared from a bar a few days prior to discuss the upcoming election.)  Jon Stewart had [...]

One of the most-referenced sequences in Good Will Hunting is, of course, the “apples scene.” As the boys stumble from the bar, crossing Bow Street, Morgan sees the ponytail jerk sitting in Dunkin Donuts.  Will goes over and initiates a little confrontational wordplay through the glass.  (In the screenplay it’s not a Dunkin Donuts, but [...]

When I first heard about Gerry, the 2002 film written by Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Gus Van Sant and starring two of our darling Bostonian golden boys—well, I was excited. Could this be a Good Will Hunting renaissance of some sort? Is this the film we’ve all been waiting for, after the promising start [...]

Watch John Doherty, a construction worker in Braintree, MA, read a selection from his favorite poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman.  It's cool to see the perspective and inspiration he gets from Whitman — from under his "boot soles" — just as Will finds soul mates in "Shakespeare, Neitzche, Frost, O'Connor, Chaucer, Pope, Kant." [...]

Occasionally we feature our favorite mentions of Good Will Hunting on Twitter… 

According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller.  If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of [...]

Everyone knows who wrote Good Will Hunting. In fact, it’s a big part of the appeal of the movie and the mystique surrounding it: the story of two relative-unknowns who, through hard work and talent, would make it big and go on to achieve lasting fame and cinematic glory—the story of two guys sitting on [...]

This past fall found the streets of Cambridge lined by camera rigging and film crews as it once again became the setting for several upcoming feature films. Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the [...]

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Prescott Financial Sells Gold, Women & Sheep www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy It’s been interesting to see how much attention the guy with the ponytail in the Harvard bar scene is getting these days — he’s a spokesman for a gold reseller, and [...]

You should probably watch this episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — “The Gang Reignites the Rivalry” — particularly for its choice Good Will Hunting references. Charlie “pulls a Good Will Hunting” on some guys at a frat party they are crashing.  At this frat party they have had their bodies painted by hot [...]

I wanna be a shepherd.  I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them. — Will Hunting, Good Will Hunting … I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around [...]

Last weekend I gathered with friends for some holiday-time viewing that included Die Hard (yeah, it’s a Christmas movie), A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Office Christmas Special (BBC, duh), and the Chrismukkah episode of The O.C.  I bring it up because this holiday O.C. is also the episode where Marissa attends her first therapy session [...]

Towards the end of the film, Will Hunting grows tired of his role as math genius.  He walks out of Professor Lambeau’s office, casually setting fire to a proof that only a “handful of people in the world” could have completed.  What follows is, to me, one of the most memorable moments of the film, [...]

Matt Damon namedrops The People’s History of the United States by local academic Howard Zinn, in the Harvard bar scene of Good Will Hunting.  Damon and Zinn have teamed up for an upcoming History Channel program. Regarding the inclusion of the reference in the film, Damon has told The Boston Herald about his first exposure [...]

As previously discussed on Blog Will Hunting, Scott Winters (Clark, the Harvard bar jerkface) is currently appearing in commercials for Goldline.com.  Watch the videos on YouTube, particularly the one on Market Stability, where Winters fondles gold lovingly.  Apparently gold looks like an ipod!

Not long after Gus Van Sant’s Finding Forrester was released, I was discussing the director with my friend Brendan, at a rooftop party in Brooklyn. (I included that last detail so you’d know that I am — or at least have been — or at least think I may have been — cool.) With Good [...]

Scott William Winters — you know him as Clark (the pony-tailed participant in the “how do you like them apples” exchange in GWH) — is back!  Turns out he often plays jerks like Clark, and has a jerk family.  His brother, Dean Winters, plays Liz Lemon’s ex-boyfriend (and jerkwad) Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock.  And [...]

Some blogging-on-the-go here… Historian Gordon Wood speaks at Harvard Book Store tonight. You know, as Will Hunting says: Of course that’s your contention. You’re a first year grad student. You just finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison prob’ly and so naturally that’s what you believe until next month when you get to James Lemon and [...]

In revisiting Good Will Hunting one of my reactions is always, dude, what’s with the hair? Seemingly incongruent with Will’s character as a lower class, no-frills, anti-elitist, true-blue guy from Southie — his hair is always perfectly coiffed, gently gelled, and always bounces back into place.  It’s like a Vidal Sassoon ad.  Watch the fight [...]

Thanks to B.E.N. for letting us know that Good Will Hunting is the sixth most popular Netflix rental in Cambridge.  Looks like Robin Williams is out-therapizing Gabriel Byrne.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Though Williams’ character has fewer ethical violations, as far as I can tell. I find it interesting I actually [...]

Blog Will Hunting has been honored to receive several mentions around the web lately.  Universal Hub, your source for all blog things Boston, namedropped us a couple weeks ago… plus, we got a nice little write-up in Thrillist.  (Here’s what it looks like… I like their design!) The Thrillist post invokes a couple talking points [...]

Google Wave reenacts Good Will Hunting.  The future is now. Via TechCrunch

The summer of 2009 is long gone here in New England.  We bundle up in coats and jackets, because the autumn chill is here to stay. But what a perfect time to reminisce, and look back upon a June visit into Good Will Hunting history. Early in the film the boys are brownbagging it at [...]

“Good Will Hunting by Myself” is a song by the band Ludo. (I think it’s emo!) Excerpted lyrics: And I can watch Good Will Hunting by myself (it’s cool, it’s fine) I can shop for clothes without her help (it’s cool, it’s fine) I can hang out with my friends, do the good times ever [...]

Following up on Mike’s post, here’s the ultimate Damon freak-out sequence.  It plays after the credits in this season’s finale of Entourage.

In this Boston Globe profile, Matt Damon says directing is most likely his next big move. “I’m not in a race to start doing it,” says Damon. “I feel like I’m getting so much experience with great directors. All I’m doing is learning more.” But is this the sort of behavior we can expect to [...]

Recent Good Will Twittering.

While Blog Will Hunting took the last half of the summer off from ruminating the Damon-Affleck masterwork, several of our loyal readers submitted relevant news that we’d like to feature at long last. Thanks to Katherine for submitting a photo of Ben Affleck dressed as a T employee, in a new film shooting in Boston.  [...]

Sometimes I think of Matt Damon’s roles in films like the Bourne series and The Departed as extensions of his Good Will Hunting character. Maybe he wouldn’t have been beaten up by his dad if creepy Jack Nicholson had come along and he would have become an ethically scurrilous and kind of dumb cop. (It [...]

Some more recent Good Will Twittering.

In college there was this guy we’d always see in the dining hall; he was a freshman and my friends and I were juniors.  My friend Adam claimed he looked like Matt Damon.  This was somewhat disputed, but sometimes we could see it. Regardless, we all referred to him as “Matt Damon,” and talked about [...]

Jay-Z released a single this week that features Kanye West and Rihanna… the track is called “Run This Town” and Kanye prominently namechecks Good Will Hunting: This the fast life, we are on a crash course, what you think I rap for, to push a fucking Rav 4? But I know that if I stay [...]

Good Will Tweeting… from the Twittersphere this week.

I think my favorite scene in Good Will Hunting is the short sequence towards the end where Will receives a car from his friends for his birthday. After a bunch of tedious plot wrapping-up — the unloading of “it’s not your fault,” some introspective scenes with Will thinking quietly, Will accepting an ambiguous corporate math [...]

Notable comments from the Twittersphere in the last week…

Okay, this is arguably lacking the brilliant casting and vaguely convincing set dressing of the previous German student video, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Stay tuned for hilarious outtakes as the credits roll. Hier hat meine Klasse die Bar Scene aus dem Film Good Will Hunting von 1997 nachgespielt

Or at least that’s what I thought. All these Twitter posts about Boys Poker Night were actually about Damon and Affleck playing poker. Like, with Brad Garrett. 140 characters, your tendency to lack clarity strikes again! Boys Playing Poker is a stupid name for a movie anyway. It’s no “Rounders”.

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

BarSzene aus Good Will Hunting nachgespielt von Schülern der Jgs 11

IMDb is predicting a 2011 release date for an Untitled Ben Affleck/Matt Damon Project. Good Will Hunting Devotees have been wondering — why so long, Matt and Ben, to follow up your roles as Oscar-winning screenwriters? Sophomore slump? According to People Magazine (you heard me): In terms of professional projects, though they’ve costarred and shared [...]

Just saw this on boston.com (my source for hometown hero news) this morning: Blond Matt Damon is back! Hooray! To readers of this blog, a towheaded Matt Damon has many nostalgic associations. But when was the last time we saw Matt Damon with goldilocks? A quick browse through his filmography leads me to believe that [...]

Hi. I’m Dave. I’m a friend of Alex’s from way back. One might say I’m the Chuckie to his Will. Or … one might not. In any case, when Alex told me he was writing a Good Will Hunting blog, I was immediately excited. Not only because I, too, think of the movie more than [...]

The problem Professor Lambeau puts on the hallway chalkboard sets off such excitement as to the identity of the mystery mathematician that his next class is overfilled with students eager to learn who the “silent rogue” could be. When I first saw the film, I thought that the joke — “Is it just my imagination [...]

An addendum to previous post, Good Will Hunting II: It’s Hunting Season Okay, I would be remiss not to praise the GWH2 moment wherein Mr. Ponytail intones the film’s somewhat obtuse before-and-after title.  Really, is anyone in the film really hunting for “good will” — “an attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence”? Will Hunting is [...]

I always forget that Matt & Ben really got their break from Kevin Smith (Good Will Hunting co-executive producer, creator/writer/director of Chasing Amy and, as seen above, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) .  I haven’t seen Jay & Silent Bob, but have to admit, this scene is masterful. Were Ben-Affleck-self-mocking a film genre onto its [...]

How strange it was to glance up at the television screen during Tuesday’s Red Sox game to see NESN repeatedly zoomed in on none other than Good Will Hunting’s and Cambridge, MA’s own Ben Affleck. This is nothing new, I suppose. His presence has been documented in his sweet dugout-hugging seats before. But let’s step [...]

Good Will Hunting is more than just the sum of its parts. For an “indie” film, it is widely recognized, and generally — I think — thought of with fondness. For a film that admittedly flirts with mediocrity, it resonates for those of us who were young adults in the late nineties.  References to the [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Elizabeth, of Chicago, Illinois. Let’s be honest: I was a complete disaster my senior year of high school, in the spring of 1998. My best friend was going to the prom with my ex-boyfriend and I was going a little crazy. And, remember 1998? Matt Damon and Ben Affleck [...]

Okay, we know you’ve got ‘em. We’re looking for anecdotes about the time(s) you’ve seen Good Will Hunting. Maybe the first time you saw it. Maybe other times. Seeing a movie in a movie theater lends itself to a more textured experience, so maybe if you saw it back in 1997/1998 you have a couple [...]

