Sooooo…. The Diner Review likes to go to the movies and there has been a reasonable amount of hype for “Dallas Buyers Club” which was released Friday. It stars Matthew McConaughey and has Jared Leto as a costar and is… not a feel good film. I have no question that McConaughey will be nominated for Best Actor and the timing is clearly geared towards the Oscars. He has always been kind of a pretty face, more than a powerful actor and this is his bid and it is a pretty strong one.
People are saying he plays the roll of a red neck but that is really not fair. He plays the roll of the worst kind of piece of shit, amoral, white trash, Texas bigots and in saying all those things I have mentioned all of the characters moral strengths. This is not a movie for the morally squeamish and it opens with what appears to be a hazy threesome at the rodeo and although I do not consider myself a prude it is uncomfortable in every aspect.
His character is clearly sick but not worried about it as he is an alcoholic drug abusing electrician but… he passes out, goes to the hospital and the beautiful Jenifer Garner as a doctor working with another doctor and they diagnose him with HIV and AIDS and tell him that he has about 30 days to get his affairs in order and do the right thing and die. Based on what you have seen of his character you are certainly, at that point, hoping he dies quickly.
But he responds with defiance and the story starts to get interesting as he finds the medical community is clueless, money driven, and rather then helping him to get better is actively working against him. The story tells the shameful back story of the rushed development of the AIDS treatment AZT and how those trials, for cash, distorted the picture for many victims and indeed killed some patients early. Although the movie does not get into South African Aids denial, there is a great article explaining the issues with AZT and reading it will help you to understand part of the horror outlined by this movie.
At the hospital he meets Leto’s character Rayon and there is no question Leto is going to be nominated for an award as well. He was the dark troubled boyfriend in the orgininal MTV series and Claire Danes vehicle “My So Called Life” and I had not seen or heard from him since that time. He appears in the second hospital scene and his “Butch and Sundance” relationship with Matthew McConaughey is the heart of the movie as Leto’s character is a drug addicted transvestite. I had no idea, until I wrote this that Leto was also in "Fight Club".
He through research and conversations and lucking into a disreputable American doctor in Mexico develops a treatment regime (you have to suspend your disbelief a little based on what you have seen of McConaughey’s character) starts importing legal drugs which promote wellness, and treat some of the symptoms of the disease and he lives. For a long time anyway. And he keeps developing and refining treatment, with some slip ups on the way as the FDA and the medical establishment battle to stop and discredit him. The movie gets his name because he sets up a “Buyers Club” because it is of course illegal to sell drugs but he would instead sell memberships and then supply people for 400 bucks a month.
As the movie runs towards it’s inevitable (at that time) conclusions, you are left with a nice portrait of the evil influence of money on the medical establishment as well as a portrait of the beauty and strength of people and how even the most useless, despicable people can lead changed lives.
This will not win the best picture but both Leto and McConaughey will be nominated for best supporting actor and actor respectively. You should go see this movie but dont go planning on feeling good about anything when you leave.
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