The McConaughsaince

Matthew McConaughey is not an actor you would ever have put in the same sentence as ‘Oscar Nominee’ five years ago. The man has spent the last twenty years making some of the crumbiest movies ever made and he was good at it. He was a perfect fit for the rom-com leading man, stupidly handsome with an abundance of southern charm; he was a casting director’s dream. Throughout the late nineties and early two-thousands he put out hit after hit of rom-com, action adventure Hollywood garbage. The odd good movie here and there did pop up on his resume but never was it a consistent occurrence with a Matthew McConaughey picture. When you went to see a McConaughey film you knew what you were going to see, attractive man meet attractive woman, she thinks he’s a pig, turns out he’s not, they get together yada yada yada. By 2009 the traditional Hollywood rom-com was almost all but dead in the water, since the emergence of great directors like Judd Apatow redefining the genre and raising the game, and indie flicks like ‘500 Days of Summer’ reinventing the wheel once more, the rom-com template that McConaughey fit like a glove was on its way out, therefore either he had to adapt or he had to try something entirely new altogether. Enter 2011.

Since 2011, whether consciously or not, Matthew McConaughey has completely reinvented not only his career but his entire public persona. 2011 saw the release of an incredible movie ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ which really blew critics away, Matthew received rave reviews. People at the time assumed this to be a one off and that by tomorrow the rom-coms would keep coming. But they didn’t. Every subsequent movie he put out was an incredible critical success and yet another incendiary performance. Now in his 40s McConaughey had made a conscious decision to gravitate towards independent films, now that he didn’t have to worry so much about whether or not a film would make money, he could pick the roles he wanted and simply chose a project based on the script itself. Throughout 2011 and 2012 McConaughey received the greatest acclaim of his career in film such as: ‘Bernie’, ‘Killer Joe’, ‘Magic Mike’, ‘Mud’ and ‘The Paperboy’. Each film different from each other but tied together by this thread that was McConaughey himself. The characters were darker and more twisted, often violent and psychotic; these were uncharted waters for the actor. He had somehow overnight, so it seemed, reinvented himself to be one of the greatest actors of the moment, anything with his name on it soon meant ‘quality’ where it had once only ever meant the opposite.

In 2013 this transformation is now referred to by journalists and critics as the ‘McConaughsaince’, suggesting that the actor is in the renaissance of his life and career and currently experiencing a rebirth. Even the public opinion of the man has changed, where he was once found to be arrogant and vain, self involved and indulgent, he is now seen as the ultimate Southern gentleman. How much of that former public persona was due to the nature of his shallow, narcissistic characters he had portrayed in all those earlier films? In 2013 it can safely be claimed that McConaughey is man of the moment, even man of the year. After receiving critical acclaim for his role in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’, the film has swept awards season all across America and continues to win awards across all categories worldwide. The man is on top of the world, gone are the days of terrible cliché roles, simplified characters, misogynistic and objectifying, now he is working with the likes of Scorsese, playing characters of infinite breadth and depth, complex and multifaceted, three-dimensional and often not very likable. It’s interesting that as the public persona of McConaughey himself continues to be very positive, the characters he is playing on screen have never been more irreverent and deplorable.  

Going into 2014 Matthew McConaughey has the world ahead of him and complete freedom to do whatever he wants. Everyone wants to work with him right now, Directors and Actors alike. With a phenomenal start to the year; drenched in Award season glory, tipped to win the Oscar and likely to continue receiving adulation and accolade for months to come, all is coming up Matthew. In 2014 where the small screen dominates the fading silver screen of old, every great Actor must have their-own network TV show and McConaughey is no exception. The small screen took on Cinema in the early 21^st Century and won. As the world continues to frenzy in Netflix and HBO hysteria, every actor now must work in TV where it was once suicide for a Hollywood star. Whether you are Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Steve Buscemi, the list goes on. Matthew McConaughey stars in the detective drama/thriller ‘True Detective’ which has once again received great acclaim for its first season, particularly due to McConaughey’s phenomenal performance.

The shift was sudden, the work keeps coming, the performances continue to surprise us and the films just keep getting better and better. No one knows whether or not all this was planned and calculated, whether McConaughey wanted to steer his career in a different path, whether he was bored of his former film choices and whether or not he will ever make another ‘traditional’ McConaughey picture. Whatever the reasons, the actor really does seem to be in the renaissance of his career; and at 45 Matthew McConaughey has been reborn. Long may he flourish.