Last year after Thanksgiving, I came back to Boston having unearthed the receipt for my 1998 purchase of the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. This year I come to you (from my parents’ home, having dug through my teenage bedroom) with my original ticket stub from the first time I saw Good Will Hunting — January [...]

I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed. So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C. I [...]

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for all the vertical reflective surfaces in the Boston area. Thanks to these windows and mirrors, our genius janitors (Good Will Hunting) and entrepreneurial college students (The Social Network) can work out their formulas in an aesthetically pleasing manner with an inherent visual metaphor for self-reflection, intellectual clarity, and access [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Claire, mother of two, and a contributor to the blog Rants from MommyLand. Have you ever noticed that there are no parents in Good Will Hunting? There are brief references to Will’s biological and foster parents, Skylar’s wealthy father, Sean’s abusive dad, and Chuckie’s Ma (and her VCR…). Certainly, [...]

Bostonians really, really like Good Will Hunting. We recently spoke via email with author Christian Lander of the famed blog — and subsequent book — Stuff White People Like. He has a new book called Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews. We asked [...]

Guest blogger Dorothy Gambrell cartoons for Cat & Girl every Tuesday and Thursday and lives in an “up and coming neighborhood.” She went to college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I. Good Will Hunting is my Least Favorite Movie of All Time “Art” can mean a lot of things. Almost anything, really. But surely it has never [...]

This evening I was walking into the Harvard Square T station, on my way to a Red Sox game, and a group of college kids were walking ahead of me.  They came to a stop — a couple of them were looking around — and as I walked by the group I heard one guy [...]

Okay, we know you’ve got ‘em. We’re looking for anecdotes about the time(s) you’ve seen Good Will Hunting. Maybe the first time you saw it. Maybe other times. Seeing a movie in a movie theater lends itself to a more textured experience, so maybe if you saw it back in 1997/1998 you have a couple [...]

How strange it was to glance up at the television screen during Tuesday’s Red Sox game to see NESN repeatedly zoomed in on none other than Good Will Hunting’s and Cambridge, MA’s own Ben Affleck. This is nothing new, I suppose. His presence has been documented in his sweet dugout-hugging seats before. But let’s step [...]

IMDb is predicting a 2011 release date for an Untitled Ben Affleck/Matt Damon Project. Good Will Hunting Devotees have been wondering — why so long, Matt and Ben, to follow up your roles as Oscar-winning screenwriters? Sophomore slump? According to People Magazine (you heard me): In terms of professional projects, though they’ve costarred and shared [...]

Or at least that’s what I thought. All these Twitter posts about Boys Poker Night were actually about Damon and Affleck playing poker. Like, with Brad Garrett. 140 characters, your tendency to lack clarity strikes again! Boys Playing Poker is a stupid name for a movie anyway. It’s no “Rounders”.

In college there was this guy we’d always see in the dining hall; he was a freshman and my friends and I were juniors.  My friend Adam claimed he looked like Matt Damon.  This was somewhat disputed, but sometimes we could see it. Regardless, we all referred to him as “Matt Damon,” and talked about [...]

While Blog Will Hunting took the last half of the summer off from ruminating the Damon-Affleck masterwork, several of our loyal readers submitted relevant news that we’d like to feature at long last. Thanks to Katherine for submitting a photo of Ben Affleck dressed as a T employee, in a new film shooting in Boston.  [...]

This past fall found the streets of Cambridge lined by camera rigging and film crews as it once again became the setting for several upcoming feature films. Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the [...]

Howard Zinn died today, and how astounding is it that the Associated Press couldn’t get through the obituary of the legendary historian without mentioning Good Will Hunting? Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in [...]

Sorta! Matt ‘n’ Ben are re-forming their production company for a “first look” deal at Warner Bros. In movie lingo, “first look” refers to this exchange: “First, look – Ben, I wish you hadn’t sold my Oscar on eBay to fund Gone Baby Gone. But what the hell, let’s re-form our production company!” Of course, [...]

Turns out the upcoming Damon-Affleck project will likely be The Trade, the story of two New York Yankees in the seventies who swapped wives.  The blogosphere is all atwitter with the notion that we may soon see the Boston duo in pinstripes. You can thank the crackerjack photoshop staff at the MTV Movie Blog for [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Rolando Garcia. I once jokingly referred to Miramax as “the house Ben Affleck built.” That’s not true. Miramax has existed since at least 1980. (My friend recently showed me a poster for a stoner Star Wars parody Miramax released that year. Think about that. They’ve been pulling the whole [...]

I think it’s time to take a look back at Matt and Ben’s acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay at the 70th Annual Academy Awards back in 1998. (Watch it here.) A couple of things to note: 1) The award is presented by the original odd couple. (I’m gonna have to say Matt Damon is [...]

Determining the genealogy of celebrities has become an odd pop-cultural phenomenon as of late, and wouldn’t you know it, last October the New England Historic Genealogical Society did some digging and determined that Matt ‘n’ Ben are 10th cousins (once removed).  Their common relative was an Ipswich bricklayer in the 1600s.  Now, I know what [...]

At least, Jimmy Kimmel thinks so.

New York Magazine‘s entertainment blog Vulture has delivered some delightful Damon/Affleck material over the past few days. At the end of March, it reports, the American Cinematheque will be honoring Matt Damon in a televised event called Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon: An American Cinematheque Tribute. On hand to salute Mr. Damon: Ben Affleck, Greg Kinnear… [...]

Slate recently had an article on”10 wildly ambitious—or just wildly misguided—movie projects that were doomed by financial difficulties, casting issues, their very premise, or, commonly enough, all three,” including a version of The Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles. Nestled in at number eight is the following, a film project I had not heard [...]

Move over Southie and Dorchester… there’s a new candidate for “one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of Boston… no place for the weak or innocent.” A one square mile neighborhood called… Charlestown!! I incidentally did a quick Google search of Charlestown and “bank robberies” and came up with this article about a series of [...]

Last week, Alex posted the trailer for The Town, a movie that looks like this: guns! Charlestown! Jon Hamm! The dude from The Hurt Locker! Jon Hamm! Fenway Park! Stubble! Jon Goddamn Hamm! There’s a new Affleck trailer up, and while it’s not as exciting as the one for The Town, it’s certainly compelling. First [...]

“Will, why’d you come all the way out here?” Skylar exclaimed. “I wanted to see you. I wanted fate to take control. I let my heart lead me. You were right. I don’t hate you Skylar, I love you. Would you forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Without you, I don’t feel complete.” Will [...]

The following post (an actual Alchemy request) recently popped up as a part of the series WTF Alchemy on Regretsy. Etsy is a website that features handmade goods, crafts, and artwork; Alchemy is a “a space on Etsy where buyers can post requests for custom items.” I don’t see why they don’t just hire the [...]

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]

Sure, we here at Blog Will Hunting just had our most popular post of all time, a provocative piece by guest blogger Dorothy. And Matt & Ben have finally announced a project that will bring them and Boston back together on screen. And I had the pleasure of viewing a local production of the hilarious [...]

Interior. Ben’s apartment. A lazy Saturday in Somerville, Massachusetts. Stage right we see a desk, a computer, all untouched. Center stage we got a second hand couch. Pan left we see various junk food  . . . Thus the stage is set—early on in the play Matt & Ben. Cut to November 2011: the interweb [...]

Good Will Hunting is more than just the sum of its parts. For an “indie” film, it is widely recognized, and generally — I think — thought of with fondness. For a film that admittedly flirts with mediocrity, it resonates for those of us who were young adults in the late nineties.  References to the [...]

An addendum to previous post, Good Will Hunting II: It’s Hunting Season Okay, I would be remiss not to praise the GWH2 moment wherein Mr. Ponytail intones the film’s somewhat obtuse before-and-after title.  Really, is anyone in the film really hunting for “good will” — “an attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence”? Will Hunting is [...]

Blog Will Hunting wishes you a good day, Valentine’s, or otherwise.  Have a bunch of caramels or something.

Hello! Today Blog Will Hunting is pleased to introduce a new series we’re calling “They got a book deal; why not me??” Perhaps the publishing deluge has slowed down in recent months, but for a while there it seemed that every blog that tipped into the pop cultural consciousness would proceed to fall into a [...]

As a part of our occasional series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL WHY NOT ME, Blog Will Hunting is putting out our first call for work. To celebrate our upcoming first birthday, we want your best/worst Good Will Hunting themed cake or dessert item, à la Cake Wrecks. Send photos to contact@blogwillhunting.com by June 13.

Ah yes, it was just a year ago when we first began blogging about Good Will Hunting here on Blog Will Hunting. And as a part of our ongoing series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL; WHY NOT ME, please enjoy a piece of birthday cake with us. If a blog about ill-constructed cakes can get [...]

This is the 100th post on Blog Will Hunting, and to celebrate, a little retrospective…. Here is a list of some of my favorite of the hundreds of search terms that have brought people to the site. I’m not sure everyone got what they were looking for. Nevertheless, enjoy. how to style hair like matt [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Claire, mother of two, and a contributor to the blog Rants from MommyLand. Have you ever noticed that there are no parents in Good Will Hunting? There are brief references to Will’s biological and foster parents, Skylar’s wealthy father, Sean’s abusive dad, and Chuckie’s Ma (and her VCR…). Certainly, [...]

Bostonians really, really like Good Will Hunting. We recently spoke via email with author Christian Lander of the famed blog — and subsequent book — Stuff White People Like. He has a new book called Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews. We asked [...]

How strange it was to glance up at the television screen during Tuesday’s Red Sox game to see NESN repeatedly zoomed in on none other than Good Will Hunting’s and Cambridge, MA’s own Ben Affleck. This is nothing new, I suppose. His presence has been documented in his sweet dugout-hugging seats before. But let’s step [...]

Just saw this on boston.com (my source for hometown hero news) this morning: Blond Matt Damon is back! Hooray! To readers of this blog, a towheaded Matt Damon has many nostalgic associations. But when was the last time we saw Matt Damon with goldilocks? A quick browse through his filmography leads me to believe that [...]

While Blog Will Hunting took the last half of the summer off from ruminating the Damon-Affleck masterwork, several of our loyal readers submitted relevant news that we’d like to feature at long last. Thanks to Katherine for submitting a photo of Ben Affleck dressed as a T employee, in a new film shooting in Boston.  [...]

The summer of 2009 is long gone here in New England.  We bundle up in coats and jackets, because the autumn chill is here to stay. But what a perfect time to reminisce, and look back upon a June visit into Good Will Hunting history. Early in the film the boys are brownbagging it at [...]

