Top 10 Matthew McConaughey Performances in film

This past week, I have been watching the first season of HBO's True Detective, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. The show itself has some bravura moments (the botched robbery in the fourth episode and the conflict in the woods in the fifth come to mind) but the consistent draw has been McConaughey's hypnotic performance as Rust Cohle. As he spouts his nihilistic philosophies, he is constantly breathing fire (how many cigarettes did the production go through?). It made me think about McConaughey's career and how he was little more than a joke not that long ago. Although a lot of people site his work in Dazed and Confused or Wolf of Wall Street, he wasn't a big part of those stories. A long string of weak romcoms almost crippled his career (and the less said about Tiptoes, the better). If you could only pick 10 McConaughey performances to watch, I would recommend these...

Honorable Mentions: Bernie, Tropic Thunder, Mud
 

10. U-571 (2000)- The submarine movie is one of my favorite subgenres and this is an admirable addition to the cannon despite the presence of Jon Bon Jovi. McConaughey holds his own with heavy weights like Harvey Keitel and character actors like Bill Paxton. This is the story of American service men infiltrating a German sub to steal an enigma cipher machine. There is lots of tension and action, like a good sub movie.

9. Reign of Fire (2002)- I think this is a criminally underrated action flick that McConaughey does a great job in. In a world overtaken by dragons (you read that right), Christian Bale leads a small band of humans who believe they can hide and survive. McConaughey is the insane leader of a military force dedicated to hunting and killing all dragons. With his shaved head and constant gnawing on a giant cigar, McConaughey is straight out of a comic book. His over the top performance pops even more against Christian Bale's subdued intellectualism. Probably the most fun role I had seen McConaughey play until...

8. Magic Mike (2012)- Guys tend to shy away from this movie because it is focused on the world of male strippers. But really, one look at the cast and director should have told real movie fans that this was worth watching. Steven "I swear I'm retiring any day now" Soderbergh made this riff on a tale as old as showbiz. Alex Pettyfer is a new dancer who is shown the ropes by current superstar, Magic Mike (as played by Channing Tatum). In a very All About Eve scenario, the student eventually starts challenging the master as the old make way for the new. McConaughey is the sleazy ringleader of the dancers and owner of the club. He was ousted in popularity by Magic Mike and you can see the trajectory of every character all at once. McConaughey's Dallas has found a way to survive even after his appeal has worn off...but can Mike?

7. A Time to Kill (1996)- This was the movie that solidified McConaughey's rapid ascent to the A-list. A kind of sweaty potboiler marriage between To Kill a Mockingbird and a John Grisham novel (er, because it was a John Grisham novel), this movie follows McConaughey's lawyer character as he defends Samuel L Jackson against charges of murder in a very racist southern town. Sandra Bullock and Kevin Spacey lend their talents to this better-than-it-should-be movie. That the relatively untested McConaughey was placed at the center of this cast speaks volumes to his abilities.

6. Contact (1997)- This was the first time I saw something more than the potential leading man in McConaughey. As Palmer Joss, he is the voice of religion in this film that sets science squarely against faith. As Jodie Foster investigates potential contact with extra-terrestrial life, Joss is the Scully to her Mulder, constantly challenging the way she thinks about existence. I think this is a great movie for a variety of reasons but McConaughey in particular, does his part well.

5. Lone Star (1996)- This was McConaughey's breakthrough role as Buddy Deeds, a Texas lawman who exists mainly in the memory of his grown son, played by Chris Cooper. I remembered seeing this after all the hype about it and being disappointed in the overwrought melodrama and too obvious plot twist. However, McConaughey commanded the screen as the town's most respected peacekeeper with the inevitable feet of clay.

