Dallas Buyers Club - The Verdict

My regular readers reader knows I am in the Writer's Guild. One of  the only perks is getting screeners and screening invitations during awards season. (Screeners are DVDs that have the "For your consideration only" message appear on the bottom of the screen every 20 minutes)

Now that we've established that.. I just watched Dallas Buyers Club. It stars Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto and Jennifer Garner. It was good. I didn't think it was great, but it was quite good. The acting, however....wow. We'll get to that in a minute. But first a little background.

If you're not familiar, Dallas Buyers Club is based on real events. A hard-living guy in Texas (imagine that!) named Ron Woodroof finds out he has HIV, and is given 30 days to live. He looks for treatment, but being this is 1985, there are no options. They're just starting clinical trials with a drug called AZT that appears to be more deadly than the disease itself. Woodroof makes it his mission to stay alive, and through extensive research he travels the world and finds a regimen of shit that's not approved by the FDA. Other HIV and AIDS patients come to him for help, and he goes into business with the help of his doctor and a fellow patient named Rayon, smuggling these illegal medications into the country. The business is eventually called the Dallas Buyers Club; to get around the DEA and FDA, patients buy a "membership", and with the membership they get the drugs. So technically, Woodroof isn't selling illegal drugs. Anyway, this movie chronicles his story. Pretty compelling.


Now, back to the acting. I know you're looking forward to me eviscerating Matthew McConaughey...but, well... it feels so strange to say this, and it may or may not make me throw up in my mouth a little, but McConaughey is fucking amazing. Uh.Maze.Ing. Who knew the man who cannot keep his shirt on actually has some acting chops?? The cynic in me wonders if it's just because he looks the part. He lost 30 pounds for this role. I didn't know what the film was about, and when I first saw him on-screen I thought, "Wow, he looks like he has HIV". He is so painfully skinny, and has that sickly look about him that we've come to associate with HIV/AIDS patients. So McConaughey looks the role. But the film critic in me understands this is only a small piece of the puzzle, and adds to the authenticity of his performance. And it truly is a performance.

McConaughey manages to bring the character to life. You believe him. He's an asshole, a good ol' boy homophobe. And you really don't like the fucker at first. Even when he becomes ostracized by his good ol' boy homophobe friends. You don't care about Woodroof. Which is what makes McConaughey's performance so miraculous; eventually you do care about him. I never ended up liking the guy, yet somehow I became invested in the character's life. I wanted this fucker to survive. McConaughey was able to coax some empathy out of the role, without ever losing the asshole attitude. He remained true to the character, never patronized the audience to force some kind of emotional attachment. It came naturally, through the character's development. I actually forgot I was watching Matthew McConaughey play Ron Woodroof. I was watching Ron Woodroof. That, my friends, is rare. Even in the best films, with the best actors, it's not often that you completely lose the recognition that you are watching [insert your favorite actress or actor] as whatever role. For example, in this film, it was Jennifer Garner playing a doctor. I believed she was a doctor, but I also never lost the recognition that it was Garner. The only other time I can recall complete immersion was when I saw Man on the Moon, with Jim Carrey. I completely forgot it was Jim Carrey; I was watching Andy Kaufman.

On to the freak show we've come to know and love that is Jared Leto. Again... Uh.Fucking.Mazing. It took me a while to realize it even was Leto. Another completely authentic performance. Leto also lost a significant amount of weight for the role, which again I believe supplemented the performance, rather than create the illusion of good acting. His character is a transvestite drug addict AIDS patient named Rayon; and you fucking believe it. You like Rayon right away. Leto successfully cultivates that kind of outgoing personality that we often associate with drag queens. She is both beautiful and tragic. Unlike Ron, she is a compassionate person, and their business partnership -- which evolves into an odd friendship, perhaps the kind you would see between siblings who never got along -- is an unusual one. And yet, you believe in the relationship. The bond they form is entirely realistic, despite their differences, Ron's emotional detachment and selfishness, and his continued homophobia. Leto is also able to convey Rayon's sassy attitude and deep emotional agony at the same time. Both layers exist at once and are visible at all times, like wave upon wave, and it is fantastic. 

The movie was good. When I started writing this, I wasn't sure that I'd want to pay $15 to see it in a theater, I thought maybe a matinee.... but as I've been writing, I have to admit maybe I would. The acting truly is worth the price of admission. Those 2 carry this film, and they are remarkable. I never thought I'd hear 'McConaughey' and 'Oscar' in the same sentence, (unless it was something like 'McConaughey is cast as Oscar the Grouch in Sesame Street Unleashed'), but I have to say his performance truly is Oscar-worthy, and it would be a great injustice if he did not at least get a nomination.

Now stop acting and shit and take your shirt off!