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.