Matt & Ben

by Mindy Kaling, Brenda Withers

It's the story Hollywood has glamorized, publicized, and bombarded us with--how it all began for the two young men, now famous for the tabloid coverage of ther on-again-off-again romances, their big budget smashes and flops, and their "Project Greenlight." It started with a script for the film that became Good Will Hunting, slaved over by the bright young dreamers (portrayed in this play's permier by the female playwrights) in their run-down apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1996. Or was it This hilarious, scathing play takes us back to the pivotal moment when the finished script that would change their lives...fell from the ceiling while they were working on something else. The laughs come at a manic pace, in this delightfully venomous play that has taken off-Broadway by storm.

Genres: Plays, Humor, Fiction, Comedy, Drama, Theatre, Book Club

112 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2004

About the author

Mindy Kaling is an actor, writer, producer, and director. She currently stars in the Hulu original comedy series “The Mindy Project," which she also writes and executive produces.  

Before "The Mindy Project," Mindy was best known for her work on the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning NBC show “The Office.” In addition to directing, producing, and portraying celebrity-obsessed Kelly Kapoor, Mindy wrote 18 episodes of the series, including the Emmy nominated episode “Niagra.”

In 2011, Mindy penned the comedic memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns), which continues to be featured on New York Times’ and USA Today’s best-seller lists. Mindy’s second memoir Why Not Me? was released in September 2015 and launched at #1 on the New York Times’ best-seller list.    

In 2005, Mindy made her film debut as the object of Paul Rudd's unwanted affections in Judd Apatow’s THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN. Most recently, Mindy lent her voice to the character Disgust in the Oscar-winning Pixar animated film INSIDE OUT alongside Amy Poehler and Bill Hader, and was seen in THE NIGHT BEFORE alongside Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. She will next begin production on OCEAN’S 8 alongside Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway.

Mindy was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2012. In 2014, she was named one of Glamour’s women of the year.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Matt: This is an excellent script. This is the best script I've ever read. If Ben put this here as a joke, if Ben wrote this, then I have severely underestimated his talents.
Ben: Hey, hey check this out! (Ben chugs an entire bottle of Veryfine apple juice.) One motherf*cking sip!
Matt: Okay, Ben did not write this."

It's kind of bonkers that Good Will Hunting, an incredibly touching and brilliantly done film, was written by the original f*ckboys: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

Mindy Kaling (!) and Brenda Withers have a different idea of what happened.

It involves a script falling from the ceiling. And it is hilarious. (And gender-bending.)

"Ben: I keyed your car.
Matt: Oh.
Ben: Yeah, and this woman saw me and I didn't want her to call the cops so I, uh, got in your car and pretended like it was my car and that I had just keyed my own car."

It, obviously, could be hard to picture. I'm sure I would give the actual first run of the play five stars. In fact, now I just really wanna see the play. But I'm more than happy to settle for this.

Bottom line: this play should Not be forgotten. It put Mindy Kaling, one of my all-time fave authors, on the map! Bonus, it's so fun. You should totally read this.

(PS: If you're interested, you can see Kaling and Withers perform the beginning of their play at https://youtu.be/Mmi8NTahJCQ?t=34s)

[Eating Between · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sometimes think about the Me and Mindy finally meet and i know we will be fast friends. She is witty and funny and an amazing writer/actress/producer. She has yet again succeeded in making my laugh and sigh saying "oh Mindy" This is so cleverly written and i loved it so!

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliantly funny adaptation of Matt and Ben's relationship. I think Matt's role was made for me to play...looking for a Ben!

[Dane Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this out loud with my girlfriend and it was a lot of fun. She loves Mindy Kaling and was excited when I picked this up for her birthday. I would definitely suggest this for a quick read and a good laugh.

[Robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny quick read, the play that started everything for Mindy Kaling. I'd read about it in her first essay collection/memoir and just realized the library had a copy. Would have been hilarious to see live.

[Kym Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO FUNNY ME AND PEYTON LOCKE LYONS ARE DOING THIS AND IM PLAYING BEN AND SHES PLAYING MATT AND IT WILL BE DONE IN SOMEONES LIVING ROOM AFTER DRAMA SCHOOL!

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and thoroughly enjoyable. I'd love to see it on stage sometime.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

A quirky play written and performed by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers. They act out the roles of Matt Dameon and Ben Affleck as though the two are collaborating to write the screenplay for Good Will Hunting. I can see how this would be funny acted out as a play.

[Tori]

I’ve had this on my shelf for 7 or 8 years so I’m glad I finally read it, but some of the word choices/phrases don’t land well in 2022.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

And as the morning ends, so does my refreshing Matt & Ben reread.

[sal s.]

yayyy matt and ben

[Lauren | Wordsbetweenlines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a longstanding Mindy Kaling fan and this is a play she cowrote. And that’s how it ended up on my shelf. I don’t usually read plays but this was fun and left me wanting to rewatch Goodwill Hunting.

