The average age of Best Actor winners at the Academy Awards is 44, which was Matthew McConaughey’s exact age when he picked up the award early this year for his performance in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’. He was one of the favorites to the award, and his career has taken a turn for the better these last couple of years. Only 10 years ago, even less so probably, people still thought of movies such as ‘The Wedding Planner’ and ‘How to Lose a guy in 10 days’, as well as mediocre (or should we say poor?) movies such as ‘Reign of Fire’ and ‘Sahara’. But something changed… When the nominations were released for the 2014 Oscars, Matthew McConaughey was suddenly considered a slight favorite, ahead of actors like Christian Bale (‘American Hustle’), Chiwetel Ejiofor (’12 Years a Slave’) and Leonardo Di Caprio – who once again had to settle for a nomination, this time for ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’. When did the Texas-born actor’s career make this sudden shift towards the more dramatic and serious roles?
The Lincoln Lawyer
In ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, Matthew took on the role of defense attorney Mickey Haller, who rather than work out of an office, works from his Lincoln Town Car. The movie is based on the novel by Michael Connelly, and the character of Mickey Haller is featured in 5 of his books. Apparently, Connelly wanted McConaughey to play Haller on account of his performance in ‘Tropic Thunder’, where Matthew played a ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ is set in the LA area, and is a very good movie, and to me the first movie where I really enjoyed Matthew McConaughey’s performance. He’s done good movies before, obviously, but to me this stands out as the turning point of his career. The movie also stars Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy, Marisa Tomei and Bryan Cranston from ‘Breaking Bad’. Check out the trailer below, but more importantly… check out the movie:
Mud
In ‘Mud’, Matthew McConaughey plays a mystic guy discovered by two young kids on an island in Arkansas. He introduces himself as Mud, and asks them to help him out by bringing him some stuff from the mainland. As he tells them the story of why he is there, the kids get involved with the mystery man. Breakout performances from both kids, Tye Sheridan (Ellis) and Jacob Lofland (Neckbone). Lofland went on to star in the highly acclaimed TV series ‘Justified’ after his brilliant display in this movie. ‘Mud’ features a brilliant cast, including Sarah Paulson, Ray McKinnon, Michael Shannon and Reese Witherspoon, who delivers a great performance in this crime drama. Watch the trailer below:
What’s next?
After his Oscar winning performance in ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ and his critically acclaimed role of Rust Cohle in what was arguably one of the best TV shows of 2014, ‘True Detective’, McConaughey can soon be seen in Christopher Nolan’s new movie ‘Interstellar’… and it’s looking pretty damn good. He is also set to star in Gus Van Sant’s (‘Milk’, ‘Elephant’, ‘Good Will Hunting’) next movie, ‘The Sea of Trees’, which also stars Naomi Watts and Ken Watanabe.
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