I had a longer list of things to talk about with both my films, but was rushing to get my verdict out. For one thing, I'd also forgotten how monologue-heavy the Good Will Hunting script. The characters are constantly telling long stories or jokes, or just riffing on something at length. It generally works, not always, but it's interesting for being unusual and unexpected in a film of this sort. Also, the still I posted for Good Will Hunting says a lot about the movie. It's just a quick shot in the film, and my first impression was probably, "Hmm, decent shot." But a half second later, I was thinking about how there's no good reason for Will to be working out this problem on the mirror — it's actually kind of stupid — except for the fact that it looks vaguely cool. And there's a metaphor in that for the film as a whole.
Back-to-back upsets, by the way. The 49th seed (Good Will Hunting) lost to the 156th seed (Poison), and the 100th seed (Apollo 13) lost to the 120th seed (Joy Luck Club). Poison is the seventh-lowest seeded film to advance to the second round (so far). The six lower seeded winners are Clerks, Affliction, Little Women, Serial Mom, Kids, and Safe, another Todd Haynes film.
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