Dallas Buyers Club

2013 drama

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: 17/20)

Plot: Rodeo hustler and electrician discovers that he has AIDS and is given only a few weeks to live. He begins to illegally acquire medication and then sets up the titular "club" to help others suffering from the disease.

What's with that rodeo clown that keeps popping up? He's symbolic of something. I've been to a few rodeos, and the clowns were always one of the best parts. The best part, and sadly something that didn't make it into this movie, was when they had a monkey in cowboy get-up riding on a dog. If Dallas Buyers Club had a monkey riding a dog, it would have been the best movie of the year, easily. The performances
overshadow the storytelling. McConaughey's performance is as great and as powerfully as everybody says it is. Most obvious is the physical transformation. I don't know how much weight McConaughey lost for this role, but it's shocking to see how gaunt he looks in this. He looks like a completely different person. More impressive is how he manages to create a character who is not really likable at all--trailer trash cliche, womanizer, drug addict, generally immoral human being--but who still earns your sympathy. The story isn't told in a completely believable way unless there's new information about AIDS and how it actually makes people way more intelligent overnight. When I was a kid, we all thought you could get AIDS by looking at a water fountain that somebody with AIDS walked past, and that didn't turn out to be true. I'm not exactly an expert. So I didn't buy the character 100% from a story angle, but I completely bought into the character emotionally. The other big award winner Jared Leto's transformation was even more shocking. I'm willing to bet that some people who didn't know who Leto was wouldn't have even been completely sure of his gender. It's a pair of award-worthy performances, both which had me skeptical before I watched this thing, and I thought the partnership or maybe even the friendship that formed between the two was touching. Jennifer Garner, seemingly channeling Hilary Duff, is a bit of a distraction for some reason. This had a low budget and seemed to be filmed very quickly, and that leaves a lot of grit that just seems suitable for the time period, the subject matter, and the settings. AIDS has been shoved to the periphery to make room for terrorism, celebrity gossip, and political bile, and if this does nothing else but bring the issue back into the light briefly, it's done enough. But aside from the disease, it more universally has something to say about the worth of all human beings. It's rarely a movie that entertains, but its statements are powerful ones.