Dallas Buyers Club – Movie Review

As a film reviewer, people often ask if there are any types of films you simply do not enjoy reviewing. The answer is: Of course there are.  Everyone has a type of film they just do not enjoy, and by all accounts, Dallas Buyers Club should fit this mold for me.  I personally do not feel engaged by films revolving around a person’s demise and eventual fate of death…or worse. This is mostly due to the perpetual need for filmmakers to make it very clear that this actor is A) Suffering and B) ACTING! These are films that typically are made for movements and awards, and rarely live up to the hype that accompanies them. They are exhaustive, pretentious and most of all: cliché. Well, I am proud to report that Dallas Buyers Club is the exception to the rule.

The setting is Dallas, TX – 1985. Matthew McConaughey stars as Ron Woodroof, a hard partying ladies-man with a penchant for bull riding and casual sex. When his day job as an electrician causes him an emergency room visit, Ron is informed that he has somehow contracted HIV. At the time, this was known primarily as a gay man’s disease, therefore Ron is forced to not only confront his own mortality, but also his own homophobic tendencies as his friends all begin to shun him.

Initially given only 30 days to live, Ron discovers that he can find much more productive medicines across the border in good ole’ Mexico. The US FDA has delayed release of these narcotics for their own shady rationale, so Ron concocts a plan to establish a membership-only club that legally provides the drugs HIV patients need, yet are unable to acquire. With his new transsexual friend, Rayon (Jared Leto), Ron becomes a reluctant symbol of hope for the gay community…and a threat to our own self-righteous government.

Why does Dallas Buyers Club eclipse all of those other films that showcase a horrible disease and one character’s plight throughout it? Because this film focuses on the character’s decision to LIVE, not his relegation to death. McConaughey, even in his waifish condition, projects a man who simply refuses to lay down and die, science be damned! Ron Woodruff is going to fight for every minute and every day of whatever he has left, and McConaughey has you completely under his spell the entire film.

Spending much of his early career playing either a romantic foil or some other random cliché, it would be easy to dismiss McConaughey’s talent as one-note. For most of his career, those are the accolades he had earned. No longer is this acceptable. After several years of taking chances with smaller roles and deeper characters, this actor has finally shown the full range of his abilities and this performance is nothing short of inspiring.

Not to be outdone, Jared Leto also plays against type as Rayon, a man who is less sure of his future, yet desperately wants to beat the horror of this disease. He sees this opportunity through Ron, and decides to forgo his own hesitation with Ron’s initial homophobic tendencies and do anything he can to spread Ron’s word to his community. Leto’s character is much more tragic than McConaughey’s, and the heart that Leto injects into Rayon still manages to leave you with quiet inspiration.

Several other quality actors pop in, most notably Jennifer Garner as a doctor sympathetic to Ron’s plight, but this film is truly about Ron and his quest to live. Director Jean-Marc Vallee’s film is a warm and refreshing take on a horrible topic, yet never feels as hopeless as the disease it is covering thanks to the genius performances by its leads.

If $10 is the full price of admission, Dallas Buyers Club is worth $7.50

Aaron Peterson
The Hollywood Outsider