After wasting his early career on dim-bulb romantic comedies, McConaughey kicked off the McConaissance with this gripping courtroom drama. It was his first chance to show off some real screen presence and he makes the most of it as lawyer Mickey Haller.
As the film’s narrator, McConaughey delivers a dark and thought-provoking tale of two brothers terrorized by their frightfully God-fearing father. This thriller is a creepy classic.
The Beach Bum
After crafting a hallucinatory poetic vision of America in Gummo and capturing the hyper-reality of contemporary life with Spring Breakers, director Harmony Korine delivers another offbeat stoner comedy. Matthew McConaughey stars as Moondog, a sex-crazed writer whose life is one wild party.
He spends his days stumbling through bars and beaches in Florida in ragged beachwear, consuming controlled substances and casually engaging in sexual activities with a slew of outlandish characters played by Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Jonah Hill, Martin Lawrence and Snoop Dogg.
Although some of the movie’s vices may grate on conservative audiences, McConaughey’s laid-back charm and Korine’s idiosyncratic style make The Beach Bum an entertaining odyssey. It’s a spiritual sequel to Spring Breakers, but this time with more bongs, breasts and whiskey.
Mud
McConaughey is a rare actor who can shift easily between prestige period pieces, courtroom dramas and romantic comedies. He’s a master of solarmovie films, and his performance as a captain seeking help from an ex-wife (Anne Hathaway) to murder her abusive husband in this dynamite sci-fi adventure is nothing short of amazing.
He may be best known for his brash, self-satisfied DA in Joel Schumacher’s Grisham adaptation but this quirky, comedic crime drama is one of the most underrated of his early career work. His chemistry with Samuel L. Jackson as a cynical DA can’t be denied and McConaughey is nothing but magnetic.
The Wolf of Wall Street
McConaughey’s drug-addled, money-chanting stockbroker in this Martin Scorsese flick threw off some seriously wild scenes — pen-selling and dwarf-throwing come to mind — but his most enduring contribution was his improvised “money chant,” now played at sports stadiums everywhere. It’s one of the few roles that McConaughey arguably out-performed his co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, in.
McConaughey’s Texas-sized persona helped him score a starring role as Rust Cohle in HBO’s crime drama True Detective, a show that’s both thought-provoking and creepy. He also starred in the sci-fi epic Interstellar, as engineer Cooper on a mission to find a new home for humanity.
Serenity
During the heyday of his McConaissance, Matthew McConaughey churned out a series of high-end studio blockbusters that showcased his talents as a rugged action star. But this low-key submarine thriller from Jonathan Mostow helped him prove he had what it takes to handle a more serious role.
Deep-sea fisherman Baker Dill (McConaughey) lives in a shipping container on Plymouth Island, where he spends his days hunting the Big Symbolic Tuna Fish he calls Justice and his knights having passionate sex with his girlfriend Constance. But his idyllic life is disrupted when Dill’s ex-wife Karen shows up to offer him $10 million to kill her repugnant new husband, Frank (Jason Clarke).
Unlike more recent movies with esteemed casts that went off the rails in enjoyably awful ways, Serenity was a bonkers twister that actually worked thanks to its stellar actors and writer-director Steven Knight’s gleefully over-the-top script.
Dazed and Confused
In this stoner classic, McConaughey first exploded into stardom with his “all right, all right” line. His performance as Wooderson, a pathetic dude still hanging on to his high school glory days, put him over the top as a leading man.
Scads of movies have looked at shenanigans among teenagers, but this film’s looseness and lack of artificial emphasis on plot make it stand out. Its ensemble cast — Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Adam Goldberg, Joey Lauren Adams and Rory Cochrane — is also a major selling point.
McConaughey showcases the knife’s-edge intensity from Killer Joe and the soulfulness of Dallas Buyers Club as Rust Cohle, a detective who embraces pure reason as a buffer against faith and hope in this tense serial killer thriller. This 4K UHD release boasts impressive picture and audio. A must-see.
