Friday, May 23, 2025

Matthew McConaughey Faces Second Box Office Disaster of the Year with “Sea of Trees”

If you’re wondering why Matthew McConaughey, an Oscar winner, continues to do commercials for Lincoln automobiles, here’s the answer.

Today he opens in Gus van Sant’s “Sea of Trees,” which currently has a 10 on Rotten Tomatoes. There’s been no publicity for “Trees” because it’s awful, no one wanted to release it, and now it arrives to terrible reviews.

This is McConaughey’s second disastrous release of the year. The first was “Free State of Jones,” which mostly is already forgotten except by those scarred from seeing it.

Bad films happen to good people. Gary Ross made “Jones,” and he’s a fine director. Van Sant barked up the wrong “Trees,” and he is much admired for many films like “Good Will Hunting” and “Drugstore Cowboy,” even weirder cutting edge stuff like “My Own Private Idaho.”

But “Trees” has been rotting for some time, with no major distributor wanting to get involved. It also substitutes Worcester, Massachusetts for Japan, so figure that out.

McConaughey has a bunch of better things coming including Stephen Gaghan’s “Gold,” and Ron Howard’s “The Dark Tower.” Plus, if you want a quick reminder of the real deal, watch that early scene in “Wolf of Wall Street” when he has lunch with Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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