People like to debate at which point, exactly, the McConaissance began. Was it with Bernie, the Richard Linklater film in which Matthew McConaughey features in a small but memorable role? Was it The Lincoln Lawyer, which gave the actor his best non-romantic comedy part in years? Or was it with Killer Joe, William Friedkin's late-stage oddity, which positioned the actor as a demented police officer with a hidden agenda? It might well be any of those, but it was perhaps his role in Magic Mike that made people like the actor again. After all, years of playing the same character in the same rom-coms left audiences feeling distain for Matthew McConaughey, and it took his brilliantly vibrant and movie-stealing turn in Magic Mike - director Steven Soderbergh's surprisingly candid take on male strippers - to win over audiences once more. As Dallas, he gives it his all; though he's just a secondary character, he brings a rounded charm to Dallas that made the then-insufferable actor bearable once more - funny, too.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
