Posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2012 by Angie Han
I don’t know what’s gotten into Matthew McConaughey lately, but here’s hoping it sticks around a while. 2012 is shaping up to be the single best year of his career, with Richard Linklater’s Bernie, Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, and Lee Daniel’s The Paperboy all in theaters. His 2013′s not looking so shabby from here either. McConaughey has just signed on to join Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street, based on Jordan Belfort‘s memoir about living it up as a broker in the ’80s. More details after the jump.
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Posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 by Angie Han
Matthew McConaughey is having one hell of a year. Having already drawn praise for turns in Richard Linklater’s Bernie, Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike, and William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, the onetime Failure to Launch star is now heading into fall with Lee Daniels‘ The Paperboy.
Inspired by true events, The Paperboy centers around wayward young man (Zac Efron) and his journalist brother (McConaughey). When a woman (Nicole Kidman) approaches them for help in getting her death row inmate boyfriend (John Cusack) out of jail, they investigate the murder that put him there. David Oyelowo and Macy Gray also star. The first theatrical trailer has just hit the web, and you can watch it after the jump.
Matthew McConaughey is one of those actors that isn’t afraid to try new things. He can go from iconic role (Dazed and Confused), to blockbuster leading man (A Time To Kill), anchor a romantic comedy (Failure to Launch), or give a stunning, award-worthy supporting performance (Magic Mike). And that’s not even the half of it. (Think Sahara, Tropic Thunder, We Are Marshall, The Lincoln Lawyer, etc. Actually, don’t think about Sahara.) You never quite know what he’ll end up doing next. In the case of William Friedkin‘s controversial thriller Killer Joe, the actor might end up sitting across from Juno Temple talking about mutilated genitalia.
That’s what you’re about to see in /Film’s exclusive clip from the shocking, NC-17 rated film version of the play by Tracy Letts. Killer Joe is about a young man played by Emile Hirsch who convinces his father (Thomas Hayden Church) to have a local policeman (the title character played by McConaughey) kill the mother of the family. The price? Cash, of course, and the virginity of the young sister, played by Temple. Yeah. It’s a screwed-up kind of movie, but that’s what makes it so insanely watchable. See for yourself on after the jump. Read More »
For another perspective on Magic Mike, check out Angie’s review.
There is no need to see Magic Mike for its plot. The moment things start to spiral out of control, it becomes quickly apparent that you already know how this cautionary tale of glitz and glamour ends. Boy meets world. World enraptures boy. Boy loses himself to world.
But Boogie Nights this is not. This is a Steven Soderbergh film, which means it lacks the sort of seedy sensationalism that characterized that film’s porn underworld. Magic Mike is a more observational, subtle affair, joyfully capturing the narcissistic pleasure of flaunting your body to a room full of howling women and then softly exposing the limitations of that pleasure.
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Posted on Friday, June 29th, 2012 by Angie Han
The one and only time my non-cinephile girlfriends have ever seemed truly jealous of my job is when I mentioned in passing that I’d reviewing Magic Mike. “The male stripper movie!” they exclaimed. “Oh my God, I can’t wait to see that.” The appeal was obvious: Magic Mike promised to dish out cheese, sleaze, and glitter a-plenty, not to mention a hot, heaping dose of mostly naked men (among them Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Matt Bomer, and Joe Mangianello) busting out their best dance moves.
Unfortunately for them, it turns out that Magic Mike is not that movie. Or rather, it is, but only intermittently. The rest of the time, Magic Mike is a Steven Soderbergh drama that just so happens to be set in the world of male stripping. That mostly turns out to be a good thing, although I suspect the guys and gals who come looking for a “male Showgirls,” as one of my pals put it, won’t necessarily agree.
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Posted on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012 by Angie Han
Even as Lee Daniels‘ follow-up to Precious, The Paperboy, makes its debut at Cannes this week, the filmmaker’s wasting no time assembling a stellar cast for his next project, The Butler. The talented Forest Whitaker leads the picture as Eugene Allen, the late White House butler who served under eight different presidents from 1952 through 1986, with Oprah Winfrey and rising star David Oyelowo signed to play his wife and son.
And the cast only gets more buzzworthy from there. The roster also includes Cuba Gooding Jr., Terrence Howard, Nicole Kidman, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Lenny Kravitz, and John Cusack. Now we can add Minka Kelly to the list as well, as Daniels says he’s cast her to play Jackie Kennedy to Matthew McConaughey‘s John F. More after the jump.
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Posted on Friday, May 18th, 2012 by Angie Han
Now this is what I’m talking about. Whereas the first U.S. trailer for Steven Soderbergh‘s male stripper flick Magic Mike took pains to frame Mike (Channing Tatum) as just a sensitive furniture maker searching for something more than the seedy life of an exotic dancer, the new U.K. trailer plays up the sheer entertainment value of watching these guys get down and dirty. And along the way, it even reveals a bit more about the mentor-protege relationship between Mike and The Kid (Alex Pettyfer) that comprises the main storyline. Watch it after the jump.
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“Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap!” Wait. Hiring Matthew McConaughey to kill someone costs how much? Twenty-five grand? Ok, maybe not ‘dirt cheap,’ then. Anyway, The Exorcist director William Friedkin is back this year with Killer Joe, a Southern-fried thriller in which McConaughey is hired by Emile Hirsch to kill his mom (Gina Gershon). But complications arise when the killer wants money up front and the kid can’t pay. That’s where his sister (Juno Temple) comes in.
The film ended up being rated NC-17, and despite whatever intense stuff goes down to earn that rating, it seems like there’s a real appeal here when it comes to the performances from McConaughey and the supporting players. I’m thrilled, frankly, to see McConaughey getting a string of roles that really take advantage of his particular talents, and this one looks like a win for him. Check out a trailer below. Read More »
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