For all those times you wish you had Robin Williams there to counsel you

Written by Alex on June 2nd, 2010

Good Will Hunting Simulator

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.

A Call for Cake Wrecks

Written by Alex on May 21st, 2010

Blogs that became books

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.

Irish Cakewreck

Send photos to contact@blogwillhunting.com by June 13.

A Matt Damon Prom

Written by Elizabeth on May 17th, 2010

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 had just skyrocketed to fame, but they weren’t the superstars they are now. This was pre-Bennifer, pre-Bourne Identity and pre-Ocean’s 11.

But let’s rewind for a second (this was still the era of VHS after all)… I was 17 and desperate for the perfect prom date.

I begged my best-guy-friend to come with me, but he didn’t want to go, period. He didn’t like to dance, it was too expensive, and anyway, he was thinking of asking the cute freshman he had a crush on. I thought maybe I could go with the guy I went with last year, a blind date arranged so that my friend and her boyfriend would have company, but he had a soccer tournament that weekend. And another acquaintance was too busy fending off previous unwanted requests to seriously consider mine.

I could only think of one other option: Matt Damon.

I did a “peoplesearch” on yahoo.com to find his email address—the Internet was still young. There were several entries for people named Matt Damon, but one of these cited residence in Hollywood, California. Mattdamon@yahoo.com, in fact. So I noted this and considered how I might convince a celebrity to travel to southern Indiana to attend my senior prom.

Matt Damon People Search

The email I wrote was long, and in my attempt to sound sincere, to convince Matt that I wasn’t some crazed fan, I guess, it ended up a painfully detailed self-advertisement.

I began by giving him my name, telling him I was 17 years old, where I went to school, and insisting that what I was writing wasn’t “just some ordinary piece of fan mail,” that I wasn’t the “groupie-fan-mail-type.” I told him I had tried, “in one way or another, to get five or six guys to go to the prom with me,” but that “nevertheless, I remain dateless.”

“Please consider visiting Terre Haute on April 25,” I closed. “I believe you would have a great time, and I would be thrilled to have you join me. You could even come incognito, if you wish.” I said I would understand if he was too busy, but that I would like a response either way, and if he couldn’t come, maybe he could get one of his friends—Ben, maybe—to attend the prom with me. I signed it: “Sincerely, Elizabeth Marie Erickson” and attached a senior photo I had scanned, a picture of me in a white T-shirt and overalls with an American flag backdrop.

I didn’t feel any more danger of rejection than I did when I asked the guys at school. He’s the type who’d be up for an adventure, I thought, who might get a kick out of doing something as unexpected as going to the prom with some lonely girl in Indiana.

I tell this story every once in a while and people usually assume this is the end.

But he wrote back.

That is, someone wrote back.

The subject line read: “Elizabeth, you are beautiful!” He said he was impressed I had sent him my school picture, that I looked like the front of a Wheaties box, “All American youth and healthy!”

“I’m sorry sweetheart,” he wrote, “but I must decline your prom invitation. I will be busy shooting on location that night. But I know a girl as beautiful and smart and interesting (you must be the prettiest girl in your school!) as you will have guys lined up waiting! Just choose one!”

I’ve never met Matt Damon, and I can’t be sure who answered my email. Honestly though, I’m just as grateful to the schmo who probably impersonated him as I would be to the potentially real Matt Damon, for taking the time to make a 17-year-old in Indiana feel a little less alone.


Editor’s Note: By the way, “Elizabeth” is a pseudonym… so Matt Damon, if you’re out there, don’t bother people-searching her.

English as a Second Language

Written by Alex on May 14th, 2010

Good Will Hunting v. Community

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

Language!

Written by Alex on May 14th, 2010

List of films that most frequently use the word "fuck"

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 honor goes to only a handful of films (including Scorcese’s Casino and a documentary that is, well, specifically about the word.)

This reminds me of a goofy tweet I came across back in January:

Would you let your child watch GOOD WILL HUNTING? 150 F-Words! Call the police!

In the past I’ve gained a certain amount of entertainment from an odd source — there’s a site called Kids-in-Mind, which is one of several similar services that rate the inappropriateness of movie content for children, with very awkward and straightforward explanations of any explicit goings-on.

I’ve found myself seeking out their analysis of the least kid-friendly films I can think of, just to take in the stilted, uncomfortable prose.

Don't be afraid to expand your horizons; a comfortable life isn't necessarily a satisfying one.

So, in case you were wondering, Good Will Hunting gets a 3 out of 10 for SEX & NUDITY…

We briefly hear sounds of a man and woman having sex, and we learn that, off-screen, a man has been masturbating while watching a pornographic movie. We see a few cleavage-revealing outfits.

While it gets a paltry 2 out of 10 for VIOLENCE & GORE, it does indeed max out the PROFANITY scale at 10 out of 10…

Nearly 150 F-words, lots of anatomical and scatological references, many insults and several mild obscenities.

