2014 was, obviously, a grand slam year for Matthew McConaughey, who won an Oscar for the very good Dallas Buyers Club, mesmerized us with the HBO hit True Detective, and then took us on a profound journey to the farthest reaches of space and human consciousness. But in case anyone was worried the erstwhile star of insipid paycheck rom-coms like Failure to Launch was completely eradicated in the McConaissance, here he is in some car commercials to remind you that, yes, McConaughey is still a tool.
McConaughey appeared in a commercial for Lincoln over the summer, in a spot that showed him driving around sharing deep thoughts that sounded like B-sides from a Rust Cohle spoken word album. That borderline self-parody yielded several real parodies from SNL, Conan, and Ellen, which Lincoln shrewdly embraced. Now the car company is debuting two new ads, both directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (who, fittingly, directed the superb Drive). The first is so derivative of McConaughey's True Detective performance that it's kind of a little depressing:
"It's not about hugging trees, it's not about being wasteful either. You've got to find that balance, where taking care of yourself takes care of more than just yourself—that's the sweet spot," intones the actor who made over $21 million this year but figures why not cash in on this newfound marketability before he rotates back to The Wedding Planner 2. In the second ad he doesn't say a word until he climbs into the driver's seat, opens the sunroof, and murmurs, "Here we go," sounding like somebody just out of frame has unzipped his fly and ladled warm honey onto his genitals.
Back in my day, all this would have been called "selling out," but I realize it's practically 2015 and we're supposed to accept everything anyone creates lives in service of an ad, so I'll just eat my creamed corn and crank up the Fugazi until the nurse revokes my privileges again.
