It’s a wondrous process, when an established movie star turns himself into a prime actor. After a decade or so of drecky rom-coms, Matthew McConaughey earned plaudits as the hot-shot attorney in The Lincoln Lawyer, then went indie with five appealing, daring performances. He played the star reporter with a secret in Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy, the suspicious district attorney in Richard Linklater’s Bernie, the obsessed fugitive in Jeff Nichols’ Mud (yet to be released in the U.S.) and, most popularly, the aging impresario of a male strip joint in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike. Best of all is McConaughey’s turn here, as a policeman who moonlights as a hitman in William Friedkin’s nutsy-weirdsy film of the 1993 drama by Tracy Letts. His Joe Cooper is totally bad, and quite possibly mad — stick around for the fried-chicken scene — but still a Texas charmer, speaking to his prospective clients about a murder in the actor’s patented musical cadences, as if he were inviting a pretty girl to dinner and a movie. The dimpled demon lover proves he can be just as seductive playing the world’s creepiest, craziest cop.