McConaughey: A Life's Work - JAK

2005 was a good year. The ‘stros made it to the world series, France performed the first successful face transplant, and Six Shooter won best live-action short at the Oscars. But what was best about 2005 was that People magazine finally, officially recognized the sexiness of Matthew David McConaughey. Of course People’s decision wasn’t news to those of us who had long before acknowledged his chiseled, heart-breakingly rugged good looks in in A Time to Kill. His portrayal of a lawyer defending an African-American father accused of murder in a racially-charged Mississippi revealed a new hunk of talent on the Hollywood scene. Not since Brando tore his shirt and yelled ‘Stella!’ has an actor so brilliantly coupled rock-hard acting skills with Sexiest-man-alive looks. Following T to K, McConaughey proceeded to hone his sexiness by playing the male lead in Carl Sagan’s Contact. Embodying a physically flawless, sexually promiscuous spiritualist (“a man of the cloth, without the cloth”), McConaughey wooed Jodi Foster and argued the ethics of human/alien contact. He went on to stretch his sexiness to the breaking point with hits such as U-571, Failure to Launch, and Sahara. Though some of his films were hampered by sub-standard dialogue, superficial scripts, and shirts, McConaughey always found a way to make the role his own. Perhaps the Adonis called McConaughey will best be remembered for his role in Dazed and Confused. Playing a character profoundly suited to his time and place, he encapsulated the small-town, post-high school male experience in such lines as “I love them red heads”, “alright, alright, alright” and, of course, “You just gotta keep on livin', man. L-I-V-I-N.”

McConaughey will next be flexing his acting chops in The Lincoln Lawyer: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/thelincolnlawyer/