Thanks to B.E.N. for letting us know that Good Will Hunting is the sixth most popular Netflix rental in Cambridge.  Looks like Robin Williams is out-therapizing Gabriel Byrne.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Though Williams’ character has fewer ethical violations, as far as I can tell. I find it interesting I actually [...]

This past fall found the streets of Cambridge lined by camera rigging and film crews as it once again became the setting for several upcoming feature films. Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the [...]

One of the most-referenced sequences in Good Will Hunting is, of course, the “apples scene.” As the boys stumble from the bar, crossing Bow Street, Morgan sees the ponytail jerk sitting in Dunkin Donuts.  Will goes over and initiates a little confrontational wordplay through the glass.  (In the screenplay it’s not a Dunkin Donuts, but [...]

Rachel Maddow and MSNBC covered the much ballyhooed election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts on Tuesday night, and as seems to be true of all news segments regarding Massachusetts these days, did so from a bar.  (Governor Deval Patrick appeared from a bar a few days prior to discuss the upcoming election.)  Jon Stewart had [...]

While browsing at my favorite local bookstore, I flipped through Barbara Lynch’s new cookbook Stir. Check out this choice bit of jacket copy: Lynch’s cuisine is all the more remarkable because it is self-taught. In a story straight out of Good Will Hunting, she grew up in the turbulent projects of “Southie”, where petty crime [...]

Seeing Boston on film or tv is like watching the Red Sox play well — it’s not actually that unusual, but it’s always a pleasant surprise. So I was thrilled to see tv’s 30 Rock come to Boston last week. Much has been made of guest star Julianne Moore’s “thick,” “terrible,” “atrocious,” “ridiculously broad,” “worst-attempt-ever” [...]

Tired of hearing about the iPad?  Everyone loves it!  Everyone has a complaint about it! Among the over-hyped complaints about the revolutionary new Apple device is that certain accents and regional pronunciations make the terms “iPod” and “iPad” indistinguishable. Cult of Mac blogger John Brownlee writes: I wanted to point out quickly why I think [...]

But which Kelly’s shall we go to? A while back the Blog Will Hunting crew payed a visit to the Christopher Lee Playground, the South Boston location in which the GWH boys watch some little league before picking up some burgers (and then getting into some street fights). The screenplay, as written, is a little [...]

A post from Universal Hub — a car in the parking lot of local eatery Kelly’s Roast Beef (discussed here on Blog Will Hunting).

Turns out the upcoming Damon-Affleck project will likely be The Trade, the story of two New York Yankees in the seventies who swapped wives.  The blogosphere is all atwitter with the notion that we may soon see the Boston duo in pinstripes. You can thank the crackerjack photoshop staff at the MTV Movie Blog for [...]

Until last weekend the only time I had been to the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in 2005 with a friend from high school, a friend of my friend, and a my friend’s friend’s 8 to 12 teenage English-as-a-second-language students.  I really only remember three things. It was crowded. Some guy was selling [...]

But this is too Bostony to pass up posting. If you haven’t seen The Super Secret Project‘s “Granite State of Mind” New Hampshire tribute (and Jay-Z send-up), go do that, quick, because it’s amazing. Then check out their recreation of the Perfect Strangers opening, Boston-style…. (They also did the Good Will Hunting Louder “remake” we [...]

I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed. So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C. I [...]

Move over Southie and Dorchester… there’s a new candidate for “one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of Boston… no place for the weak or innocent.” A one square mile neighborhood called… Charlestown!! I incidentally did a quick Google search of Charlestown and “bank robberies” and came up with this article about a series of [...]

Last week, Alex posted the trailer for The Town, a movie that looks like this: guns! Charlestown! Jon Hamm! The dude from The Hurt Locker! Jon Hamm! Fenway Park! Stubble! Jon Goddamn Hamm! There’s a new Affleck trailer up, and while it’s not as exciting as the one for The Town, it’s certainly compelling. First [...]

I passed by Bunker Hill Community College on a rare use of the orange line the other day, and I was reminded of my biggest pet peeve in Good Will Hunting, which has got to be when Will comes in for his second therapy session, and Sean says simply, “Come with me.” In the next [...]

“Will, why’d you come all the way out here?” Skylar exclaimed. “I wanted to see you. I wanted fate to take control. I let my heart lead me. You were right. I don’t hate you Skylar, I love you. Would you forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Without you, I don’t feel complete.” Will [...]

Just a quick post today, to commemorate what is surely the best moment in Ben Affleck’s The Town… John Hamm steals the show with his Bostonese –  listen to the moment here. Hmm, and what does that film still remind me of…?

From “Predictions for a wacky New Year” on IrishCentral: It’s that time of year again. Time to look back on the year that was and, more importantly, look ahead to the New Year. In January of 2011, for example, I suspect that a slew of big-time Hollywood actors and agents are going to relocate from [...]

Minnie Driver is at her most adorable in the above moment — a deft portrait of pure joy — in which her dog wins it all at Wonderland Greyhound Park of Revere, Massachusetts. “I totally won!!” she beams. As we learn from the Good Will Hunting DVD commentary, the actress actually bet on a dog, [...]

Thanks to reader LEK for letting us know: GWH was just name-checked at the Lakers-Celtics game, which came from a lengthy discussion of whether someone was natural at something or had to work at it, an analogy with piano-playing, and a “how d’ya like them apples,” at which point they cut to Damon in the [...]

… Boston Movie. That oh-so-recognizable cue at the 1:05 mark brings tears to my eyes. I hope you all had a wonderful Evacuation Day.

Harvard graduated this week, and Harvard Square swarmed with black and crimson caps and gowns. I was delighted to learn that Amy Poehler delivered the Class Day speech to the students and their families on Wednesday, and was especially delighted when I read on Salon (in a piece by pop culture contributor Drew Grant) that [...]

Sure, we here at Blog Will Hunting just had our most popular post of all time, a provocative piece by guest blogger Dorothy. And Matt & Ben have finally announced a project that will bring them and Boston back together on screen. And I had the pleasure of viewing a local production of the hilarious [...]

Interior. Ben’s apartment. A lazy Saturday in Somerville, Massachusetts. Stage right we see a desk, a computer, all untouched. Center stage we got a second hand couch. Pan left we see various junk food  . . . Thus the stage is set—early on in the play Matt & Ben. Cut to November 2011: the interweb [...]

As a part of our occasional series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL WHY NOT ME, Blog Will Hunting is putting out our first call for work. To celebrate our upcoming first birthday, we want your best/worst Good Will Hunting themed cake or dessert item, à la Cake Wrecks. Send photos to contact@blogwillhunting.com by June 13.

Ah yes, it was just a year ago when we first began blogging about Good Will Hunting here on Blog Will Hunting. And as a part of our ongoing series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL; WHY NOT ME, please enjoy a piece of birthday cake with us. If a blog about ill-constructed cakes can get [...]

An addendum to previous post, Good Will Hunting II: It’s Hunting Season Okay, I would be remiss not to praise the GWH2 moment wherein Mr. Ponytail intones the film’s somewhat obtuse before-and-after title.  Really, is anyone in the film really hunting for “good will” — “an attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence”? Will Hunting is [...]

I think my favorite scene in Good Will Hunting is the short sequence towards the end where Will receives a car from his friends for his birthday. After a bunch of tedious plot wrapping-up — the unloading of “it’s not your fault,” some introspective scenes with Will thinking quietly, Will accepting an ambiguous corporate math [...]

I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed. So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C. I [...]

I must say, I was surprised to recently discover that there was a music video for Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery.” “Miss Misery” is, of course, Smith’s song that plays during the Good Will Hunting closing credits as Will drives off to California. In 1998 it was nominated for Best Original Song (losing out to Celine [...]

Guest blogger Dorothy Gambrell cartoons for Cat & Girl every Tuesday and Thursday and lives in an “up and coming neighborhood.” She went to college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I. Good Will Hunting is my Least Favorite Movie of All Time “Art” can mean a lot of things. Almost anything, really. But surely it has never [...]

Hi. I’m Dave. I’m a friend of Alex’s from way back. One might say I’m the Chuckie to his Will. Or … one might not. In any case, when Alex told me he was writing a Good Will Hunting blog, I was immediately excited. Not only because I, too, think of the movie more than [...]

I tend to save things. I suppose it should be no surprise that while home for the holidays last fall, in going through folders of old papers, I came across a receipt for a notable purchase from February 23, 1998.  It was from my local record store on College Avenue, and on that day I [...]

I must say, I was surprised to recently discover that there was a music video for Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery.” “Miss Misery” is, of course, Smith’s song that plays during the Good Will Hunting closing credits as Will drives off to California. In 1998 it was nominated for Best Original Song (losing out to Celine [...]

Notable comments from the Twittersphere in the last week…

I think my favorite scene in Good Will Hunting is the short sequence towards the end where Will receives a car from his friends for his birthday. After a bunch of tedious plot wrapping-up — the unloading of “it’s not your fault,” some introspective scenes with Will thinking quietly, Will accepting an ambiguous corporate math [...]

Good Will Tweeting… from the Twittersphere this week.

While Blog Will Hunting took the last half of the summer off from ruminating the Damon-Affleck masterwork, several of our loyal readers submitted relevant news that we’d like to feature at long last. Thanks to Katherine for submitting a photo of Ben Affleck dressed as a T employee, in a new film shooting in Boston.  [...]

Recent Good Will Twittering.

The summer of 2009 is long gone here in New England.  We bundle up in coats and jackets, because the autumn chill is here to stay. But what a perfect time to reminisce, and look back upon a June visit into Good Will Hunting history. Early in the film the boys are brownbagging it at [...]

Thanks to B.E.N. for letting us know that Good Will Hunting is the sixth most popular Netflix rental in Cambridge.  Looks like Robin Williams is out-therapizing Gabriel Byrne.  I’m not sure how I feel about that.  Though Williams’ character has fewer ethical violations, as far as I can tell. I find it interesting I actually [...]

But which Kelly’s shall we go to? A while back the Blog Will Hunting crew payed a visit to the Christopher Lee Playground, the South Boston location in which the GWH boys watch some little league before picking up some burgers (and then getting into some street fights). The screenplay, as written, is a little [...]

Several weeks ago Jonah Weiner wrote an article on Slate about the appeal of antiquated and outdated media technologies — specifically the cult and culture of the animated GIF (“Christina Hendricks on an Endless Loop: The glorious GIF renaissance“) This early web format is having somewhat of a resurgence, particularly — it seems — delivering [...]

The following post (an actual Alchemy request) recently popped up as a part of the series WTF Alchemy on Regretsy. Etsy is a website that features handmade goods, crafts, and artwork; Alchemy is a “a space on Etsy where buyers can post requests for custom items.” I don’t see why they don’t just hire the [...]

