2014 Was the Year That (Fill In the Blanks)...
We added ''Groot'' to our vocabulary, used the ''F'' word (feminist), dumped ice on our heads--count the ways this year kept us entertained
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This Was the Year That… Everyone Had a Renaissance
If time really is a flat circle, then maybe Matthew McConaughey always knew he was destined for a McConaissance—even when he was romancing The Wedding Planner and searching for Fool’s Gold. The 45-year-old kicked off 2014 by winning his first Academy Award for Dallas Buyers Club, which he followed with an Emmy nomination for HBO’s True Detective. In November, he blasted off in Interstellar, but not before proving he’s still totally grounded in a Lincoln car commercial. It’s been an—all together now—alright, alright, alright year for the actor. Could it be that McConaughey is passing around his goblet of prosperity, seeing as renaissances seem to be catching on in Hollywood? After all, Reese Witherspoon is enjoying the beginnings of her own, er, Reese-aissance, earning awards whispers as she trades in her kitten heels for hiking boots in Wild. If you chant ”Oscar buzz” three times, you’ll conjure former Batman Michael Keaton, who got meta in October’s Birdman, playing a fallen big-screen superhero looking for a comeback. And ”Weird Al” Yankovic’s 14th(!) studio album, Mandatory Fun, hit No. 1 in July, a first in his 30-year career. (Though maybe that’s less a renaissance than an Al-wakening.) But not every renaissance made it out of the dark ages. Lindsay Lohan’s OWN docuseries could’ve launched a renaissance; instead, the show climaxed with Oprah Winfrey telling the troubled 28-year-old to ”cut the bulls—.” There’s still hope, though. Lohan has since retreated to London to headline a production of Speed-the-Plow. Who knows, maybe we’ll soon be talking about the LiLo-lightenment of 2015. —Amy Wilkinson
Image Credit: ILLUSTRATION by ROBERTO PARADA
December 30 2014 — 12:00 AM EST
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