[Eden Jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

So good I bought the rights… I’m sure I’ll read it multiple times over the next couple of months and even memorize the lines 🎭

[Kingsley O.]

Running a NLP algorithm on "Matt & Ben" might be revealing with the many curious sentence structures; needless to say this was lost on me. There was always a fighting chance that I’d love this; the author when interviewed was mostly equivocal about why she'd written the play - maybe her admiration of the actors or simply having a book with many Cambridge Boston references serves as a ‘Ruy Lopez’ to other such writing efforts. I never came across another script by Mindy however; so this was just an interesting concept and if not an extended read.

[Jack Cheng]

This was an amusing play. Although extremely clever and insightful into character and the way we read into celebrity character, it's also clearly the work of young writers, still playing with form. There is a postmodern introduction where we meet the characters and they start narrating the story as if it's a film script. Once the characters start interacting, though, there's plenty of fun and funny dialogue.

[Alexander Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because Mindy Kaling is a co-author, and I thought it would be funnier than it was. Maybe it's better to be seen with Kaling and Withers playing Affleck and Damon, but the play read as more serious than funny to me. There is a lot here about friendship and sticking together and choices/consequences as seen through the eyes of soon to be Hollywood stars. I think it'd be funnier to watch a girl fight between Matt & Ben instead of read about it.

[luv4pez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a kooky, funny little play co-written by Mindy Kaling about how Matt Damon and Ben Affleck stumbled upon their hit screenplay Good Will Hunting. It's a quick funny read that's worth checking out. I wish I had been able to see this play with Mindy Kaling playing Ben...or even if Matt and Ben played themselves.

[Ziying · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mindy Kaling was the main reason I read this play and I was not disappointed. Some parts are especially witty and funny and made me chuckle. I like how it ends with the whole script turning blank, but the two young man still found their way to success. I do agree that it would look better and funnier with Kaling and Withers on stage acting out.

[Adelaide · Rating 2 out of 5]

This play might have seemed more clever if I knew a bit more about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck or just about Hollywood culture in general. I liked the concept of a script really falling from the ceiling, though. It led to some interesting dilemmas.

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun play to read because I kept switching back and forth between imagining it being acted out by the real Matt & Ben and Kaling and Withers. I read it because I love Mindy Kaling and the play did not disappoint.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read this for a while, even before I knew Mindy Kaling had written it. And it lived up to my expectations! I would love to be in a production of this play.

Also, there's something really cool about reading about parodies of famous people....I'd recommend this play.

[Shayna Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's clear to see how and why Mindy Kaling got noticed from this play. It's very quirky and humorous, in which you get a sense of from her memoirs as well. I was entertained by the thought that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck have a silly friendship like this.

[Anna-lena Schmitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would love to see this performed by Matt and Ben. One can totally believe that this is how they talk and behave..really funny.

[SA · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a fringe piece! I think I would have like this more when Matt and Ben (the people) were more relevant, but I got a cackle or two and that's about it. I'm sure it's funnier in performance.

[Stormye Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fun satire but this is one of those plays that was harder to read and appreciate. Probably ten times funnier with Kaling and Withers and Matt and Ben. Still, I chuckled a bit.

[Valerie (Reader of books. Enthralled by Words.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched Good Will Hunting for the first time today and I finally understood this play! I loved this play! Great. Quick read but really funny.

[Halley Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did this deserve 5 stars? Probably not, it's skating on sentimental value but I did enjoy it. Quick read.

[Ceci Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great script. Quick read. Love the pace and humor. Mindy and her partner are funny and thoughtful.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's really hard to sit in a restaurant and read this without busting up laughing. I really wish I'd seen this now. Also kind of want to watch Good Will Hunting again too. Sort of.

[Martin Denton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Matt & Ben is a cute, funny comedy about a pair of aspiring actors who have decided that writing their own screenplay will put them on the fast track to success. So they're working on an adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye, when boom!--a package falls onto Ben's coffee table, seemingly from out of the sky, or heaven. The package turns out to be a finished screenplay, something called "Good Will Hunting."

So Matt & Ben is about Matt and Ben, or rather, younger, caricatured versions of Matt and Ben. The time is the mid '90s, the place is Ben's messy frat boy apartment in the Boston suburb of Somerville. The set-up has already been described; the dilemma--should Affleck and Damon take advantage of this astonishing gift from the gods?--propels an hour of slapstick fighting, flashbacks, and fantasy sequences involving Gwyneth Paltrow and J.D. Salinger. The characterizations are simple: Matt is talented and smart and ambitious and intense, Ben is cute but dumb.

Ultimately, Matt & Ben isn't about anything beyond its irreverent poke at a couple of fair-game celebrities. Kaling and Withers nicely finesse the possibly actionable notion that the script of Good Will Hunting could not have been written by the then-rookie Affleck and Damon, giving their piece a sweet and uplifting ending that entirely defangs everything that came before. Pleasant but not not terribly purposeful, which is probably what people said about Ben Affleck thirty years ago.