Hands up, I'd go to the cinema to watch Matthew McConaughey reading a book. The man is a riveting performer, and when he gets a good script – as in Dallas Buyers Club and the first season of True Detective – well you can just kiss that scenery goodbye. On form, he's fantastic and could act his way through granite.
In Free State of Jones, McConaughey is in cracking form in this American Civil War film inspired by the true story of Newton Knight and his armed rebellion against the Confederacy in Jones County, Mississippi.
Written and directed by Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Pleasantville and Seabiscuit), the film stars Matthew McConaughey in the lead role, supported by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali and Keri Russell - who, by the way, is quite amazing in US TV drama The Americans.
Many of the events portrayed are based on fact but it is a fictional telling. After surviving the 1862 Battle of Corinth, Newton Knight deserts the Confederate Army and returns home. To cut a long story short, he ends up in a swamp with several runaway slaves led by Moses Washington. After a while, they're joined by more army deserters and together they take on the local Confederates.
The story is interspersed with the saga of Newton's great-great-great grandson, who is arrested under one of Mississippi's racist laws 85 years after the war. Considered black, he was charged with being illegally married to a white woman.
Although the film feels a little disjointed and confusing at times, the blend of a great story and McConaughey's on-screen dominance (he's in virtually every scene bar the flash forwards) makes this a compelling couple of hours.
John Byrne