It’s that time of year again — time to find that perfect gift for the Good Will Hunting devotee in your life. First, let’s make sure we’ve covered the basics. Does your GWH superfan have the film on DVD? Because it has 11 deleted scenes, including the following one, which is kind of amazing: Pick [...]

Several weeks ago Jonah Weiner wrote an article on Slate about the appeal of antiquated and outdated media technologies — specifically the cult and culture of the animated GIF (“Christina Hendricks on an Endless Loop: The glorious GIF renaissance“) This early web format is having somewhat of a resurgence, particularly — it seems — delivering [...]

Thank Goodness It’s Graphic Interchange Format Friday!! Ya suspect!! And if you liked last week’s GIF, you’ll love this.

Miramax production head Paul Webster told Harvey [Weinstein, regarding the prospective hire of director Gus Van Sant for Good Will Hunting], “Harvey, let’s hire him, he’s perfect. He makes movies with good-looking boys very well!” – Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures This may be one of the best examples in GWH of a quintessential [...]

Merry Christmas, everyone!! Read our introduction to TGIGIFF here, and check out all the GIFs in one place here.

Minnie Driver is at her most adorable in the above moment — a deft portrait of pure joy — in which her dog wins it all at Wonderland Greyhound Park of Revere, Massachusetts. “I totally won!!” she beams. As we learn from the Good Will Hunting DVD commentary, the actress actually bet on a dog, [...]

“Hey, Carmine! It’s me, Will! Remember — we went to kindah-gahden together!” And then, PUNCH! Thank Goodness, It’s Graphics Interchange Format Friday! In a draft of the screenplay of Good Will Hunting, Carmine was instead a character named Bobby Champa, but the film is otherwise pretty true to the scene as written — Champa/Scarpaglia gets [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Rolando Garcia. I once jokingly referred to Miramax as “the house Ben Affleck built.” That’s not true. Miramax has existed since at least 1980. (My friend recently showed me a poster for a stoner Star Wars parody Miramax released that year. Think about that. They’ve been pulling the whole [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Elizabeth, of Chicago, Illinois. Let’s be honest: I was a complete disaster my senior year of high school, in the spring of 1998. My best friend was going to the prom with my ex-boyfriend and I was going a little crazy. And, remember 1998? Matt Damon and Ben Affleck [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Claire, mother of two, and a contributor to the blog Rants from MommyLand. Have you ever noticed that there are no parents in Good Will Hunting? There are brief references to Will’s biological and foster parents, Skylar’s wealthy father, Sean’s abusive dad, and Chuckie’s Ma (and her VCR…). Certainly, [...]

Harvard graduated this week, and Harvard Square swarmed with black and crimson caps and gowns. I was delighted to learn that Amy Poehler delivered the Class Day speech to the students and their families on Wednesday, and was especially delighted when I read on Salon (in a piece by pop culture contributor Drew Grant) that [...]

Bostonians really, really like Good Will Hunting. We recently spoke via email with author Christian Lander of the famed blog — and subsequent book — Stuff White People Like. He has a new book called Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews. We asked [...]

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

The other day I heard a story on NPR about the meme-erific site xtranormal.com — you know, the one where you can type in a script and create a video with some computer-animated teddy bears or robots. As NPR says: Xtranormal’s computerized voices can give almost anything a touch of humor, even when it isn’t [...]

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency featured “Patriotic Songs Reworked For The Modern Age” today for the Fourth of July. Their final entry, “Yankee Doodle,” just goes to show what a profound and encompassing effect Good Will Hunting has had on America’s perception of therapy. Happy Fourth of July, everybody! It’s not your fault! Yankee Doodle Yankee Doodle [...]

Hello! Today Blog Will Hunting is pleased to introduce a new series we’re calling “They got a book deal; why not me??” Perhaps the publishing deluge has slowed down in recent months, but for a while there it seemed that every blog that tipped into the pop cultural consciousness would proceed to fall into a [...]

I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed. So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C. I [...]

“Will, why’d you come all the way out here?” Skylar exclaimed. “I wanted to see you. I wanted fate to take control. I let my heart lead me. You were right. I don’t hate you Skylar, I love you. Would you forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Without you, I don’t feel complete.” Will [...]

The problem Professor Lambeau puts on the hallway chalkboard sets off such excitement as to the identity of the mystery mathematician that his next class is overfilled with students eager to learn who the “silent rogue” could be. When I first saw the film, I thought that the joke — “Is it just my imagination [...]

I once watched Good Will Hunting with a math student, and she scoffed at the so-called impossibility of the problems on the hallway blackboard. Her skepticism is validated by Professor Robin Wilson of Gresham College: That’s right, homeomorphically irreducible trees of degree ten have nothing to do with function analysis.  And this particular problem isn’t [...]

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for all the vertical reflective surfaces in the Boston area. Thanks to these windows and mirrors, our genius janitors (Good Will Hunting) and entrepreneurial college students (The Social Network) can work out their formulas in an aesthetically pleasing manner with an inherent visual metaphor for self-reflection, intellectual clarity, and access [...]

Interior. Ben’s apartment. A lazy Saturday in Somerville, Massachusetts. Stage right we see a desk, a computer, all untouched. Center stage we got a second hand couch. Pan left we see various junk food  . . . Thus the stage is set—early on in the play Matt & Ben. Cut to November 2011: the interweb [...]

Just saw this on boston.com (my source for hometown hero news) this morning: Blond Matt Damon is back! Hooray! To readers of this blog, a towheaded Matt Damon has many nostalgic associations. But when was the last time we saw Matt Damon with goldilocks? A quick browse through his filmography leads me to believe that [...]

IMDb is predicting a 2011 release date for an Untitled Ben Affleck/Matt Damon Project. Good Will Hunting Devotees have been wondering — why so long, Matt and Ben, to follow up your roles as Oscar-winning screenwriters? Sophomore slump? According to People Magazine (you heard me): In terms of professional projects, though they’ve costarred and shared [...]

Or at least that’s what I thought. All these Twitter posts about Boys Poker Night were actually about Damon and Affleck playing poker. Like, with Brad Garrett. 140 characters, your tendency to lack clarity strikes again! Boys Playing Poker is a stupid name for a movie anyway. It’s no “Rounders”.

In college there was this guy we’d always see in the dining hall; he was a freshman and my friends and I were juniors.  My friend Adam claimed he looked like Matt Damon.  This was somewhat disputed, but sometimes we could see it. Regardless, we all referred to him as “Matt Damon,” and talked about [...]

Sometimes I think of Matt Damon’s roles in films like the Bourne series and The Departed as extensions of his Good Will Hunting character. Maybe he wouldn’t have been beaten up by his dad if creepy Jack Nicholson had come along and he would have become an ethically scurrilous and kind of dumb cop. (It [...]

While Blog Will Hunting took the last half of the summer off from ruminating the Damon-Affleck masterwork, several of our loyal readers submitted relevant news that we’d like to feature at long last. Thanks to Katherine for submitting a photo of Ben Affleck dressed as a T employee, in a new film shooting in Boston.  [...]

Recent Good Will Twittering.

Following up on Mike’s post, here’s the ultimate Damon freak-out sequence.  It plays after the credits in this season’s finale of Entourage.

In revisiting Good Will Hunting one of my reactions is always, dude, what’s with the hair? Seemingly incongruent with Will’s character as a lower class, no-frills, anti-elitist, true-blue guy from Southie — his hair is always perfectly coiffed, gently gelled, and always bounces back into place.  It’s like a Vidal Sassoon ad.  Watch the fight [...]

Matt Damon namedrops The People’s History of the United States by local academic Howard Zinn, in the Harvard bar scene of Good Will Hunting.  Damon and Zinn have teamed up for an upcoming History Channel program. Regarding the inclusion of the reference in the film, Damon has told The Boston Herald about his first exposure [...]

When I first heard about Gerry, the 2002 film written by Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Gus Van Sant and starring two of our darling Bostonian golden boys—well, I was excited. Could this be a Good Will Hunting renaissance of some sort? Is this the film we’ve all been waiting for, after the promising start [...]

Howard Zinn died today, and how astounding is it that the Associated Press couldn’t get through the obituary of the legendary historian without mentioning Good Will Hunting? Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in [...]

Sorta! Matt ‘n’ Ben are re-forming their production company for a “first look” deal at Warner Bros. In movie lingo, “first look” refers to this exchange: “First, look – Ben, I wish you hadn’t sold my Oscar on eBay to fund Gone Baby Gone. But what the hell, let’s re-form our production company!” Of course, [...]

Turns out the upcoming Damon-Affleck project will likely be The Trade, the story of two New York Yankees in the seventies who swapped wives.  The blogosphere is all atwitter with the notion that we may soon see the Boston duo in pinstripes. You can thank the crackerjack photoshop staff at the MTV Movie Blog for [...]

Join us at twitter/blogwillhunting.com.  Is it still a live tweet if we’re not actually there?  I mean it will be live.  But with tape-delay.  Fine its a tape-delay-tweet. Matt Damon recognizes the vicious heat/buzz/smear-machine warming up this time of year.  The New York Times spoke with him (and describes him as “among the most charming [...]

I think it’s time to take a look back at Matt and Ben’s acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay at the 70th Annual Academy Awards back in 1998. (Watch it here.) A couple of things to note: 1) The award is presented by the original odd couple. (I’m gonna have to say Matt Damon is [...]

Determining the genealogy of celebrities has become an odd pop-cultural phenomenon as of late, and wouldn’t you know it, last October the New England Historic Genealogical Society did some digging and determined that Matt ‘n’ Ben are 10th cousins (once removed).  Their common relative was an Ipswich bricklayer in the 1600s.  Now, I know what [...]

At least, Jimmy Kimmel thinks so.

New York Magazine‘s entertainment blog Vulture has delivered some delightful Damon/Affleck material over the past few days. At the end of March, it reports, the American Cinematheque will be honoring Matt Damon in a televised event called Hollywood Salutes Matt Damon: An American Cinematheque Tribute. On hand to salute Mr. Damon: Ben Affleck, Greg Kinnear… [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Elizabeth, of Chicago, Illinois. Let’s be honest: I was a complete disaster my senior year of high school, in the spring of 1998. My best friend was going to the prom with my ex-boyfriend and I was going a little crazy. And, remember 1998? Matt Damon and Ben Affleck [...]

Slate recently had an article on”10 wildly ambitious—or just wildly misguided—movie projects that were doomed by financial difficulties, casting issues, their very premise, or, commonly enough, all three,” including a version of The Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles. Nestled in at number eight is the following, a film project I had not heard [...]