4. Dallas Buyer's Club (2013)- To me, the most frustrating flavor of Academy Award winning performance is the "lose or gain a bunch of weight" performance. Physical transformation is a relatively easy thing with trainers and dietitians helping you, to give a great performance is a different thing that no one can really help you with. Whereas Jared Leto broke my heart in this movie, McConaughey played his role very well...just maybe not award worthy well. This is the true story of a straight man diagnosed with AIDs at the onset of the epidemic who created a pipeline for cheap medications from Mexico into Texas. It is a moving story but not the best work of McConaughey's career.

3. Frailty (2001)- One of my favorite recent horror movies, Frailty is about a man (McConaughey) giving a confession to an FBI agent about his family's horrific nocturnal activities. Bill Paxton turns in a great performance as the father who makes his sons commit terrible deeds. McConaughey doesn't have a ton of screen time but you can see his dry run at True Detective here. To sit and talk and be completely interesting is a rare thing.

2. Killer Joe (2011)- Honestly, if I could put this in number 1, I would. The character of Killer Joe is not terribly complex but McConaughey plays the crap out of him. As a hitman who gets waaaay too involved with a white trash family, McConaughey is just the right amount of coiled cobra for the role. By the time he has his final, violent confrontation with the family in question, you do not doubt for a second he is as dangerous as he wants to be.

1. Interstellar (2014)- While nowhere near my favorite Christopher Nolan movie, this probably has to be my favorite Matthew McConaughey performance to date. I have real issues with the third act pacing but that is not the fault of the actors. McConaughey is compelling and multi-faceted as a man who is sent into the far reaches of space in an attempt to find a habitable alternative to a quickly dying Earth. There is plot development about halfway through that requires McConaughey to silently convey pride, sadness, loss, grief, joy and horror all at once. That he pulls it off is quite a feat.

If you've ever wondered what the big deal is, check out one of these. I think you'll be surprised.

If we were open:

This week I would be pushing to show The Mend. John Magary's debut film (shown at SXSW last year) is about two brothers who are pushed back into a shared living space through fate. Their dynamic, and the way they treat the people they love, is examined over the course of the movie that is said to have many stylistic flourishes adding to the narrative. Hopefully, this director will go on to bigger and better things but it is always exciting to catch someone at the beginning of their arc.

It's About Time

While I believe every genre of film holds potential for amazing storytelling, there is something about the time travel movie that really gets me up to 88 mph. We just screened Back to the Future last night to a large crowd and it was pretty fun. As always, it got me thinking about my favorite time travel movies and why I like them.

10. Time After Time (1979)- Time travel movies are really good at a couple of things. One of them is social commentary. By moving your main character into a distant time, you can reveal a lot about that character (Army of Darkness) or the state of the modern world (Idiocracy). Time After Time is a uniquely crazy movie in that HG Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just discovered one of his best friends (David Warner) is actually Jack the Ripper. Not only that, but The Ripper has stolen a real time machine that Wells invented and uses it to travel to 1979. Once Wells follows him to bring him to justice, the differences between 1890s England and 1970s America become  grist for social commentary on violence and the lack of enlightened societal progress. Of course, at the center of it all is a pretty cool cat and mouse game between Wells and Jack the Ripper.

9. Source Code (2011)- This is one on the very fringe of the time travel subgenre. Duncan Jones (aka, David Bowie's son) made an impressive debut with Moon a few years earlier. Source Code was the anxiously awaited follow up that, while more successful, somehow felt like a let down to some viewers. Personally, I think Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan do a great job of bringing their characters to life. The script does not do Monaghan any favors as she has to learn who Gyllenhaal is and form a plausible connection with him in 11 minutes. The plot is that a mad scientist (played by a hammy Jeffrey Wright) has figured out how to send the mind of a soldier into alternate dimensions. After a terrorist attack destroys a commuter train outside of Chicago, Gyllenhaal is sent back over and over again to find a way to identify the terrorist. In this model of time travel, what has happened, happened. Wright warns Gyllenhaal that he can't change the past, because he is really not in his own timeline, merely looking into other timelines where the same event happened. This is a pretty fascinating action/adventure that requires Gyllenhaal to use his intelligence to overcome his obstacles. The ending is about the best case scenario one could hope for in this instance, but the presence of real heart makes the weird science work.

8. Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)- Besides social commentary, the other thing a time travel movie can do well is explore the old thought exercise: if you could go back and relive your life, knowing what you know now, would you? Kathleen Turner goes to her high school reunion shortly after separating from her husband (Nicholas Cage). After fainting at the reunion, she awakens to find herself back in high school. With her knowledge of how all her classmates turn out, should she change her life by picking the boy who would grow up to be a millionaire or stay with the man who would one day break her heart? It is an interesting movie about the choices we make and it did not end exactly how I thought it would, which was a nice surprise. Worth a watch if you've ever wanted to go back in time just to erase a mistake.

7. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)- Audiences avoided this movie in droves but shouldn't have. This is pure time travel as video game fun. Tom Cruise finds himself in a situation in which, every time he dies, he wakes up to restart his day all over again. It is kind of like Groundhog's Day but he can keep going as long as he doesn't die. Cruise finds himself in a war against an alien race that seems one step ahead of us humans at every turn. Emily Blunt and Bill Paxton make excellent additions to the cast. It is one of the more purely satisfying time travel movies on the list from an entertainment perspective.

6. 12 Monkeys (1995)- Terry Gilliam killed it with this time travel movie in the vein of Terminator. When a single man (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to prevent a global catastrophe he is treated exactly as any would-be time traveler would...like a mad man. This movie is one that comes at time travel from the "whatever happened, happened" school of thought. That is, perhaps even the future is immutable? Gilliam brings his inspired lunacy to the adventure while Brad Pitt plays against type as a deranged eco-terrorist. Is there such a thing as destiny?

5. Primer (2004)- Enveloped in techno-babble, Shane Carruth presents this fascinatingly original take on time travel in which meeting another you will not destroy all of reality. At times maddeningly cryptic, I have seen the movie about ten times and still cannot tell you where certain plots points come from. The idea of abusing time travel is looked at very closely as two amateur inventors make moves against each other once they discover the potential power of their "process." There are some nice, chilling moments and the screenplay is constructed pretty perfectly. A great indie time travel movie.

4. Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)- Although this one features little to no time travel (depending on your point of view), it does a great job of thoroughly exploring what time travel would mean to real people who have no role in the overall future of the world. Like Peggy Sue Got Married, this is more a way of asking yourself who you would be if you hadn't lived the life you have lived. Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass are great in the main story of a reporter (Plaza) who is chasing a story about an obviously insane man (Duplass) who puts out a classified ad for a partner in time travel. Meanwhile, Jake Johnson figuratively visits his past by looking up an old flame and seeing if there was wasted potential in their aborted relationship. A very creative and thought-provoking indie, worth watching.

3. Terminator (1984)- Riddled with weird questions about the exact rules of time travel, the Terminator series has been a frequently exciting ride (at least in the first two movies). James Cameron brought us two great action flicks based around the idea that the present could be a target for the future. People often ask the old chestnut about going back in time and killing Hitler as a baby but what if someone else considered you to be Hitler in that scenario. Linda Hamilton is targeted by robots from the future who her son will lead a rebellion against one day. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the killer robot sent to end her life before she can have her child in the original Terminator. In the sequel, he plays a robot sent back to protect her and her son from a worse robot. Don't think too hard about it, just enjoy the ride.

2. Back to the Future 2 (1989)- I could include the whole series here but I believe this is the movie that had the most fun with the concept of time travel. After almost romancing his mother in the first movie, Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) is whisked into the future by his friend, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) to save his son from making a huge mistake. A sports almanac finds its way back to 1955, Biff gets possession of it and timelines are altered. Playing fast and loose with the rules of time travel, the Back to the Future series is about as fun as it gets.

1. Timecrimes (2007)- I don't know about you but I personally love an airtight screenplay. When the plot of a movie is complicated but pulled off effortlessly, it is a thing to behold. Timecrimes (directed by Nacho Vigalondo) is a Spanish language comedy/horror/science fiction movie that gets wackier and wackier but can work out no other way than the way it does. A man named Hector (Karra Elejalde) is vacationing in the countryside with his wife. Spying a young woman taking her clothes off, he decides to get a closer look but finds himself stalked by a man wrapped in pink bandages. As Hector runs into a mad scientist (played by the director), he finds himself caught in a time loop that keeps making matters worse and more complicated the longer it goes. Clever and surprising, this is a really cool movie I would highly recommend. And one we will definitely show at the Film House.

Why Indie Movies?

Welcome to The Film House blog. This will be a little place for me to talk about movies and what they mean to me. For this first installment, I will be talking about Indie Film. Not only why it is such a viable form of expression, but where it comes from. For those who don’t have the time to read an entire book like Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, let this be a tiny primer for you. It should also go without saying that the opinions and views expressed in these blog entries are not necessarily those of the entire Film House and should be attributed only to my delusional mind.

              To understand the appeal of Indie films, it is important to first define them and how they differ from mainstream films. Hollywood (and later, the world at large) churns out hundreds of movies a year, each with the purpose of making money. From the beginning, the goal of movies has been to entertain first and then, maybe, enlighten. When we think of classic films, almost all of them moved the art of cinema forward while telling a compelling story (Citizen Kane, Wizard of Oz, King Kong, etc.). In terms of pure entertainment, I believe Casablanca to be the best example of a movie that has something for everyone but offers no great insight into its characters (Nazis are bad, nobility is good, etc.). 

               With Citizen Kane, Orson Welles not only introduced a new visual vocabulary to cinema, he introduced one of the first popular character studies. I would argue that Indie movies evolved from this template of character being more important than plot. Unfortunately, before the 1960s, most films that have stood the test of time are focused on Big Issues or fantastic, epic plots rather than the complexities found within real humans.

                I would also argue that filmmakers around the world tapped into character-based storytelling faster than Hollywood did. 1952’s Umberto D (from Italy) is a pure character study that I think would have been nearly impossible to make in Hollywood at that same time. Let me be clear, this is not to say there aren’t compelling, complex characters to be found before the 1960s (Brando managed to find those roles with regularity). Rather, if those characters could be found, they were found in service to a plot rather than existing for their own sake.

                Easy Rider (1969), is a pivotal movie in the history of American cinema. Maybe you’ve seen it and think, “What’s the big deal? Hippy bikers get high and ride across America.” The content of the film isn’t all that groundbreaking, On the Waterfront or In the Heat of the Night took hard looks at the problems in America well before Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda turned an eye on the underbelly of the country. The revolution didn’t come with the content so much as the context.

                Before that movie, Independent films were exactly what they sound like…movies made outside of the big budget, Hollywood system. Mostly, this meant pornography or the cheap genre exercises of people like Roger Corman. Horror, science fiction and smut were the most you could hope to find in Independent movies. However, Corman was training an entire generation of filmmakers who would go on to become the auteur generation.

                A few years earlier, Easy Rider would have been a b-movie about motorcycles and drugs like dozens that came before it. The success of the movie (third highest grossing film of 1969) signaled a change in the audience as well as the content. People were ready to watch edgier fare if it was presented in a serious way. The whole cultural shift in American thinking took the movie industry with it and Easy Rider just so happened to hit at the right time to be the poster child for the auteur movement.

                The 1970s, then, were the proving grounds for idiosyncratic visions of plotless, character-driven movies. The big studios started throwing money at the directors who graduated from Roger Corman’s grindhouse training program to produce their own tales of humanity. That is not to say there are not some amazing plots to be found in classics from the 1970s, but each genre has an example of being deepened and fleshed out by a greater attention to character. Horror became disturbingly real with The Exorcist, the gangster film became The Godfather and westerns turned into Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The directors were given free reign and proved they could make commercially viable product that still worked as “art.”