To digress from Good Will Hunting for a moment, among the most entertaining of these reviews has to be Kids-in-Mind’s hapless account of dismemberment, chaos, rape, and revenge that explicates Robert Rodriguez’s film Planet Terror.

Planet Terror

Some highlights:

  • A young woman performs oral sex on a young man, she reaches up toward his head and realizes that his head has been severed. Another scene shows the same young woman kissing a different young man and his head is cut off mid-kiss.
  • A man holds a jar with human testicles floating in liquid and tells a man to cut his own off. A man later carries a plastic bag filled with human testicles. A man has a very bloody neck wound.
  • A man looks at a woman, makes a remark suggesting that he is going to rape her, and another man makes a remark about her having only one leg; the first man then makes another crude remark about her, and another man makes a similar remark about him. A woman climbs on a motorcycle with another woman, she holds her around the waist and makes a suggestive remark to her. A husband confronts his wife about her having an affair with a woman. A man makes a sexually suggestive remark about another man’s wife. A woman talks about her boyfriend’s sexual interests and that he likes to watch her urinate.
  • A woman appears desperate to urinate and holds her crotch. A man has a large scar on his face. A man eats sloppily using his hands.

I’ve recently come across yet another entertaining layer of mediation available to the intrepid web searcher: ESL companion guides to movies.

These guides take the frank, explanatory tone of a site like Kids-in-Mind, and remove any sense of judgment or disapproval from the discussion, providing passages like this, by Raymond Weschler on ESLnotes.com (the quote being parsed is from an early scene in Good Will Hunting; the woman speaking is addressing Ben Affleck’s character Chuckie):

“Like I’d waste my energy spreading my legs for that Tootsie Roll dick? Go home and give it a tug yourself!”

  • Note the use of “like” at the beginning of sentences, used (and overused!) by many young people for “as if.”
  • The rest of the sentence is a crude sexual insult, since a “tootise roll” is a small piece of well known candy, and a “dick” is very common for penis.
  • “To tug” means to pull, and thus the last sentence implies “go home and masturbate.”

It’s something to realize how much foul, idiomatic language is in a film like Good Will Hunting, and the challenge it is for a non-native speaker to pick up on its subtleties.  Say what you want about the screenplay, but you can’t say the dialogue is bland.  Peruse Raymond Weschler’s complete commentary here.

Good Will Hunting: Possible Topics for ESL Class Discussion

A conversation about Good Will Hunting

Written by Alex on May 11th, 2010

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.

Good Will Hunting

I bring you a discussion of life, masculinity, and the conceptual underpinnings of Good Will Hunting.

Dave: i didn’t know that blog will hunting was your blog
i thought it was just something you linked to a lot
me: nope, it’s mine!
Dave: i read all of it on sunday
what i love is that you don’t even think it’s an objectively great movie
me: yeah
it would never go in my top anything list
Dave: so what is it?
me: but it feels very culturally/personally significant
and it feels like Bostonians are sort of grasping at straws to find themselves reflected in film and that’s the best they can do
I’ve never quite written the definitive post answering that question, but it’s an important one: what is it about Good Will Hunting?
That I saw it senior year of high school, and that it felt very indie and masculine, meant a lot
Dave: masculine interesting
a lot of manly love it’s true
interesting that the “girl” robin williams had to see about is dead
me: there was some dumb book a while ago that explored “male spaces” — it was essays and photos, and talked about barber shops and dugouts etc
and GWH inhabits a lot of those spaces
Dave: are the spaces just for hiding from chicks
or do they have merits
me: I think merits
I think simply they are “safe”
Dave: in that context the baseball scene is interesting
because bleachers are really for moms
me: so yeah maybe there’s some hiding there
Dave: but they are reclaiming it as a safe man space
me: yeah!
also, the therapy scene when they are talking about baseball
there’s a shot from above that shows that they are sitting essentially in a baseball diamond of chairs
and then they reenact the game 6 scene
Dave: so how about this for a way of looking at it
what he’s doing is incrementally expanding his safe man space
me: so it’s this baseballification and male-ification of the potentially girly, feelings space
Dave: going to therapy fine, but still with the safety blanket of baseball
me: yeah
Dave: he will engage in an intellectual discussion, fine, but only in the context of threatening someone
etc
always the safety blanket
me: yeah
Dave: you know this already
i’m getting there slowly
ok here’s a question
me: the strength of the movie is by far the friends scenes
Dave: what is “Boston” about the movie besides the fact that it is filmed at au bon pain
why could it not have been filmed in any other city, with lots of shots of scenery of the city
me: good question.
well
I will answer that by paraphrasing Robin Williams in the film
Will argues that there’s pride in work, in labor
in being a janitor even
and Williams’ character counters, why are you a janitor all the way in Cambridge when you could just be a janitor around the corner
Harvard and MIT are the poster children for smart kids
and the tensions and rewards of university/townie relations
Dave: bam
great answer
me: the mythology of the damon-affleck friendship is also critical to the film’s success and staying power
Dave: also i think it has something to do with the red sox
i don’t know if that movie can be as good if the red sox won the world series in 1995
me: yeah
definitely
there’s a pride in not succeeding
Dave: ok here’s something i find weird
the scene where williams says he can bench a lot
me: yeah
so weird
Dave: A of all, he clearly can’t, look at him
B of all, who cares?
me: yeah, I always thought he was bullshitting
Dave: interesting
me: just playing along with the one-up-manship
Dave: how old is will hunting
me: he turns 21
towards the end
Dave: oh snap that young
how old is skylar
me: yeah, his friends give him the car
she is supposedly about that age
though she’s all European so maybe she took some time off before college
Dave: ok heres a question
why this dichotomy between genius and construction
why cant he be a rich genius AND be best friends w chuckie
me: hmm
well, having both is not a very good story, and that self-consciousness seems important to him
he also seems to genuinely believe he can’t have it all
the film’s psychology would have us believe it’s because of his abusive upbringing
Dave: that he has what he deserves
me: or perhaps more accurately, those who have more don’t deserve it
ok, I’m gonna go to the library, and then the gym

