Charting the ‘McConaissance,’ film by film
NEW YORK — Six years ago, Matthew McConaughey was starring in a movie called “Surfer, Dude,” a film about as good as its title implies. He played a shirtless surfer plunged into an existential crisis when his good luck with waves runs out.
McConaughey did undergo an existential crisis around that time, but it wasn’t about the surf. His career had bottomed out in rom-com mediocrity (his second comedy with Kate Hudson, “Fool’s Gold,” followed “Surfer, Dude”), overly depending on the charm of his Texas drawl. McConaughey resolved to do something about it.
What has followed — the so-called McConaissance — has been one of the most remarkable midcareer metamorphoses in movies. McConaughey has abruptly shifted to more challenging roles and films in a creative burst that has clearly re-energized him. He’s taken his matinee-idol chips and exchanged them for an actor’s freedom.
It’s been a steady renewal, building part by part. His best-actor Academy Award nomination for “Dallas Buyers Club” represents a culmination, and most expect McConaughey will be crowned with a win at the Oscars on Sunday, March 2.
Here is a film-by-film account of how he got here, a step-by-step guide to the McConaissance: guiding ethos. He frequently quotes his “You just gotta keep livin’, man, L-I-V-I-N” and dubbed his production company J.K. Livin. So it makes sense that any restart for McConaughey would include Linklater, whose “Bernie” features McConaughey as district attorney Danny Buck Davidson in a comic tale of small-town murder.