Boston.com has a slide show today on Matt Damon’s career, including this 1987 photograph of Damon playing Humpty Dumpty in a school production of “Bravo Cappuccio.” He looks more like a large tooth with a bow-tie, though, don’t you think? Check out the rest of the slide show here.

Last year after Thanksgiving, I came back to Boston having unearthed the receipt for my 1998 purchase of the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. This year I come to you (from my parents’ home, having dug through my teenage bedroom) with my original ticket stub from the first time I saw Good Will Hunting — January [...]

Acting!

The following post (an actual Alchemy request) recently popped up as a part of the series WTF Alchemy on Regretsy. Etsy is a website that features handmade goods, crafts, and artwork; Alchemy is a “a space on Etsy where buyers can post requests for custom items.” I don’t see why they don’t just hire the [...]

The blogs are abuzz with the news that in a recent interview Jennifer Aniston confessed that she had always hated “The Rachel” — the Friends-era hairstyle that she made famous. “How do I say this? I think it was the ugliest haircut I’ve ever seen,” she told Allure. I think it’s time to revisit our [...]

Thanks to reader LEK for letting us know: GWH was just name-checked at the Lakers-Celtics game, which came from a lengthy discussion of whether someone was natural at something or had to work at it, an analogy with piano-playing, and a “how d’ya like them apples,” at which point they cut to Damon in the [...]

Sure, we here at Blog Will Hunting just had our most popular post of all time, a provocative piece by guest blogger Dorothy. And Matt & Ben have finally announced a project that will bring them and Boston back together on screen. And I had the pleasure of viewing a local production of the hilarious [...]

Interior. Ben’s apartment. A lazy Saturday in Somerville, Massachusetts. Stage right we see a desk, a computer, all untouched. Center stage we got a second hand couch. Pan left we see various junk food  . . . Thus the stage is set—early on in the play Matt & Ben. Cut to November 2011: the interweb [...]

I always forget that Matt & Ben really got their break from Kevin Smith (Good Will Hunting co-executive producer, creator/writer/director of Chasing Amy and, as seen above, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) .  I haven’t seen Jay & Silent Bob, but have to admit, this scene is masterful. Were Ben-Affleck-self-mocking a film genre onto its [...]

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Prescott Financial Sells Gold, Women & Sheep www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy It’s been interesting to see how much attention the guy with the ponytail in the Harvard bar scene is getting these days — he’s a spokesman for a gold reseller, and [...]

According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller.  If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of [...]

Tired of hearing about the iPad?  Everyone loves it!  Everyone has a complaint about it! Among the over-hyped complaints about the revolutionary new Apple device is that certain accents and regional pronunciations make the terms “iPod” and “iPad” indistinguishable. Cult of Mac blogger John Brownlee writes: I wanted to point out quickly why I think [...]

But this is too Bostony to pass up posting. If you haven’t seen The Super Secret Project‘s “Granite State of Mind” New Hampshire tribute (and Jay-Z send-up), go do that, quick, because it’s amazing. Then check out their recreation of the Perfect Strangers opening, Boston-style…. (They also did the Good Will Hunting Louder “remake” we [...]

GET IT??  Bananas!

The other day I heard a story on NPR about the meme-erific site xtranormal.com — you know, the one where you can type in a script and create a video with some computer-animated teddy bears or robots. As NPR says: Xtranormal’s computerized voices can give almost anything a touch of humor, even when it isn’t [...]

… Boston Movie. That oh-so-recognizable cue at the 1:05 mark brings tears to my eyes. I hope you all had a wonderful Evacuation Day.

An addendum to previous post, Good Will Hunting II: It’s Hunting Season Okay, I would be remiss not to praise the GWH2 moment wherein Mr. Ponytail intones the film’s somewhat obtuse before-and-after title.  Really, is anyone in the film really hunting for “good will” — “an attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence”? Will Hunting is [...]

The problem Professor Lambeau puts on the hallway chalkboard sets off such excitement as to the identity of the mystery mathematician that his next class is overfilled with students eager to learn who the “silent rogue” could be. When I first saw the film, I thought that the joke — “Is it just my imagination [...]

I think my favorite scene in Good Will Hunting is the short sequence towards the end where Will receives a car from his friends for his birthday. After a bunch of tedious plot wrapping-up — the unloading of “it’s not your fault,” some introspective scenes with Will thinking quietly, Will accepting an ambiguous corporate math [...]

According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller.  If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of [...]

But which Kelly’s shall we go to? A while back the Blog Will Hunting crew payed a visit to the Christopher Lee Playground, the South Boston location in which the GWH boys watch some little league before picking up some burgers (and then getting into some street fights). The screenplay, as written, is a little [...]

I once watched Good Will Hunting with a math student, and she scoffed at the so-called impossibility of the problems on the hallway blackboard. Her skepticism is validated by Professor Robin Wilson of Gresham College: That’s right, homeomorphically irreducible trees of degree ten have nothing to do with function analysis.  And this particular problem isn’t [...]

Until last weekend the only time I had been to the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in 2005 with a friend from high school, a friend of my friend, and a my friend’s friend’s 8 to 12 teenage English-as-a-second-language students.  I really only remember three things. It was crowded. Some guy was selling [...]

“Hey, Carmine! It’s me, Will! Remember — we went to kindah-gahden together!” And then, PUNCH! Thank Goodness, It’s Graphics Interchange Format Friday! In a draft of the screenplay of Good Will Hunting, Carmine was instead a character named Bobby Champa, but the film is otherwise pretty true to the scene as written — Champa/Scarpaglia gets [...]

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

Last weekend I gathered with friends for some holiday-time viewing that included Die Hard (yeah, it’s a Christmas movie), A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Office Christmas Special (BBC, duh), and the Chrismukkah episode of The O.C.  I bring it up because this holiday O.C. is also the episode where Marissa attends her first therapy session [...]

Via Wonder-Tonic, it’s “a useful simulator for all those times you wish you had Robin Williams there to counsel you.” Launch the simulator.

Howard Zinn died today, and how astounding is it that the Associated Press couldn’t get through the obituary of the legendary historian without mentioning Good Will Hunting? Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in [...]

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty died this week, and I’ve been hearing his hit song “Baker Street” play on the radio with an extra twinge of nostalgia. The song accompanied the big fight scene in Good Will Hunting that sends Will to jail, therapy, and onto his personal journey — and I played it pretty much [...]

I always forget that Matt & Ben really got their break from Kevin Smith (Good Will Hunting co-executive producer, creator/writer/director of Chasing Amy and, as seen above, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) .  I haven’t seen Jay & Silent Bob, but have to admit, this scene is masterful. Were Ben-Affleck-self-mocking a film genre onto its [...]

BarSzene aus Good Will Hunting nachgespielt von Schülern der Jgs 11

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

Okay, this is arguably lacking the brilliant casting and vaguely convincing set dressing of the previous German student video, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Stay tuned for hilarious outtakes as the credits roll. Hier hat meine Klasse die Bar Scene aus dem Film Good Will Hunting von 1997 nachgespielt

You should probably watch this episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — “The Gang Reignites the Rivalry” — particularly for its choice Good Will Hunting references. Charlie “pulls a Good Will Hunting” on some guys at a frat party they are crashing.  At this frat party they have had their bodies painted by hot [...]

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Prescott Financial Sells Gold, Women & Sheep www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy It’s been interesting to see how much attention the guy with the ponytail in the Harvard bar scene is getting these days — he’s a spokesman for a gold reseller, and [...]

According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller.  If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of [...]

Watch John Doherty, a construction worker in Braintree, MA, read a selection from his favorite poem "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman.  It's cool to see the perspective and inspiration he gets from Whitman — from under his "boot soles" — just as Will finds soul mates in "Shakespeare, Neitzche, Frost, O'Connor, Chaucer, Pope, Kant." [...]

When I first heard about Gerry, the 2002 film written by Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Gus Van Sant and starring two of our darling Bostonian golden boys—well, I was excited. Could this be a Good Will Hunting renaissance of some sort? Is this the film we’ve all been waiting for, after the promising start [...]

Tired of hearing about the iPad?  Everyone loves it!  Everyone has a complaint about it! Among the over-hyped complaints about the revolutionary new Apple device is that certain accents and regional pronunciations make the terms “iPod” and “iPad” indistinguishable. Cult of Mac blogger John Brownlee writes: I wanted to point out quickly why I think [...]

I once watched Good Will Hunting with a math student, and she scoffed at the so-called impossibility of the problems on the hallway blackboard. Her skepticism is validated by Professor Robin Wilson of Gresham College: That’s right, homeomorphically irreducible trees of degree ten have nothing to do with function analysis.  And this particular problem isn’t [...]

I tend to save things. I suppose it should be no surprise that while home for the holidays last fall, in going through folders of old papers, I came across a receipt for a notable purchase from February 23, 1998.  It was from my local record store on College Avenue, and on that day I [...]

I think it’s time to take a look back at Matt and Ben’s acceptance speech for Best Original Screenplay at the 70th Annual Academy Awards back in 1998. (Watch it here.) A couple of things to note: 1) The award is presented by the original odd couple. (I’m gonna have to say Matt Damon is [...]

At least, Jimmy Kimmel thinks so.

Part of the legacy of Good Will Hunting is that a vast number of auditions and acting exercises have used its script as source material.  The web is full of Good Will Hunting scenes recreated, mostly with fairly appalling results.  If you have any doubt that Damon and Affleck (and even Williams) excel in this [...]

But this is too Bostony to pass up posting. If you haven’t seen The Super Secret Project‘s “Granite State of Mind” New Hampshire tribute (and Jay-Z send-up), go do that, quick, because it’s amazing. Then check out their recreation of the Perfect Strangers opening, Boston-style…. (They also did the Good Will Hunting Louder “remake” we [...]

GET IT??  Bananas!

NBC’s Community riffed on Good Will Hunting this week.

The therapy scene from the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers; it sounds a lot like Good Will Hunting.

Move over Southie and Dorchester… there’s a new candidate for “one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of Boston… no place for the weak or innocent.” A one square mile neighborhood called… Charlestown!! I incidentally did a quick Google search of Charlestown and “bank robberies” and came up with this article about a series of [...]

Last week, Alex posted the trailer for The Town, a movie that looks like this: guns! Charlestown! Jon Hamm! The dude from The Hurt Locker! Jon Hamm! Fenway Park! Stubble! Jon Goddamn Hamm! There’s a new Affleck trailer up, and while it’s not as exciting as the one for The Town, it’s certainly compelling. First [...]

Acting!

The other day I heard a story on NPR about the meme-erific site xtranormal.com — you know, the one where you can type in a script and create a video with some computer-animated teddy bears or robots. As NPR says: Xtranormal’s computerized voices can give almost anything a touch of humor, even when it isn’t [...]

