Top Performances is a recurring feature in which we definitively handpick the very best performances from an iconic actor or actress. It has been updated for Matt Damon’s 52nd birthday. It’s not enough for Matt Damon to be conventionally attractive, or even physically imposing. He also has to be preternaturally intelligent, a savant capable of outwitting a Fields Medal-winning mathematician, a ruthless Russian card shark, or a millionaire casino owner, as the occasion may demand. This is the curious truth at the center of Damon’s career: Though he’s got all the looks you could hope for in a leading man, it’s what’s behind those steely blue eyes that keeps us coming back for more. Maybe it’s because he played a boy genius in 1997’s Good Will Hunting, then followed up that breakthrough ...
Hulu is inviting James Bond to Thanksgiving dinner, so don’t forget the martinis. Only days after the world lost the Bond that started it all — the great and legendary Sir Sean Connery — the streaming tentpole is keeping America’s November tradition alive by adding the majority of 007’s missions to their catalogue. This includes From Russia with Love (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973), The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), The Living Daylights (1987), License to Kill (1989), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and The World is Not Enough (1999). Strangely enough, Hulu has also secured the first t...