I did not realize that Dallas Buyers Club would be one of the most disturbing films in the history of movies that I could watch at home. You know that uncomfortable feeling when your photos from adolescent years are shown in public; that you want to see the rest of the photos but you also want to run away to save yourself from more discomfort?
That was exactly the feeling I had while the story unfolded in front of me.
This was the mid-80s with the public having very little knowledge of HIV and AIDS, and medical science was in a stage of trial and error of the medications available to treat, if not prolong the life, of patients. The Dallas Buyers Club introduces you to an electrician and rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof (played by Matthew McConaughey), who drowns himself in sex, alcohol and drugs before he collapses in the hospital and told that he is HIV-positive and has 30 days to live. The next scenes in the movie gives the audience brutal images of how this happy-go-lucky cowboy lived to fight for his life and nurtured his entrepreneurial spirit by opening a membership club (for 400 USD a month – you get all the vitamins you need to live) catering to individuals who face the very same dilemma that he faces.
Director by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club is NOT that kind of movie that wants to host a pity party for people diagnosed with AIDS. This is one movie that does not glamorized people with this condition; none of those heart-tugging scenes that lets you see the patient making the most of his numbered days before death claims him. The movie is a character study foremost of Woodroof, who was stubborn, sexual and social – all in superlatives. You will develop a love-hate relationship for McConaughey’s character. Many scenes you see him in complete disgust of homosexuals; and then there’s that one scene when you see him forcing a former friend to shake hands with Rayon (a cross dresser also diagnosed with AIDS played exceptionally by Jared Leto).
It is no wonder really why McConaughey won Best Actor for this role; and it’s not even just because of the 50 pounds that he shed for this role. The burden to make this film as real as it possible rested on his portrayal of Ron and boy, he did it so well.
My husband got me hooked to the crime drama True Detective on HBO and I am seeing more of McConaughey’s brilliance in these series. And out of nowhere, Leto’s Rayon joined the entire beautiful mess of characters in this story (well, never mind Jennifer Garner).
Leto was phenomenal as a cross-dresser. There was something “loud” in his character (no he wasn’t flamboyant as I found him very feminine) that when he finally succumbed to his illness in the later part of the film, you miss his bandana and summer dresses.
This film also won an Academy Award for Best in Makeup and Hairstyling on top of the back-to-back recognition earned by Leto and McConaughey.
Dallas Buyers Club is one movie to watch not just for the AIDS theme, but really for superb acting of two men who made their characters come alive giving you a two-hour inside experience of what happened in the past that gave rise to what is now, the present.
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T30WC or The 30-minute Writing Challenge is a writing exercise born out of this blogger’s need to maintain a habit of writing. Subjects of each writing challenge is just about anything but should ONLY be written within 30 minutes.
