After years away from leading roles on the big screen, Matthew McConaughey is back, starring in The Rivals of Amziah King, a music-soaked crime drama set deep in rural Oklahoma.
McConaughey stars as Amziah King, a beekeeper and bluegrass musician, who finds himself protecting both his family and his honey empire from dangerous rivals.
Alongside McConaughey, the cast includes Angelina LookingGlass, Kurt Russell, Cole Sprouse, Tony Revolori, Rob Morgan, and Jake Horowitz.
Directed by Andrew Patterson, The Rivals of Amziah King first premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival, and is slated to be released in select U.S. theaters on August 14, 2026, before expanding nationwide on August 21, 2026 via Black Bear Pictures.
According to the official synopsis: “Set within the deep backwoods of rural Oklahoma, the film follows the charismatic and musically gifted Amziah King, who oversees the premier honey-making operation in town while leading a bluegrass-playing band of misfits. When Amziah’s estranged foster daughter returns, he embraces the chance to reconnect and build a family business, but dangerous rivals threaten everything he has built.”
In a review from RogerEbert.com , critic Brian Tallerico called the indepedent film “a crowd-pleasing wonder.” He wrote, “The Rivals of Amziah King is about communities: the people who answer the call when you ask them to pop by with a banjo and play a song you’ve been working on just as easily as they’ll respond when you need real help in a life-or-death situation.”
Watch the official trailer for The Rivals of Amziah King above.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.