Dallas Buyers Club (Movie Review)

The best thing, worst thing, and main thing about "Dallas Buyers Club" in about the time it takes to watch the trailer.

   

REVIEW TEXT:

 Hey Mr. McConaughey allow me to introduce you to a new friend. His name is Oscar.
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“Dallas Buyers Club” is a gritty look at the true tale of Ron Woodruff, a drug addicted homophobe who is diagnosed with HIV in the mid 80s and given 30 days to live. The movie chronicles his fight for survival and how his search for relief ended up providing many in Dallas with unapproved but powerful symptom suppressors for the disease.
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S0 let’s just get this out of the way right now, Matthew McCounaughey is genius in this role. Yes, he’s the best thing, and wow, what a year he’s having. He already has Mud and this under his belt, and that’s before “The Wolf of Wallstreet” hits screens at Christmas. The only thing keeping him from a best actor trophy might be that hes too good in too many things this year. This is an amazing performance though. His portrayal of this man is brutal, honest, and absolutely transformative. And I don’t just mean physically. Sure he lost 50 pounds for the role and appears to be a ravaged shell of himself, but he’s doing great work here even beyond that, making you buy into this man who in desperation to save himself accidentally finds himself saving others around him. I should also mention Jared Leto who does incredible work here too, as a transgendered man named Rayon who helps Woodruff with the business side of things and in turn develops an unexpected friend. The performances are also enhanced by an in depth look into the details of the era, with interesting insight into how the early years of the AIDS epidemic were handled and mishandled. But unfortunately for the film, a couple stellar performances do not a perfect movie make, and this one has a couple pretty decent flaws.
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One is that the movie seems to oversimplify things. In trying to play up the heroic side of what Woodruff does, the movie seems to feel the need to paint any authority figure with a dark brush. Not that the FDA couldn’t have had financial reasons to implement certain treatments, but to insinuate that everyone involved in government is a greedy money grubber with no compassion for the ill, may be overstating it just a bit. But the worst thing? And this one hurts… is probably Jennifer Garner. Don’t get me wrong I will always have love for the one and only Sydney Bristow but man is she dull here. She plays a doctor struggling with her role in giving patients drugs that may not be helping them but she just seems to coast along. I don’t know, maybe it’s just pale in comparison to the incredible performances around her, but I found myself sad every time it was her turn to be on screen.
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At the end of the day “Dallas Buyers Club” is a powerful look at an intriguing man. Even though it may be a bit oversimplified McCaunaghey’s performance alone brings it up to a A-.
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So that’s the review, but wait there’s more. Stay tuned for the “Challenge Question” in a bit but first, I’m going to put up some stuff you can click over in this area. If you’d like to subscribe, which I would much appreciate, you can do so by clicking the big gray subscribe button. Want to see more reviews? Here are three of the most recent “Best Man Holiday”, “In A World” or the Killer Whale Documentary “Black Fish”. You can also Click the logo up here to go to yourmoviefriend.com where you can search by title for reviews. And finally this review’s “Challenge” question, “name the best movie that features a terminally ill protagonist” they don’t necessarily have to die in the movie but they must have a terminal disease. Mine stars the guy who some might call the boy wonder. Just leave your answer in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe!