Matthew McConaughey | Career Arc

Dazed and Confused 1993

Rob's pick. Wooderson, on screen maybe ten minutes: 'I get older, they stay the same age.' Instant stardom, and a charming predator the movie can't bear to make pathetic.

A Time to Kill 1996

Sean's pick. The first time he's in the center of the frame the whole time, playing modern-day Atticus Finch in a ludicrous Grisham thriller he single-handedly holds up. The five-minute 'now imagine she's white' closing.

Magic Mike 2012

Amanda's pick. Fully greased up and leaning into the voice, a supporting mentor role where the bongo guy finally clicks into the public consciousness and the McConaissance takes off.

Angels in the Outfield 1994

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation 1995

Quite bad, per Sean.

Boys on the Side 1995

A small, very charming role.

Lone Star 1996

A smaller but crucial part.

Amistad 1997

Back to the courtroom a year later, another racially complicated only-in-the-'90s movie.

Killer Joe 2011

Sean's pinnacle. A purposefully evil Friedkin/Tracy Letts Texas tale of murder and incest; not his most rewatchable, but the choice that signals him taking chances again.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 2003

Amanda's pinnacle. The most successful of the rom-coms and a real reference point for the genre after it, even if it's a sour, eggshell-walking rewatch. Rob saw it five days ago.

The Lincoln Lawyer 2011

The start of the turn in 2011 back toward interesting filmmakers; airport-fiction legal thriller, and exactly his soliloquizer register.

Bernie 2011

Mud 2012

The Paperboy 2012

A ludicrous, everyone-going-for-it totem of a broken society, per Sean.

Tropic Thunder 2008

One of his best minor-key comic roles, as the agent, from the fallow period.

The Wolf of Wall Street 2013

Mark Hanna, the chest-beating 'fugazi' speech that sets the agenda for DiCaprio's Belfort.

Dallas Buyers Club 2013

The Oscar. None of the three love it; Rob calls it the quintessential I-want-an-Oscar movie, Green Book by other means, a year after Magic Mike.

EDtv 1999

U-571 2000

The Wedding Planner 2001

Beloved by a certain segment; J.Lo and McConaughey both doing things far from what they do now.

Sahara 2005

Where, with Two for the Money, things start to go south.

Two for the Money 2005

Failure to Launch 2006

Amanda's example of the tough 2005-2009 leading-man rom-coms, with Fool's Gold and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.

Fool's Gold 2008

A tough 2005-2009 leading-man rom-com, not good.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past 2009

Interstellar 2014

A big Nolan hit Sean isn't a fan of.

The Sea of Trees 2015

A Gus Van Sant debacle set in Japan's suicide forest, later infamous from a Logan Paul video.

Free State of Jones 2016

A forgotten, similarly white-savior movie.

Gold 2016

Sean found it kind of interesting; it came and went.

The Dark Tower 2017

The long-awaited Stephen King adaptation. Terrible.

White Boy Rick 2018

Serenity 2019

An all-time January curio with Anne Hathaway.

The Beach Bum 2019

A leisurely 90-minute movie about a burnout poet married to a wealthy Miami woman: aspirational hedonism, Wooderson taken to his logical conclusion. Snoop Dogg, Isla Fisher, Zac Efron, Jimmy Buffett, Martin Lawrence, and a scene-stealing Jonah Hill. Rob saw it alone at 9:50 a.m.