{"id":380862,"date":"2026-10-14T02:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T09:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=380862"},"modified":"2026-10-21T05:26:28","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T12:26:28","slug":"the-departed-still-holds-up-today-matt-damons-best-crime-thriller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/the-departed-still-holds-up-today-matt-damons-best-crime-thriller\/","title":{"rendered":"The Departed still holds up today: Matt Damon\u2019s best crime thriller"},"content":{"rendered":"

With people circling back to Matt Damon\u2019s filmography<\/a>, The Departed remains the Damon performance to revisit first, and not only because it sits inside one of the signature American crime thrillers of the 2000s.<\/p>\n

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Scorsese takes the 2002 Hong Kong<\/strong> film Infernal Affairs and plants it in Boston, pulling details from the Winter Hill Gang and FBI agent John Connolly. Damon\u2019s Colin Sullivan feeds Frank Costello from inside the Massachusetts State Police, while Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s Billy Costigan buries himself inside Costello\u2019s crew. That setup gives the movie its constant squeeze of pressure, paranoia, and divided loyalties.<\/p>\n\n

What makes the movie so slippery is Damon<\/strong>. Sullivan looks polished, capable, and hungry on the surface, but underneath he\u2019s a coward, a liar, and always a little closer to panic than he lets anyone see.<\/p>\n\n

Scorsese keeps everything moving, and Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg, and Vera Farmiga all make the film meaner, funnier, and sharper around the edges.<\/p>\n\n

If you\u2019re going back through Damon\u2019s thrillers, this one\u2019s an easy pick: it made $291.5 million worldwide<\/strong> on a $90 million budget, holds a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> according to Rotten Tomatoes and an 85 on Metacritic<\/a> according to Metacritic, and won four Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, along with Golden Globe and Writers Guild of America honors.<\/p>\n\n

Some people still come away favoring DiCaprio, and Wahlberg got the film\u2019s only acting nomination. Even so, Damon\u2019s work here<\/strong> has aged especially well.<\/p>\n

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You can find The Departed on digital platforms and home video.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With people circling back to Matt Damon\u2019s filmography, The Departed remains the Damon performance to revisit first, and not only because it sits inside one of the signature American crime thrillers of the 2000s. Scorsese takes the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs and plants it in Boston, pulling details from the Winter Hill Gang … Continue reading “The Departed still holds up today: Matt Damon\u2019s best crime thriller”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9352,"featured_media":380861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6869],"class_list":["post-380862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","content-category-streaming-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t