Last Updated on March 3, 2024
Born in Texas, Matthew McConaughey was a law student who changed his career right before one of his final exams (thank goodness). In 1991, he began appearing in low-key films but it wasn’t long before the actor became a fixture on Hollywood’s red carpet. If you love Matthew McConaughey’s alluring smile and authentic talent, then we have his best work lined up and ready for you to enjoy!
1. Interstellar (2014)
After Earth becomes uninhabitable, the hope of humanity lies in the hands of a space crew tasked with exploring several new planets. These planets were discovered by a previous team after they entered a mysterious wormhole that had appeared in Earth’s solar system.
Dr Amelia Brand and ex-NASA pilot Joseph Cooper must overcome interstellar travel, the strange effects of time, betrayal, and dead worlds to find a new home for the human race before it’s too late.
2. Tropic Thunder (2008)
In this unique comedy, McConaughey teams up with great actors like Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. McConaughey plays the role of Rick Peck, the agent of a fading action star named Tugg Speedman. The latter is trying to regain his former glory and accepts a role in a movie that is based on a war hero’s life.
But when Speedman and his fellow actors keep messing up the director’s orders, the latter decides to film them in a jungle with hidden cameras to get more natural sequences. Unbeknownst to Speedman and his fellow actors, who believe everything around them is staged, they are dropped off in a jungle riddled with real mines and drug dealers, with hilarious results.
3. Mud (2012)
Two boys, Ellis and Neckbone, visit an island where they find a deserted boat. Excited to use it for themselves, they are disturbed to find signs of someone living inside of the boat. They soon meet a man on the island, called Mud, and they start an uneasy friendship.
Their admiration for Mud strengthens but then Ellis discovers that Mud is a fugitive who had killed a man. As the boys struggle with their own life problems, they also like the idea of helping Mud and his beloved (who was hurt by the man he had killed). But their naive involvement soon throws Ellis and Neckbone into the violent world of lies, revenge, and betrayal.
4. The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)
Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller likes working in the backseat of his black Lincoln Town Car. Mickey Haller is used to taking on low-end offenders but one day, he is hired to defend the playboy son of a Hollywood property mogul.
Louis Roulet is accused of brutally assaulting a prostitute and the evidence reminds Haller of a previous client who went to prison for murder. Upon investigating the case, Haller realizes that Roulet is most likely guilty of both crimes but setting the record straight comes at a lethal price.
5. Contact (1997)
Dr Ellie Arroway detects an alien signal and realizes that it contains the blueprint for a mysterious machine. The massive structure has a single seat and a panel convenes to choose the candidate to travel, presumably, to a place where first contact with extraterrestrials will occur.
Ellie’s hopes are dashed by one of the panelists, Palmer Joss (McConaughey). A former lover and Christian philosopher, he doesn’t feel that her atheist beliefs represent humanity. But when terrorists destroy the machine and the chosen candidate, Ellie is told about a second machine built in secret and she is offered the pilot seat.
6. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Based on the remarkable true story, rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof leads a fast-paced and promiscuous life. When he is diagnosed with AIDS, his life shatters. Woodroof is not only given 30 days to live but because of his diagnosis, he is also fired and ostracized by friends and family.
Not one to give up easily, he agrees to take part in drug trials in the US but they make him even sicker. He learns that pharmaceuticals in Mexico, centered on ddC and the protein peptide T, is prolonging the life of AIDS patients. Since these compounds are not approved by the FDA, Woodroof begins to smuggle the drugs back into the US and distributes them among patients who join his “Dallas Buyers Club.”
The movie follows his incredible drive to help the hopeless and his fight to legalize the taking of peptide T.
7. Magic Mike (2012)
Mike works as a male stripper at the popular Xquisite Strip Club in Tampa. Although he is the lead dancer and has plenty of fans, he wants something more. Mike dreams of starting his own custom-made furniture business but struggles to raise the funds.
When college drop-out Adam joins the dancers, Mike takes him under his wing. During a visit to Adam’s home, Mike meets his sister, Brooke, a fun and vivacious girl. But their growing attraction is threatened by Adam’s descend into the club’s dark side where drugs and sex threaten to ruin his life.
8. Amistad (1997)
In this Steven Spielberg film, Matthew McConaughey portrays a lawyer called Roger Sherman Baldwin. The movie follows the true events that happened in 1839 when a group of African tribesmen were abducted and taken aboard the Amistad, a Spanish owned slave ship.
Baldwin is hired to defend the captives after they managed to take over the ship but after being deceived by the ship’s navigators, they sailed to the United States instead of back to Africa. The tribesmen were arrested as runaway slaves but Baldwin sets out to prove that they had been illegally sold in the Americas.
9. Frailty
Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) confesses to the FBI that he knows who the notorious “God’s Hand” serial killer is. Fenton tells agent Wesley Doyle that their father believed angels pointed out demons to him who pretended to be people and that they had to die. As a result, his two sons grew up as witnesses to multiple murders he committed.
Fenton goes on to claim that his brother continued the holy quest after their father died, burying more victims in a rose garden. But when Fenton takes Doyle to the garden, the truth comes out and everything – including Fenton – takes a horrifying turn.
10. We Are Marshall (2006)
On November 14, 1970, a plane crashes in West Virginia, killing the entire football team of Marshall University. In the wake of the tragedy, the president of the University decides to suspend the football program even though it deeply upsets the few remaining players who had missed the flight.
In this biographical film, Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, a sports coach who offers to rebuild the team. The heartwarming story follows a town struggling to heal from the trauma of losing their sons and brothers but banding together to reinstate a new team.