4/5
All Write, All Write, All Write.
NOTE TO SELF! Give me the 'Greenlights' like Legend and 3000. Matthew Mcconaughey runs like 'Forrest Gump' or Tom Cruise until he can't run no more. Screaming with lactic acid, euphoric joy in the middle of nowhere. Howling like a wolf. Pointing at the full moon in thanks like when his Jake Brigance 'A Time To Kill' character (the Atticus Ross to John Grisham's Harper Lee 'To Kill A Mockingbird' like courtroom drama) found his lost dog after the Klan burnt down his house. He just got the part in his first big budget movie after future 'True Detective' partner in fighting crime Woody Harrelson's 'Natural Born Killer' was too close to the bone for Grisham...but this is not where our story begins. Dazed and confused? Alright, alright, alright! Let's take it from the top. In fair Austin, Texas is where we lay our scene. Let the man tell it himself. As this amazing autobiography can only be audiobook read and heard in his signature syrupy Southern drawl. It's the only way for your memoirs memory. Besides you can get work done whilst you listen. Your hands are free. Not to do what his 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' character tells you to do a couple times a day, one before lunch. But to work on your dreams, 'Greenlight' goals and life ambitions. The kind that come (no pun intended) to McConaughey in the form of a wet dream (yep, you read it right. You ain't going blind). Or you could just work out as this man in a few quips gives you more exercise tips than influencers Instagram's. You can even read...or well listen whilst "taking a deuce", or I don't know...playing a banjo. It also seems like fans taking the piss at the guy who recently starred in Ritchie's British gangster flick, 'The Gentlemen' are coming up with their own audiobook versions in impression (guilty), which has lead for a game for a laugh McConaughey launching an Instagram story competition for the best, "alright, alright, alright". It's all for a good cause as the man who looks to run for public office just keeps living y'all. And with this hilarious, heartfelt, stream of compelling consciousness memoir that could even bother the noise in Steven Tyler's autobiography (one rocking story from a one-of-a-kind icon deserves another) going head-to-head. Especially with movie autobiographies in general being more rare than steak in a vegan restaurant...or hey, even cinematic releases these days. We need stories like this that inspire these days and are like no other. Let this book of Matthew be your spiritual guide. Take it as gospel.
BUMPER STICKER! Giving us his life script and time entwined with the Hollywood sign, McConaughey has had more than 'Time To Kill' this quarantined year of COVID-19. He's been working on this 'scribe for years. NOTE TO SELF. I watched the platinum rom-com classic, 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days' for the first real time just over a week ago (he's not ashamed of his romantic comedy years and neither should you like the 'Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past' this Christmas). We almost made it to 7 minutes before he took his shirt off. This is more than the movies, but he gets down to the bare essentials for some stripped down stories here. Talking about this 'Larger Than Life', 'Lone Star's' 'Glory Dayz'. Making 'Contact' with Jodie Foster for what ignorantly the industry back then called the "girl role". All before all those rom-com's and 'Failure To Launch' that wasn't his flightplan like...well, Jodie Foster. The man who once buzzed his trademark curls after a close shave with baldness (tell me your secret Matt) for 'Reign Of Fire', headbutting Christian Bale in a close shave ended up turning down 14 Mill to turn his career around. All before 'The Lincoln Lawyer' and Carrey carried on Lincoln commercials changed his life like the 'Mud' of 'Killer Joe'. Than there was the skinny on the muscle bound Hollywood hunk playing Ron Woodroof (a man who suffered from AIDS but changed the medical game) in 'Dallas Buyers Club' and the rest is Best Actor at the Oscars history. One that lead to big pictures on an 'Interstellar' level and slept on indies like his most recent 'White Boy Rick'. But the 'Magic Mike', 'Dark Tower' and underrated 'Gold' like 'Serenity' star who chest thumps so much to get in character that DiCaprio told Scorsese to put it in his 'Wall Street' lunch really had us when he's talking about his most iconic role to date in a one shot. All for the small screen and the Woody to his Buzz in 'True Detective'. How he tells it that he saved the premiere for watching with his wife on home every Sunday like the rest really shows who he is. At the end of the day like all us brothers and sisters, he's just one of us. Just keeping on and living.
PREEEEESCRIPTION TIME! Even with President Barack Obama's 'Promised Land', rock God, Lenny Kravitz letting love rule in memoir to the release of his debut album, or Alicia Keys showing 'More Myself' in her 'Journey', this is the book you want to find under your tree this Christmas sent from a distance. With 'Notes To Self', 'Bumper Stickers' for your Texas haul em's and 'Prescription's' for you from this actual Professor that is just what the doctor ordered, then what more do you want aside from, 'How To Lose A Guy In 11 Days' (you heard it here first)? Now back to California dreams the reason McConaughey used to wake up with sheets that you could throw against a wall has nothing to do with the fact that he's done multiple movies (call it a couple) with Kate Hudson, Jennifer Garner and Anne Hathaway. More so they were dreams about faraway places beyond even this stars head in the clouds that simply said, "come here". Again no pun intended. He'll travelogue these for you in a guide as gregarious as he or maybe even Paul Rudd is. But from Africa like Toto to saying, "G'day" to a room in Australia, there's nothing like the Texas sun of where he came from like Leon Bridges down this yellow brick road. Strewth! And Matthew will tell you all about his upbringing, from fighting in bars to pissing contests with your dad that could pole vault clear most Olympic Stadiums if we had them here in Tokyo this 2020 which he offers advice for as we look for a way out the abyss. This whole "approach" book that this man wrote in a 52 day electricity exile like only he could or would isn't just like the good friend you asked for, but the coolest one you wish you had. Especially during these trying times. One that began at age 14, writing about these "people and places" in poem and prayer form, from the scraps of his notebook and diary entries. Navigating through his life like that car commercial that still cuts him checks, expect these pages to turn into receipts, but the real gift here is one that you can't take back. Wisdom not knowledge. Inspiration not influence. The man not the actor. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Not alright, alright, alright. Got it? Alright? TIM DAVID HARVEY.