                The film brats of the 1970s created their own demise, however. Stephen Speilberg and George Lucas were friends with Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorcese. Speilberg created the first blockbuster with Jaws and Lucas followed it up with Star Wars. These were examples of old Hollywood plotting with a few auteur touches to make them “gritty” or “realistic.” Remember that, before Star Wars, science fiction was the realm of clean and gleaming technology. Star Wars made you believe these alien worlds were lived in. Before Jaws, a director would never stop a movie cold to let one of the characters tell a story like Robert Shaw’s recounting of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.

                The other downfall of the auteur movement was the failure of several big budget movies like Heaven’s Gate. Audiences didn’t want to sit through a four hour Western with occasional gun fights, they wanted the wall to wall action of Indiana Jones or the grungy horror of Alien. Once again, idiosyncratic directors with strong personal visions were either consumed by the Hollywood system and made to abandon their aesthetic or they couldn’t find financing at all.

                This is where Independent film becomes a viable venue for great storytelling and character work. In the 1980s, it was as if the entire cinema world had been flipped upside down. Challenging films about difficult subjects were forced underground while b-movie formulas dominated the multiplex. That isn’t to say a few wily directors didn’t slip some subversion into their work now and then, it is just the era where morality became black and white and action heroes ruled the day.

                Miramax, a small studio started by the Weinstein Brothers, became the haven for filmmakers that would have been given big Hollywood contracts in the 70s. Spike Lee, Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh and their ilk grew up loving the movies of the 70s and they reflect that love in their storytelling. No matter how action heavy a Tarantino movie gets or how many poop jokes appear in a Kevin Smith film, you can’t claim that they skimp on their characters (well, until Cop Out anyway).

                When character dictates action, the action can go to surprising places. As much as I love Marvel movies (and, oh man, I do), they are ultimately predictable in their outcomes. When I sit to watch an Indie movie, I have no idea where it is going to go. Will the creators play with the format? Will they subvert genre conventions or play into them? Will there be an homage or reference to some other work that I will recognize? There is a real freedom that comes from not being tied to a major studio’s purse strings.

                After the ascent of Miramax in the 1990s, the studios decided that there is prestige to be garnered from supporting independent movies. Many studios started their own indie divisions where blockbuster revenue helps create small, intimate movies. Now, with the variety of platforms on which to debut films, there are more independent movies than ever before (oddly, still a lot of horror). Not all of it is good. Some of it is downright intolerable. Our mission at the Film House is to bring the good stuff to your eyeballs. We hope you like it.

IF WE WERE OPEN: This is a little bit I want to do every week where I talk about a movie that is not showing in Greenville. These are the types of movies we would be showing if we were open. This week, the movie is The End of the Tour. James Ponsoldt is the director and, you may think you don’t know him but you probably do. He directed the Aaron Paul/Mary Elizabeth Winstead sobriety movie Smashed. Last year, he directed The Spectacular Now, which I have heard good things about but not seen.

                The End of the Tour is about a Rolling Stone reporter (played by Jesse Eisenberg) interviewing David Foster Wallace (Jason Segal) over a five day span in 1996. Biopics are notoriously hard to pull off in that they usually reduce a person’s real, sloppy life into neatly divided acts and emotional beats. Even the best feel artificial and weird if they attempt to tell an entire life story. I have read good things about this movie in that it appears Ponsoldt is focused on just this small window of time and uses it to illuminate Wallace’s life in general. Capote was the only other biopic I have seen that works well and that is because it narrows in on a very specific time in Truman Capote’s life.

                This movie has the potential for fascinating performances, human insight and real emotional heft. If we had a physical location, you could come see it with us this very weekend.