I didn't know anything about Dallas Buyers Club going in. Cam wanted to check some movies out for weeks now and we finally got a chance to see two films. I had seen a image of Jared Leto as a very unattractive woman and Matthew McConaughey looking like he was close to dying but didn't know that these had anything to do with each other.
This
is about a guy named Ron Woodruff who is a homophobic, likely racist
rodeo cowboy. This guy snorts coke like it ain't no thing, has lots
of random sex, and drinks while doing each of those other things. One
day at work he ends up getting electrocuted and while at the hospital
they tell him that he has HIV. HIV is still new at this point and
people still believed (this is in 1985) that only gay men got it.
Ridiculously, there are still people that think this way. Doctor
tells him that he has just 30 says to live which pisses him off.
He
watches as his friend brings some women over for the sex and I was
like “He better not fuck these chicks!” He is having trouble
accepting the fact that he has something only gay men get and
continues acting like an idiot. Eventually after doing research he
ends up at a support group, leaves, ends up in the hospital again, and
meets Rayon, a cross dressing man played by Leto.
One of
his doctors Eve Saks played by Jennifer Garner tries to treat each of
them with an experimental new drug. Ron gets it illegally while Rayon
skips treatments and also sells his for money. Ron ends up heading to
Mexico and finding out that this doctor is using other things and
that the drug, AZT, is making people sick.
Ron
starts selling the drugs to gay men at the support group, gay bars,
and out of a hotel room making lots of money until the cops stop him.
He finds more drugs and continues. It seems like he is doing this
just to make money and for selfish reasons, but he begins to actually
give a damn. There are other groups and clubs like his trying to
actually sell things that work and help people dying from HIV. Rayon
begins to get sicker because he has not given up his drug habit and
it is just the saddest damned thing to see.
His old friends wont even go near him, spray paint his house with anti-gay slurs, and he isn't allowed to work. He is doing well selling these drugs but the police and FDA (Food & Drug Administration) keeps shutting him down. He continues to fight, but you know how fighting companies as large as the FDA end.
His old friends wont even go near him, spray paint his house with anti-gay slurs, and he isn't allowed to work. He is doing well selling these drugs but the police and FDA (Food & Drug Administration) keeps shutting him down. He continues to fight, but you know how fighting companies as large as the FDA end.
This movie was perfectly cast. I haven't seen much of Leto's work but I loved how he played a cross dresser but didn't come across as phony or silly. A scene with his father where he has to ask him for a favor, dressing like a “man” as to not embarrass him at work, is heartbreaking. McConaughey put on his best performance ever. I have seen a lot of his work and this was by far his most praise worthy. Even Garner who I'm not a huge fan of was good. I know this isn't playing at a lot of theaters but if you can see it, please do. This was one of the best films I've seen this year and not just because this year has been very shitty for films.
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