Matthew McConaughey’s new film has delighted viewers and received a rare seen standing ovation at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas.
The Dallas Buyers Club actor, 55, stars as the titular character in Andrew Patteron’s forthcoming musical western thriller The Rivals of Amziah King, alongside Cole Sprouse and Jake Horowitz.
In what marks McConaughey’s first return to the big screen in six years, the film follows an Oklahoma born-again Christian, who oversees his town’s tumultuous honey-producing operation after his estranged foster daughter (Angelina LookingGlass) unexpectedly returns.
However, he quickly discovers the honey industry is more ferocious than he expected and criminal activity threatens the livelihood he depends on.
Per Variety, McConaughey introduced the film at SXSW, saying: “It’s been six years since I did a film or was onscreen?…Why did I come to this film, what was it? Not often does something cross my desk where I’m like ‘Oh, that’s an original language! I’ve never heard that before, but I know those people.”
He continued: “Oh, that’s an original, time, place and space. Oh, there’s some real humour. There’s some real innocence and a whole lot of heart and [a] momentous amount of spirit.”
McConaughey added: “In a place that has do with a carny-Credence like a revival band that plays live shows in Dairy Queen parking lots; whose a beekeeper; love story between a foster parent and a foster child, love story of a whole bunch of misfits and underdogs, that come together, a bunch of hair-lips, knee-scraping people who’ll give the shirt off their back.
“Those are the reasons why I did it. It’s also some kind of musical!”
The success of McConaughey’s latest project comes after the actor recently delivered his verdict on the most recent True Detective series, 2024’s True Detective: Night Country, saying: “I watched, I saw it. Yeah, there’s a lot about it that I appreciated.”
McConaughey, who starred in the first season of the anthology crime drama alongside Woody Harrelson in 2014, then added: “My favourite season - and I feel like I can say this objectively - is season one.”
He told Variety: “I happen to be in that one, so I thought that was incredible, incredible television and a great series. I watched it weekly, like everyone else, on Sunday night, and that was an event for me.
“And I got to sit back and enjoy that. I loved the water cooler talk on Monday morning. Even though I made it, I sort of forgot what was going to happen next. It was one of the great events in TV.”