What an unexpected context for a subtle Good Will Hunting reference — Saturday night’s SNL brought us a digital short with Pee-wee Herman, Anderson Cooper, and the memorable final line from Good Will Hunting.

… Boston Movie. That oh-so-recognizable cue at the 1:05 mark brings tears to my eyes. I hope you all had a wonderful Evacuation Day.

Harvard graduated this week, and Harvard Square swarmed with black and crimson caps and gowns. I was delighted to learn that Amy Poehler delivered the Class Day speech to the students and their families on Wednesday, and was especially delighted when I read on Salon (in a piece by pop culture contributor Drew Grant) that [...]

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]

Sure, we here at Blog Will Hunting just had our most popular post of all time, a provocative piece by guest blogger Dorothy. And Matt & Ben have finally announced a project that will bring them and Boston back together on screen. And I had the pleasure of viewing a local production of the hilarious [...]

I always forget that Matt & Ben really got their break from Kevin Smith (Good Will Hunting co-executive producer, creator/writer/director of Chasing Amy and, as seen above, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) .  I haven’t seen Jay & Silent Bob, but have to admit, this scene is masterful. Were Ben-Affleck-self-mocking a film genre onto its [...]

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

Some more recent Good Will Twittering.

Google Wave reenacts Good Will Hunting.  The future is now. Via TechCrunch

I wanna be a shepherd.  I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them. — Will Hunting, Good Will Hunting … I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around [...]

You should probably watch this episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — “The Gang Reignites the Rivalry” — particularly for its choice Good Will Hunting references. Charlie “pulls a Good Will Hunting” on some guys at a frat party they are crashing.  At this frat party they have had their bodies painted by hot [...]

One of the most-referenced sequences in Good Will Hunting is, of course, the “apples scene.” As the boys stumble from the bar, crossing Bow Street, Morgan sees the ponytail jerk sitting in Dunkin Donuts.  Will goes over and initiates a little confrontational wordplay through the glass.  (In the screenplay it’s not a Dunkin Donuts, but [...]

Rachel Maddow and MSNBC covered the much ballyhooed election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts on Tuesday night, and as seems to be true of all news segments regarding Massachusetts these days, did so from a bar.  (Governor Deval Patrick appeared from a bar a few days prior to discuss the upcoming election.)  Jon Stewart had [...]

A “non-essential mnemonic,” from McSweeney’s

While browsing at my favorite local bookstore, I flipped through Barbara Lynch’s new cookbook Stir. Check out this choice bit of jacket copy: Lynch’s cuisine is all the more remarkable because it is self-taught. In a story straight out of Good Will Hunting, she grew up in the turbulent projects of “Southie”, where petty crime [...]

Howard Zinn died today, and how astounding is it that the Associated Press couldn’t get through the obituary of the legendary historian without mentioning Good Will Hunting? Howard Zinn, an author, teacher and political activist whose book “A People’s History of the United States” became a million-selling leftist alternative to mainstream texts, died Wednesday in [...]

Seeing Boston on film or tv is like watching the Red Sox play well — it’s not actually that unusual, but it’s always a pleasant surprise. So I was thrilled to see tv’s 30 Rock come to Boston last week. Much has been made of guest star Julianne Moore’s “thick,” “terrible,” “atrocious,” “ridiculously broad,” “worst-attempt-ever” [...]

Tired of hearing about the iPad?  Everyone loves it!  Everyone has a complaint about it! Among the over-hyped complaints about the revolutionary new Apple device is that certain accents and regional pronunciations make the terms “iPod” and “iPad” indistinguishable. Cult of Mac blogger John Brownlee writes: I wanted to point out quickly why I think [...]

Blog Will Hunting wishes you a good day, Valentine’s, or otherwise.  Have a bunch of caramels or something.

Part of the legacy of Good Will Hunting is that a vast number of auditions and acting exercises have used its script as source material.  The web is full of Good Will Hunting scenes recreated, mostly with fairly appalling results.  If you have any doubt that Damon and Affleck (and even Williams) excel in this [...]

NBC’s Community riffed on Good Will Hunting this week.

The therapy scene from the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly comedy Step Brothers; it sounds a lot like Good Will Hunting.

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Claire, mother of two, and a contributor to the blog Rants from MommyLand. Have you ever noticed that there are no parents in Good Will Hunting? There are brief references to Will’s biological and foster parents, Skylar’s wealthy father, Sean’s abusive dad, and Chuckie’s Ma (and her VCR…). Certainly, [...]

The other day I heard a story on NPR about the meme-erific site xtranormal.com — you know, the one where you can type in a script and create a video with some computer-animated teddy bears or robots. As NPR says: Xtranormal’s computerized voices can give almost anything a touch of humor, even when it isn’t [...]

What an unexpected context for a subtle Good Will Hunting reference — Saturday night’s SNL brought us a digital short with Pee-wee Herman, Anderson Cooper, and the memorable final line from Good Will Hunting.

Thanks to reader LEK for letting us know: GWH was just name-checked at the Lakers-Celtics game, which came from a lengthy discussion of whether someone was natural at something or had to work at it, an analogy with piano-playing, and a “how d’ya like them apples,” at which point they cut to Damon in the [...]

McSweeney’s Internet Tendency featured “Patriotic Songs Reworked For The Modern Age” today for the Fourth of July. Their final entry, “Yankee Doodle,” just goes to show what a profound and encompassing effect Good Will Hunting has had on America’s perception of therapy. Happy Fourth of July, everybody! It’s not your fault! Yankee Doodle Yankee Doodle [...]

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]

Hi. I’m Dave. I’m a friend of Alex’s from way back. One might say I’m the Chuckie to his Will. Or … one might not. In any case, when Alex told me he was writing a Good Will Hunting blog, I was immediately excited. Not only because I, too, think of the movie more than [...]

I tend to save things. I suppose it should be no surprise that while home for the holidays last fall, in going through folders of old papers, I came across a receipt for a notable purchase from February 23, 1998.  It was from my local record store on College Avenue, and on that day I [...]

I must say, I was surprised to recently discover that there was a music video for Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery.” “Miss Misery” is, of course, Smith’s song that plays during the Good Will Hunting closing credits as Will drives off to California. In 1998 it was nominated for Best Original Song (losing out to Celine [...]

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty died this week, and I’ve been hearing his hit song “Baker Street” play on the radio with an extra twinge of nostalgia. The song accompanied the big fight scene in Good Will Hunting that sends Will to jail, therapy, and onto his personal journey — and I played it pretty much [...]

Until last weekend the only time I had been to the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in 2005 with a friend from high school, a friend of my friend, and a my friend’s friend’s 8 to 12 teenage English-as-a-second-language students.  I really only remember three things. It was crowded. Some guy was selling [...]

The problem Professor Lambeau puts on the hallway chalkboard sets off such excitement as to the identity of the mystery mathematician that his next class is overfilled with students eager to learn who the “silent rogue” could be. When I first saw the film, I thought that the joke — “Is it just my imagination [...]

Matt Damon namedrops The People’s History of the United States by local academic Howard Zinn, in the Harvard bar scene of Good Will Hunting.  Damon and Zinn have teamed up for an upcoming History Channel program. Regarding the inclusion of the reference in the film, Damon has told The Boston Herald about his first exposure [...]

Harvard graduated this week, and Harvard Square swarmed with black and crimson caps and gowns. I was delighted to learn that Amy Poehler delivered the Class Day speech to the students and their families on Wednesday, and was especially delighted when I read on Salon (in a piece by pop culture contributor Drew Grant) that [...]

Good Will Hunting is more than just the sum of its parts. For an “indie” film, it is widely recognized, and generally — I think — thought of with fondness. For a film that admittedly flirts with mediocrity, it resonates for those of us who were young adults in the late nineties.  References to the [...]

An addendum to previous post, Good Will Hunting II: It’s Hunting Season Okay, I would be remiss not to praise the GWH2 moment wherein Mr. Ponytail intones the film’s somewhat obtuse before-and-after title.  Really, is anyone in the film really hunting for “good will” — “an attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence”? Will Hunting is [...]

The problem Professor Lambeau puts on the hallway chalkboard sets off such excitement as to the identity of the mystery mathematician that his next class is overfilled with students eager to learn who the “silent rogue” could be. When I first saw the film, I thought that the joke — “Is it just my imagination [...]

Hi. I’m Dave. I’m a friend of Alex’s from way back. One might say I’m the Chuckie to his Will. Or … one might not. In any case, when Alex told me he was writing a Good Will Hunting blog, I was immediately excited. Not only because I, too, think of the movie more than [...]

In this Boston Globe profile, Matt Damon says directing is most likely his next big move. “I’m not in a race to start doing it,” says Damon. “I feel like I’m getting so much experience with great directors. All I’m doing is learning more.” But is this the sort of behavior we can expect to [...]

“Good Will Hunting by Myself” is a song by the band Ludo. (I think it’s emo!) Excerpted lyrics: And I can watch Good Will Hunting by myself (it’s cool, it’s fine) I can shop for clothes without her help (it’s cool, it’s fine) I can hang out with my friends, do the good times ever [...]

Blog Will Hunting has been honored to receive several mentions around the web lately.  Universal Hub, your source for all blog things Boston, namedropped us a couple weeks ago… plus, we got a nice little write-up in Thrillist.  (Here’s what it looks like… I like their design!) The Thrillist post invokes a couple talking points [...]

In revisiting Good Will Hunting one of my reactions is always, dude, what’s with the hair? Seemingly incongruent with Will’s character as a lower class, no-frills, anti-elitist, true-blue guy from Southie — his hair is always perfectly coiffed, gently gelled, and always bounces back into place.  It’s like a Vidal Sassoon ad.  Watch the fight [...]

Some blogging-on-the-go here… Historian Gordon Wood speaks at Harvard Book Store tonight. You know, as Will Hunting says: Of course that’s your contention. You’re a first year grad student. You just finished some Marxian historian, Pete Garrison prob’ly and so naturally that’s what you believe until next month when you get to James Lemon and [...]

Scott William Winters — you know him as Clark (the pony-tailed participant in the “how do you like them apples” exchange in GWH) — is back!  Turns out he often plays jerks like Clark, and has a jerk family.  His brother, Dean Winters, plays Liz Lemon’s ex-boyfriend (and jerkwad) Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock.  And [...]

Not long after Gus Van Sant’s Finding Forrester was released, I was discussing the director with my friend Brendan, at a rooftop party in Brooklyn. (I included that last detail so you’d know that I am — or at least have been — or at least think I may have been — cool.) With Good [...]

As previously discussed on Blog Will Hunting, Scott Winters (Clark, the Harvard bar jerkface) is currently appearing in commercials for Goldline.com.  Watch the videos on YouTube, particularly the one on Market Stability, where Winters fondles gold lovingly.  Apparently gold looks like an ipod!

