5.Mud
One of McConaughey’s most critically-acclaimed and most little-seen movies is 2013’s Mud. The coming-of-age drama from Jeff Nichols follows the curious adventure of two boys (played by X-Men’s Tye Sheridan and The Maze Runner’s Jacob Lofland), who come across a fugitive named Mud, hiding out on an island in the Mississippi. Of course, Matthew is Mud.
He tells the boys a series of fantastic stories about how he ended up in his solitude, and they agree to help him reunite with the love of his life (played by Reese Witherspoon). The movie completely bombed at the box office but boasts a near-perfect 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. McConaughey plays between his history of being the hero and villain well here, blurring the lines between what to expect from Mud.
6.Interstellar
And how can we forget Matthew McConaughey’s collaboration with Christopher Nolan for his 2014 space epic, Interstellar. The movie was the director’s first project after finishing the Dark Knight trilogy and it tells a particularly emotional story about fatherhood across time and space. Once you’ve seen McConaughey’s Cooper break down in tears as he watches his beloved “Murph” grow up in front of his eyes from far away in space, you’ll never forget it.
The actor plays a NASA pilot and engineer who goes on an important mission. He is wrestling with leaving his two children behind and they are wrestling with feelings of abandonment. Between Han Zimmer’s incredible scoring and it’s weird third-act twist, Interstellar is definitely among the best movies he has ever done.
7.Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey’s best movies is his Oscar-winning role in Dallas Buyers Club. Not every distinguished actor gets a gold trophy for his best performance, but in his case, they hit the nail on the head. McConaughey is absolutely heartbreaking as Ron Woodroof, an AIDS patient who smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas to treat himself and other patients and meets Jared Leto’s HIV positive, trans woman, Rayon.
Here, McConaughey leans into his strengths as a cowboy-donning Texan, but pushes it to the absolute extreme of his acting potential. It’s highly-regarded as his best performance to date and without him at the center of the flick – which included a huge physical transformation – it feels like cinema would have suffered a great loss.
