Matthew McConaughey is having a very good year. He jacked Magic Mike’s heat even hotter with a tight showstopping supporting role. Appears alongside Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron in The Paperboy for Lee Daniels. (Lets be lenient count that as a plus in the “good year” for now). In a few months, HBO will broadcast 8 episodes of True Detective, featuring the ultimate cool-dude dream-team of McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
But McConaughey most significant role this year by far is certainly his star-turn as Joe Cooper a cop who moonlights as a contract killer. We ran two clips from William Friedkin’s NC-17 thriller, Killer Joe back in May but they didn’t last long online. That post has been updated today with better embeds. Worth clicking back since we were all in a Cannes state of mind when the rattlesnake tail for Killer Joe we just beginning to rattle. Will the movie be too raw for polite Academy society. Maybe. Look at last year’s Ramparts with Harrelson. Or maybe not. Look at Denzel and Training Day.
Also in the pipeline for Matthew McConaughey is Mud — with Reese Witherspoon, Michael Shannon and Sam Shepard William — directed by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter). Landing a string slamdunks is an excellent way to make yourself impossible to ignore. William Friedkin talks about Killer Joe after the cut. We need to be listening.
i saw this thursday and loved it. mcconaughey is perfect in it. and Mel, this earns it’s nc-17 rating. particularly one scene.
I think he can very easily be included in the conversation for Supporting Actor for Magic Mike, the movie most people will have seen. Nomination, not the win; or not at this point anyway. But in his case that would be huge.
We got Killer Joe released a while ago over in England. It’s a very good and very slimy film, you feel like taking a shower after it. MM is incredibly good in it, but it’s not the type of film that would get awards recognition.
This guy had dug himself a rut so deep in mediocrity over the past 10 years that had he achieved just one of this year’s accomplishments, it would be considered a comeback. This is much bigger than a simple comeback. Maybe it’s the kids, responsibility, or just a sudden awakening, but he has really seized it by the balls. More important, everyone is noticing this. I would not be at all surprised to see him name on at least one Oscar list this year.
MM plays sleazy really well. And this definitely looks sleazy.
I love sweet little Emile Hirsch.
Wondering what’s gonna be gross enough in this to get it NC-17.
I basically agree with phantom…used to typecast this guy as “that dude who was always shirtless only stars in chick flicks, lol…but he’s put out some good work lately. I really enjoyed The Lincoln Lawyer last year.
This was at Roskilde Festival in Denmark a couple of weeks ago, but it was a 9am show, so I missed it. I was planning to see it, though.
Don’t forget about Bernie!
WOW, he really IS having a great year. After being hailed as the next big thing in the 90s, delivering a bunch of utterly forgettable/terrible romantic comedies in the last decade, hitting a creative career low in 2008/2009 (Fool’s Gold, Surfer Dude, Ghosts of Girlfriends’ Past) then sitting out 2010, he is now making a quiet but powerful creative comeback : a well-reviewed surprise hit and potential franchise starter last year (The Lincoln Lawyer),then two (!) films at the Cannes Film Festival (The Paperboy, Mud), two (!) praised indie turns (Bernie, Killer Joe) AND a critically acclaimed, scenestealing supporting performance (Magic Mike) in one of the most profitable films of 2012. That’s a comeback, all right !
I think his best shot is pulling a McCarthy (=scenestealing supporting player in a surprise summer hit), although he might have a shot at the lead race, too, if ‘Mud’ will be as well-received in the US as it was in Cannes.
Saw this on Monday, it’s great. Hilarious and every bit as entertaining as I expected. McConaughey is good in it, but so is the rest of the ensemble – they’re all terrific.
Too raw for the Academy? You bring up Training Day – pfft, this ain’t no Training Day shit, this is proper NC-17 shit, and it loves it too. Academy members would walk out in disgust. There’d be more complaints from them than there were for Brokeback Mountain and Shame combined.
Probably my most antecipated movie of this year (sorry PTA. Nolan, etc). This could be “the year” for McConaughey, no matter he gets Oscar recognition or not. After all he is in four movies, and getting praises for his acting in all of them.
Don’t forget his charmingly sleazy performance in Linklater’s Bernie!
And next year’s Dallas Buyer’s Club if it happens..
…McConaughey for Supporting Actor?
…maybe? No? Hmm, okay…