Matt Damon namedrops The People’s History of the United States by local academic Howard Zinn, in the Harvard bar scene of Good Will Hunting.  Damon and Zinn have teamed up for an upcoming History Channel program. Regarding the inclusion of the reference in the film, Damon has told The Boston Herald about his first exposure [...]

Towards the end of the film, Will Hunting grows tired of his role as math genius.  He walks out of Professor Lambeau’s office, casually setting fire to a proof that only a “handful of people in the world” could have completed.  What follows is, to me, one of the most memorable moments of the film, [...]

Last weekend I gathered with friends for some holiday-time viewing that included Die Hard (yeah, it’s a Christmas movie), A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Office Christmas Special (BBC, duh), and the Chrismukkah episode of The O.C.  I bring it up because this holiday O.C. is also the episode where Marissa attends her first therapy session [...]

I wanna be a shepherd.  I wanna move up to Nashua, get a nice little spread, get some sheep and tend to them. — Will Hunting, Good Will Hunting … I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around [...]

You should probably watch this episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia — “The Gang Reignites the Rivalry” — particularly for its choice Good Will Hunting references. Charlie “pulls a Good Will Hunting” on some guys at a frat party they are crashing.  At this frat party they have had their bodies painted by hot [...]

This past fall found the streets of Cambridge lined by camera rigging and film crews as it once again became the setting for several upcoming feature films. Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the [...]

Everyone knows who wrote Good Will Hunting. In fact, it’s a big part of the appeal of the movie and the mystique surrounding it: the story of two relative-unknowns who, through hard work and talent, would make it big and go on to achieve lasting fame and cinematic glory—the story of two guys sitting on [...]

According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller.  If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of [...]

One of the most-referenced sequences in Good Will Hunting is, of course, the “apples scene.” As the boys stumble from the bar, crossing Bow Street, Morgan sees the ponytail jerk sitting in Dunkin Donuts.  Will goes over and initiates a little confrontational wordplay through the glass.  (In the screenplay it’s not a Dunkin Donuts, but [...]

While browsing at my favorite local bookstore, I flipped through Barbara Lynch’s new cookbook Stir. Check out this choice bit of jacket copy: Lynch’s cuisine is all the more remarkable because it is self-taught. In a story straight out of Good Will Hunting, she grew up in the turbulent projects of “Southie”, where petty crime [...]

Blog Will Hunting wishes you a good day, Valentine’s, or otherwise.  Have a bunch of caramels or something.

Sorta! Matt ‘n’ Ben are re-forming their production company for a “first look” deal at Warner Bros. In movie lingo, “first look” refers to this exchange: “First, look – Ben, I wish you hadn’t sold my Oscar on eBay to fund Gone Baby Gone. But what the hell, let’s re-form our production company!” Of course, [...]

I tend to save things. I suppose it should be no surprise that while home for the holidays last fall, in going through folders of old papers, I came across a receipt for a notable purchase from February 23, 1998.  It was from my local record store on College Avenue, and on that day I [...]

Until last weekend the only time I had been to the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in 2005 with a friend from high school, a friend of my friend, and a my friend’s friend’s 8 to 12 teenage English-as-a-second-language students.  I really only remember three things. It was crowded. Some guy was selling [...]

Part of the legacy of Good Will Hunting is that a vast number of auditions and acting exercises have used its script as source material.  The web is full of Good Will Hunting scenes recreated, mostly with fairly appalling results.  If you have any doubt that Damon and Affleck (and even Williams) excel in this [...]

In the summer of 2007 I went on a European adventure.  Late one evening, strolling the streets of Vienna, Austria, I encountered the above scene.  It was a grungy video store with a Good Will Hunting poster in the darkened window.  How odd it felt to encounter this very local-feeling film as a cheesy, sun-bleached [...]

Looks like Good Will Hunting made an appearance on TBS the other day and brought America’s productivity to a standstill. Here’s another of our occasional round-ups of what people on Twitter have been saying about Good Will Hunting.

I’ve learned from the best that a good blog isn’t afraid to bring you right into the conversation, into the formation of its ideas as they are being constructed and processed. So I figured I would go ahead and share the following online conversation I recently had with a friend, former Bostonian Dave C. I [...]

Browse through Wikipedia’s List of films that most frequently use the word “fuck,” and you’ll find that the film Good Will Hunting scores somewhere in the middle of the pack. Good Will Hunting uses the word more than 150 times, but not more than 200 times — and certainly not more than 400 times; that [...]

Via Wonder-Tonic, it’s “a useful simulator for all those times you wish you had Robin Williams there to counsel you.” Launch the simulator.

The Dodgers are in town, and the Celtics are done for the season….

Okay, we know you’ve got ‘em. We’re looking for anecdotes about the time(s) you’ve seen Good Will Hunting. Maybe the first time you saw it. Maybe other times. Seeing a movie in a movie theater lends itself to a more textured experience, so maybe if you saw it back in 1997/1998 you have a couple [...]

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for all the vertical reflective surfaces in the Boston area. Thanks to these windows and mirrors, our genius janitors (Good Will Hunting) and entrepreneurial college students (The Social Network) can work out their formulas in an aesthetically pleasing manner with an inherent visual metaphor for self-reflection, intellectual clarity, and access [...]

I must say, I was surprised to recently discover that there was a music video for Elliott Smith’s “Miss Misery.” “Miss Misery” is, of course, Smith’s song that plays during the Good Will Hunting closing credits as Will drives off to California. In 1998 it was nominated for Best Original Song (losing out to Celine [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Claire, mother of two, and a contributor to the blog Rants from MommyLand. Have you ever noticed that there are no parents in Good Will Hunting? There are brief references to Will’s biological and foster parents, Skylar’s wealthy father, Sean’s abusive dad, and Chuckie’s Ma (and her VCR…). Certainly, [...]

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]

Guest blogger Dorothy Gambrell cartoons for Cat & Girl every Tuesday and Thursday and lives in an “up and coming neighborhood.” She went to college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I. Good Will Hunting is my Least Favorite Movie of All Time “Art” can mean a lot of things. Almost anything, really. But surely it has never [...]

I always forget that Matt & Ben really got their break from Kevin Smith (Good Will Hunting co-executive producer, creator/writer/director of Chasing Amy and, as seen above, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) .  I haven’t seen Jay & Silent Bob, but have to admit, this scene is masterful. Were Ben-Affleck-self-mocking a film genre onto its [...]

Hi. I’m Dave. I’m a friend of Alex’s from way back. One might say I’m the Chuckie to his Will. Or … one might not. In any case, when Alex told me he was writing a Good Will Hunting blog, I was immediately excited. Not only because I, too, think of the movie more than [...]

Everyone knows who wrote Good Will Hunting. In fact, it’s a big part of the appeal of the movie and the mystique surrounding it: the story of two relative-unknowns who, through hard work and talent, would make it big and go on to achieve lasting fame and cinematic glory—the story of two guys sitting on [...]

According to Wikipedia (famous last words, I know — the source of this information has not been cited but Williams Goldman corroborated the details in a WGA seminar in 2003), Matt and Ben’s original story for Good Will Hunting was that of an FBI thriller.  If this is true, it likely stokes the flames of [...]

Occasionally we feature our favorite mentions of Good Will Hunting on Twitter… 

When I first heard about Gerry, the 2002 film written by Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Gus Van Sant and starring two of our darling Bostonian golden boys—well, I was excited. Could this be a Good Will Hunting renaissance of some sort? Is this the film we’ve all been waiting for, after the promising start [...]

Sorta! Matt ‘n’ Ben are re-forming their production company for a “first look” deal at Warner Bros. In movie lingo, “first look” refers to this exchange: “First, look – Ben, I wish you hadn’t sold my Oscar on eBay to fund Gone Baby Gone. But what the hell, let’s re-form our production company!” Of course, [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Rolando Garcia. I once jokingly referred to Miramax as “the house Ben Affleck built.” That’s not true. Miramax has existed since at least 1980. (My friend recently showed me a poster for a stoner Star Wars parody Miramax released that year. Think about that. They’ve been pulling the whole [...]

From now on, every time I leave a bathroom I’m going to shout out “It’s Good Will Hunting; it’s amazing!” Director Kevin Smith worked with Matt and Ben in Chasing Amy, preceding Good Will Hunting, and also directed each of the films in which they’ve appeared together since.  The story goes: Matt and Ben wanted [...]

Join us at twitter/blogwillhunting.com.  Is it still a live tweet if we’re not actually there?  I mean it will be live.  But with tape-delay.  Fine its a tape-delay-tweet. Matt Damon recognizes the vicious heat/buzz/smear-machine warming up this time of year.  The New York Times spoke with him (and describes him as “among the most charming [...]

Until last weekend the only time I had been to the South Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade was in 2005 with a friend from high school, a friend of my friend, and a my friend’s friend’s 8 to 12 teenage English-as-a-second-language students.  I really only remember three things. It was crowded. Some guy was selling [...]

Interior. Ben’s apartment. A lazy Saturday in Somerville, Massachusetts. Stage right we see a desk, a computer, all untouched. Center stage we got a second hand couch. Pan left we see various junk food  . . . Thus the stage is set—early on in the play Matt & Ben. Cut to November 2011: the interweb [...]

I always forget that Matt & Ben really got their break from Kevin Smith (Good Will Hunting co-executive producer, creator/writer/director of Chasing Amy and, as seen above, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) .  I haven’t seen Jay & Silent Bob, but have to admit, this scene is masterful. Were Ben-Affleck-self-mocking a film genre onto its [...]

IMDb is predicting a 2011 release date for an Untitled Ben Affleck/Matt Damon Project. Good Will Hunting Devotees have been wondering — why so long, Matt and Ben, to follow up your roles as Oscar-winning screenwriters? Sophomore slump? According to People Magazine (you heard me): In terms of professional projects, though they’ve costarred and shared [...]

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

Or at least that’s what I thought. All these Twitter posts about Boys Poker Night were actually about Damon and Affleck playing poker. Like, with Brad Garrett. 140 characters, your tendency to lack clarity strikes again! Boys Playing Poker is a stupid name for a movie anyway. It’s no “Rounders”.

Jay-Z released a single this week that features Kanye West and Rihanna… the track is called “Run This Town” and Kanye prominently namechecks Good Will Hunting: This the fast life, we are on a crash course, what you think I rap for, to push a fucking Rav 4? But I know that if I stay [...]

Recent Good Will Twittering.

Following up on Mike’s post, here’s the ultimate Damon freak-out sequence.  It plays after the credits in this season’s finale of Entourage.

