10 Actors Who Gave Their Best Performances In Movies Nobody Saw
9. Matthew McConaughey - Killer Joe
Matthew McConaughey has enjoyed a tidal career change in recent years, as has affectionately been dubbed "The McConaissance."
His performances in Mud, Magic Mike, and HBO's True Detective garnered high praise, and he seemingly completed the phoenix-like rising from the cinematic embers by winning a Best Actor Oscar in 2014 for Dallas Buyers Club.
But McConaughey's career resurgence really took hold a few years earlier in 2011, when after appearing in well-received dramas The Lincoln Lawyer and Bernie, he starred in William Friedkin's savage drama Killer Joe.
McConaughey received rave reviews for his performance as the titular killer - a corrupt detective who moonlights as an assassin.
In contrast to the majority of the appealing charmer roles the actor had played throughout his career, Killer Joe required him to turn that laid-back charisma inward, delivering a terrifyingly ice-cool performance for the ages as a result.
Despite critical acclaim and an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead, however, Killer Joe was a box office dud, and remains a criminally under-appreciated cult gem today.
Dallas Buyers Club may have got McConaughey the Oscar, but there's a daring, self-reflexive intelligence to his performance in Killer Joe that's unlike anything else he's ever done.