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting For the Win

Written by Alex on May 3rd, 2010

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.

Eating red pineapples with tony in abnormal psych. And bananas that are also red. Good will hunting!

just watched "good will hunting." extremely disappointed as it gave me no tips on how to find good stuff at thrift shops

I find that wakin + bakin before math class makes me more of a genius. I'm like fucking good will hunting in here

Sometimes I like to re-enact the "It's not your fault" scene from Good Will Hunting with my dog Flossie. She always gets to be Matt Damon.

I'm supposed to leave at 11. Good Will Hunting just came on at 10:45. Obviously I'm not going anywhere for a few hours...

wonder if there's a good will hunting porno parody

Jon has somehow talked me into postponing garden work so we can watch Good Will Hunting. Not a bad deal. :)

DAMMIT, WHY IS GOOD WILL HUNTING ON? I MEANT TO GET IN THE SHOWER HALF AN HOUR AGO. OKAY. COMMERCIAL. RUN WHILE I CAN!!

Good Will Hunting. Why don't I own this movie? I think I love it more than my 2nd toe.

Shut up we are. Fooking call me if you wanna hang! RT @Ian_Dal: I wish my friends were more like Matt Damon's friends in Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting just isn't the same on TV without all the "fuck you's" Instead its "Forget you."

Is today Matt Damon's birthday?? TNT is showing Bagger Vance, USA is showing Bourne Identity, and TBS is showing Good Will Hunting!

today sucks. and why is Good Will Hunting such a long movie.

Flipping through channels and three different Matt Damon movies are on. Good Will Hunting, ftw :)

Jus drop off My daughter now is time for good will hunting.- love being a single dad!

Good Will Hunting is always the best. 1997 only gave me unrealistic expectations for love.

"I'm in bed, watching Good Will Hunting in my underwear still" oh god what has my life come to

Did you know: Bourne Identity = sequel to Good Will Hunting. When Will leaves to "go see about a girl" he means "become a trained killer."

This is very true RT @thermhere: "My favorite part of Good Will Hunting is that Ben Affleck only wears track suits." - J. Clayton Arnold

Introducing They Got a Book Deal; Why Not Me? — LOLMatts

Written by Alex on April 27th, 2010

Hello! Today Blog Will Hunting is pleased to introduce a new series we’re calling “They got a book deal; why not me??”

Blogs that became books

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 big bucket of book deals.

These days, blogging advice sites are full of tips on how to get your own book deal (discover yourself! get an agent!), and the excellent blog Look At This Fucking Idea For a Blog-to-Book Deal is thriving.

Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times

Ben Huh wrote the book “I Can Has Cheezburger?” based on a blog of the same name. It has sold more than 100,000 copies. | Photo by Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times

Not to be left behind, this particular blog, which happens to be about the 1997 film Good Will Hunting, is embarking on an exploration of some of these interweb memes that have made the transition from Twitter tiny url’s to your local bookstore’s new paperback section.  After all, if they got a book deal, WHY NOT ME??

Blog Will Hunting proudly presents LOLMatts

MAH BOIS WICKD SMAHT!!

LOOK INTO MAH EYEZ I DOAN NED THERAPY

LETZ JUS EAT CARAMELS!

CHUCK, I CAN HAS A DUBBLEBURGER?

IZ MY FAULT?

Check back soon for MORE LOLMatts!! (In the mean time, there’s always more LOLCats at the original I Can Has Cheezburger.)