Scott William Winters — you know him as Clark (the pony-tailed participant in the “how do you like them apples” exchange in GWH) — is back!  Turns out he often plays jerks like Clark, and has a jerk family.  His brother, Dean Winters, plays Liz Lemon’s ex-boyfriend (and jerkwad) Dennis Duffy on 30 Rock.  And [...]

Not long after Gus Van Sant’s Finding Forrester was released, I was discussing the director with my friend Brendan, at a rooftop party in Brooklyn. (I included that last detail so you’d know that I am — or at least have been — or at least think I may have been — cool.) With Good [...]

As previously discussed on Blog Will Hunting, Scott Winters (Clark, the Harvard bar jerkface) is currently appearing in commercials for Goldline.com.  Watch the videos on YouTube, particularly the one on Market Stability, where Winters fondles gold lovingly.  Apparently gold looks like an ipod!

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Prescott Financial Sells Gold, Women & Sheep www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy It’s been interesting to see how much attention the guy with the ponytail in the Harvard bar scene is getting these days — he’s a spokesman for a gold reseller, and [...]

Everyone knows who wrote Good Will Hunting. In fact, it’s a big part of the appeal of the movie and the mystique surrounding it: the story of two relative-unknowns who, through hard work and talent, would make it big and go on to achieve lasting fame and cinematic glory—the story of two guys sitting on [...]

When I first heard about Gerry, the 2002 film written by Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, and Gus Van Sant and starring two of our darling Bostonian golden boys—well, I was excited. Could this be a Good Will Hunting renaissance of some sort? Is this the film we’ve all been waiting for, after the promising start [...]

One of the most-referenced sequences in Good Will Hunting is, of course, the “apples scene.” As the boys stumble from the bar, crossing Bow Street, Morgan sees the ponytail jerk sitting in Dunkin Donuts.  Will goes over and initiates a little confrontational wordplay through the glass.  (In the screenplay it’s not a Dunkin Donuts, but [...]

Turns out the upcoming Damon-Affleck project will likely be The Trade, the story of two New York Yankees in the seventies who swapped wives.  The blogosphere is all atwitter with the notion that we may soon see the Boston duo in pinstripes. You can thank the crackerjack photoshop staff at the MTV Movie Blog for [...]

I tend to save things. I suppose it should be no surprise that while home for the holidays last fall, in going through folders of old papers, I came across a receipt for a notable purchase from February 23, 1998.  It was from my local record store on College Avenue, and on that day I [...]

Blog Will Hunting welcomes guest contributor Rolando Garcia. I once jokingly referred to Miramax as “the house Ben Affleck built.” That’s not true. Miramax has existed since at least 1980. (My friend recently showed me a poster for a stoner Star Wars parody Miramax released that year. Think about that. They’ve been pulling the whole [...]

In the summer of 2007 I went on a European adventure.  Late one evening, strolling the streets of Vienna, Austria, I encountered the above scene.  It was a grungy video store with a Good Will Hunting poster in the darkened window.  How odd it felt to encounter this very local-feeling film as a cheesy, sun-bleached [...]

Everyone’s giddy for Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Inception, including New York Magazine‘s culture blog “Vulture,” which has been looking over a bunch of newly released stills from the film.  This one (above) in particular had them considering the canon of great chalkboards of film and television, which inevitably lead them to one Good Will Hunting [...]

Slate recently had an article on”10 wildly ambitious—or just wildly misguided—movie projects that were doomed by financial difficulties, casting issues, their very premise, or, commonly enough, all three,” including a version of The Lord of the Rings starring the Beatles. Nestled in at number eight is the following, a film project I had not heard [...]

Last year after Thanksgiving, I came back to Boston having unearthed the receipt for my 1998 purchase of the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. This year I come to you (from my parents’ home, having dug through my teenage bedroom) with my original ticket stub from the first time I saw Good Will Hunting — January [...]

Guest blogger Dorothy Gambrell cartoons for Cat & Girl every Tuesday and Thursday and lives in an “up and coming neighborhood.” She went to college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I. Good Will Hunting is my Least Favorite Movie of All Time “Art” can mean a lot of things. Almost anything, really. But surely it has never [...]

This past fall found the streets of Cambridge lined by camera rigging and film crews as it once again became the setting for several upcoming feature films. Scenes from the movie The Social Network, the story of the creation of Facebook in a college dorm room, were filmed in various locations throughout Cambridge—although apparently the [...]

Move over Southie and Dorchester… there’s a new candidate for “one of the toughest neighborhoods in all of Boston… no place for the weak or innocent.” A one square mile neighborhood called… Charlestown!! I incidentally did a quick Google search of Charlestown and “bank robberies” and came up with this article about a series of [...]

“Will, why’d you come all the way out here?” Skylar exclaimed. “I wanted to see you. I wanted fate to take control. I let my heart lead me. You were right. I don’t hate you Skylar, I love you. Would you forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Without you, I don’t feel complete.” Will [...]

Just a quick post today, to commemorate what is surely the best moment in Ben Affleck’s The Town… John Hamm steals the show with his Bostonese –  listen to the moment here. Hmm, and what does that film still remind me of…?

… Boston Movie. That oh-so-recognizable cue at the 1:05 mark brings tears to my eyes. I hope you all had a wonderful Evacuation Day.

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]

How strange it was to glance up at the television screen during Tuesday’s Red Sox game to see NESN repeatedly zoomed in on none other than Good Will Hunting’s and Cambridge, MA’s own Ben Affleck. This is nothing new, I suppose. His presence has been documented in his sweet dugout-hugging seats before. But let’s step [...]

The “It’s not your fault!” sequence of Good Will Hunting puts forth what is probably the quote (repeated over and over again) that has most permeated pop culture. “It’s not your fault!” Robin Williams insists. Though my peers and I incorporate many a GWH reference into our conversations, “It’s not your fault” seems to be [...]

Guest blogger Dorothy Gambrell cartoons for Cat & Girl every Tuesday and Thursday and lives in an “up and coming neighborhood.” She went to college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I. Good Will Hunting is my Least Favorite Movie of All Time “Art” can mean a lot of things. Almost anything, really. But surely it has never [...]

One of the most-referenced sequences in Good Will Hunting is, of course, the “apples scene.” As the boys stumble from the bar, crossing Bow Street, Morgan sees the ponytail jerk sitting in Dunkin Donuts.  Will goes over and initiates a little confrontational wordplay through the glass.  (In the screenplay it’s not a Dunkin Donuts, but [...]

It all started in October. And then Twitter-user Eddie Alfano couldn’t stop. Quick, someone get this guy a CBS sitcom. Asked about his series of Good Will Hunting tweets, Eddie responded, “I loved that movie, and i just get a kick out of making those dumb jokes!” Leaving no fruit, vegetable, or legume wordplay untapped, [...]

Hello! Today Blog Will Hunting is pleased to introduce a new series we’re calling “They got a book deal; why not me??” Perhaps the publishing deluge has slowed down in recent months, but for a while there it seemed that every blog that tipped into the pop cultural consciousness would proceed to fall into a [...]

As a part of our occasional series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL WHY NOT ME, Blog Will Hunting is putting out our first call for work. To celebrate our upcoming first birthday, we want your best/worst Good Will Hunting themed cake or dessert item, à la Cake Wrecks. Send photos to contact@blogwillhunting.com by June 13.

Ah yes, it was just a year ago when we first began blogging about Good Will Hunting here on Blog Will Hunting. And as a part of our ongoing series THEY GOT A BOOK DEAL; WHY NOT ME, please enjoy a piece of birthday cake with us. If a blog about ill-constructed cakes can get [...]

Bostonians really, really like Good Will Hunting. We recently spoke via email with author Christian Lander of the famed blog — and subsequent book — Stuff White People Like. He has a new book called Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle’s Sweaters to Maine’s Microbrews. We asked [...]

Notable comments from the Twittersphere in the last week…

Good Will Tweeting… from the Twittersphere this week.

Some more recent Good Will Twittering.

Recent Good Will Twittering.

Occasionally we feature our favorite mentions of Good Will Hunting on Twitter… 

Lots of politically slanted GWH references among Twitterers this past week. Hmm.

Join us at twitter/blogwillhunting.com.  Is it still a live tweet if we’re not actually there?  I mean it will be live.  But with tape-delay.  Fine its a tape-delay-tweet. Matt Damon recognizes the vicious heat/buzz/smear-machine warming up this time of year.  The New York Times spoke with him (and describes him as “among the most charming [...]

Just some more wise words from the twitterverse…

Looks like Good Will Hunting made an appearance on TBS the other day and brought America’s productivity to a standstill. Here’s another of our occasional round-ups of what people on Twitter have been saying about Good Will Hunting.

Another in our occasional series, What We Tweet About When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting….

Another in our occasional series: What We Tweet About When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting.

A back-and-forth with Kevin Smith, some crude remarks about Minnie Driver, and other notable recent tweets about Good Will Hunting. This is What We Tweet When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting…

Another round-up of what we tweet about when we tweet about Good Will Hunting…

It all started in October. And then Twitter-user Eddie Alfano couldn’t stop. Quick, someone get this guy a CBS sitcom. Asked about his series of Good Will Hunting tweets, Eddie responded, “I loved that movie, and i just get a kick out of making those dumb jokes!” Leaving no fruit, vegetable, or legume wordplay untapped, [...]

And now for another in our occasional series, What We Tweet About When We Tweet About Good Will Hunting.

An addendum to previous post, Good Will Hunting II: It’s Hunting Season Okay, I would be remiss not to praise the GWH2 moment wherein Mr. Ponytail intones the film’s somewhat obtuse before-and-after title.  Really, is anyone in the film really hunting for “good will” — “an attitude of kindness or friendliness; benevolence”? Will Hunting is [...]

The problem Professor Lambeau puts on the hallway chalkboard sets off such excitement as to the identity of the mystery mathematician that his next class is overfilled with students eager to learn who the “silent rogue” could be. When I first saw the film, I thought that the joke — “Is it just my imagination [...]

I once watched Good Will Hunting with a math student, and she scoffed at the so-called impossibility of the problems on the hallway blackboard. Her skepticism is validated by Professor Robin Wilson of Gresham College: That’s right, homeomorphically irreducible trees of degree ten have nothing to do with function analysis.  And this particular problem isn’t [...]

I passed by Bunker Hill Community College on a rare use of the orange line the other day, and I was reminded of my biggest pet peeve in Good Will Hunting, which has got to be when Will comes in for his second therapy session, and Sean says simply, “Come with me.” In the next [...]

The Daily Show – Republicans Watch “The Town” Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook So amid all the recent debt ceiling drama, Republicans reportedly used a scene from The Town to persuade fellow party members to back Speaker Boehner’s plan. Director Ben Affleck’s reaction? He spoke to [...]