More Movies Should Be About Bullying Matt Damon, Actually

On The Last Duel.

Some spoilers about The Last Duel below — like context-y spoilers, but not giving-away-the-ending spoilers.

Matt Damon and Jodie Comer in The Last Duel. Photo: Screenshot.

“It’s called America’s Next Top Last Duel, not America’s Next Top Best Friend,” I scribbled in my notebook during a screening of The Last Duel in September. It’s a paraphrase of an iconic ANTM line — “This is not America’s Next Top Best Friend” — and top of mind when I watched the Adam Driver-Matt Damon-Ben Affleck triptych at the heart of Ridley Scott’s new period epic. It is, at face value, a tough sell: knights, #MeToo, trial by combat, not one but two Bostonians, and a two and a half hour runtime.

But something happens once you make it through a truly glacial first act where Matt Damon looks like he’s about to storm the Capitol. The Last Duel lets loose; it’s less a historical epic and becomes an unexpected medieval romp. The first act is Damon’s perspective, the second is Driver’s — wearing his Silence wet n wavy …