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Charting the Mcconaissance, Film by Film

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Charting the Mcconaissance, Film by Film SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2014 This film image shows Matthew McConaughey in a scene This image shows Matthew McConaughey as Ron This film image shows Matthew McConaughey in a scene from “Mud.” Woodroof in a scene from the film, “Dallas Buyers Club.” from “Magic Mike.” Charting the McConaissance, film by film ix years ago, Matthew McConaughey was starring in a movie called “Surfer, Dude,” a film about as good as its Stitle implies. He played a shirtless surfer plunged into an existential crises when his good luck with waves runs out. McConaughey did undergo an existential crisis around that time, but it wasn’t about the surf. His career had bottomed out in rom-com mediocrity (his second comedy with Kate Hudson, “Fool’s Gold,” followed “Surfer, Dude”), overly depending on the charm of his Texas drawl. McConaughey resolved to do something about it. What has followed - the so-called McConaissance - has been one of the most remarkable mid-career metamorphoses in movies. McConaughey has abruptly shifted to more chal- lenging roles and films in a creative burst that has clearly re- energized him. He’s taken his matinee idol chips and exchanged them for an actor’s freedom. It’s been a steady renewal, building part by part. His best-actor Academy Award nomination for “Dallas Buyers Club” represents a culmination, and most expect McConaughey will be crowned with a win at the Oscars on March 2. Here is a film-by-film account of how he got here, a step-by-step guide to the McConaissance: THE LINCOLN LAWYER - This 2011 film came after a two- year gap in McConaughey’s filmography. Whereas McConaughey was made famous by 1996’s “A Time to Kill” playing an altruistic lawyer defending a black man in the South, in the “Lincoln Lawyer,” he plays a money-hungry, unscrupulous Los Angeles attorney with “NTGUILTY” emblazed on his license plate. It’s a slight but important course alteration toward darker material. BERNIE - McConaughey’s career was essentially started by Austin, Texas, filmmaker Richard Linklater with “Dazed and Confused.” The role of David Wooderson has remained for McConaughey not just one role among many, but a guiding ethos. He frequently quotes his “You just gotta keep livin’ man, L-I-V-I-N” and dubbed his production company J.K. Livin. So it makes sense that any restart for McConaughey would include In this image, Matthew McConaughey portrays Danny This image shows Matthew McConaughey as Rustin Cohle Linklater, whose “Bernie” features McConaughey as district Buck Davidson in a scene from “Bernie.” in a scene from the series “True Detective.” — AP photos attorney Danny Buck in a comic tale of small-town murder. MAGIC MIKE - This was the brashest announcement of McConaughey’s new boldness. In Steven Soderbergh’s male age film would have gotten him Oscar consideration in its own TRUE DETECTIVE - More than “Dallas Buyers Club,” the cur- stripper film, he goes to depths of sleaze most actors would right. In “Mud,” he plays a love-sick fugitive prone to (like rently-airing HBO series represents the very height of shy away from. For an actor known for his quickness to de- McConaughey, himself) wide-eyed reverie. McConaughey has McConaughey’s abilities. McConaughey plays the police shirt, his gyrating, blustering cowboy-themed stripper was a the larger-than-life quality needed to make Mud seem mythic detective Rust Cohle in two very different versions, separated self-parodying wink: a rodeo clown in skivvies. to the young boys who find him hiding out on an island. by numerous years. The older, long-haired, hard-drinking ver- KILLER JOE - McConaughey is again on his home turf DALLAS BUYERS CLUB - McConaughey’s transformation sion is more typical McConaughey. But the younger Cohle is (Texas) in William Friedkin’s adaptation of Tracy Letts’ twisted- becomes literal in the story of HIV infected Ron Woodroof. something different entirely: intellectual, poised and laconic. ly comic crime tale. As a police detective with a side business Losing some 45 pounds, it’s as though McConaughey physi- It’s like the weight loss of “Dallas Buyers Club” has had an of murder-for-hire, his chilling title character steals the film. It’s cally sheds his former self. But, of course, Woodroof is a classic afterglow effect, reshaping his manner and physicality. It’s fit- the third in a trio of stellar 2012 supporting roles in which McConaughey character: a swaggering, swashbuckling Texan. ting, perhaps, that McConaughey’s best performance should McConaughey traded the leading-man spotlight for more But Woodroof’s desperation - his white-knuckled fear and be alongside Woody Harrelson, his “Surfer, Dude” co-star. dynamic ensembles. ferocious will to survive - is the more striking metamorphosis AND BEYOND- Due out in November, McConaughey stars THE PAPERBOY - Most everyone in Lee Daniels’ garish, for the once golden, ever-grinning McConaughey. in Christopher Nolan’s time-travelling sci-fi film “Interstellar,” sweaty Florida noir was swamped by the thick Southern THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - He’s still gaunt in Martin one of the most anticipated movies of the year. The Gothic melodrama. How could anyone even remember Scorsese’s romp, looking roomy in his pinstripe suit. In a mem- McConaissance continues. — AP McConaughey was in “The Paperboy” after the infamous jelly- orable cameo, he schools Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort fish sting scene with Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron? But the on the ways of finance: It’s “a fugazi - fairy dust” he says. In a film still counts as the kind of risk McConaughey was starting speech that sets the beat for the entire film, McConaughey to make routine. thumps his chest and hums in a bizarre meditation ritual that MUD - In many years, McConaughey’s supporting role as actually comes from the actor’s own pre-scene preparation. the title character in Jeff Nichols’ Mississippi River coming-of- (DiCaprio urged him to use it for the film.).
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