Review: Dallas Buyers Club

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

“Dallas Buyers Club” is a true story that discusses how bureaucracy interferes with expediting the FDA’s drug approval process. It’s not a film built on political motivations. It doesn’t take one side or another. What it does do is personify exactly who this approval process hurts. But that’s not the only story behind “Dallas Buyers Club”. This film features two of the finest acting performances you will see in any movie this year.

Matthew McConaughey stars as Rob Woodroof, a rodeo bull rider and electrician in Dallas, TX in 1985. The AIDS epidemic is a very hot topic in the news. At that time, the vast majority of cases are coming from homosexual men. Woodruff is a womanizer so contracting AIDS is not something that’s high on his mind. He engages in unprotected sexual relations with many different women. He’s homophobic to a fault, not wanting to be anywhere near a gay man. On top of that, he’s also an alcoholic and a regular cocaine user.

An accident at work one day lands him in the hospital. A blood test reveals he has HIV. Woodroof doesn’t believe it since he’s not gay. The doctors, Dr. Sevard (Denis O’Hare) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner), tell him he only has 30 days left to live. Woodroof hears about a clinical trial being done in the hospital for a drug called AZT and wants in on the tests. Dr. Saks tells him he can’t be a part of the study, but Woodroof is able to get some drugs anyway thanks to an orderly. He takes the drugs in high doses thinking that will kill the virus, but it’s very toxic at that level which almost kills him.

At the suggestion of the orderly, Woodroof travels to Mexico where a doctor gets him off the AZT and starts him on some more non-toxic drugs and proteins to help treat his illness. Woodroof can’t believe that these drugs aren’t available in the United States, but the FDA won’t allow them. Woodroof wants to buy up a lot of the medication and bring it back to the US in order to sell. With the help of a transvestite with AIDS he met in the hospital named Rayon (Jared Leto), Woodroof opens up what’s called a “buyers club” where they give the drugs away for free as long as they pay a $400 a month membership.

“Dallas Buyers Club” is a film built on a story foundation that can be seen in just about every movie you watch. That doesn’t make it unoriginal, it just means it’s following a formula that’s proven and works. Screenwriters Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack haven’t broken any new ground here, but their script is very solid. There’s nothing in here that shouldn’t be, the dialogue is well written and it’s well paced. There’s just no new ground being broken here.

Director Jean-Marc Vallée has a good grasp on the subject matter here and seems to understand what the focal point of this film needs to be. The movie is a critique on the FDA’s approval methods and how a pharmaceutical company can influence what drugs get to the market first. “Dallas Buyers Club” has outstanding performances, but those don’t need any additional attention. Vallée allows his actors to shine all on their own while keeping his attention turned on getting the subject matter to the forefront. He is successful in this regard.

While the subject matter is very important, the movie is also a showcase of great performances. Both McConaughey and Leto are entrancing on screen together. Both are virtually unrecognizable in their roles. The each lost an enormous amount of weight in order to play these parts. McConaughey sports a hairstyle that rivals that of Javier Bardem’s mop in “No Country For Old Men” while Leto does the entire role in heavy makeup and women’s clothes.

Their roles are written to be completely different from one another. McConaughey’s Woodroof is homophobic who continually throws out slurs to slander people like Leto’s Rayon. There’s no reason for these two would ever have been friends under any normal circumstance. They need each other in order to prolong their lives and to make money off of other people’s issues too.

Leto is a revelation in this role. He doesn’t do a whole lot of movies recently as he prefers to spend more time with his band. As an actor, he’s never been someone I ever thought was a stunningly good. He was great in “Requiem for a Dream” but he hasn’t done much since then. And then he reappears out of nowhere after taking a break from acting for four year with a role like this. His role in “Dallas Buyers Club” is humorous, heartbreaking and everything in between. He works great alongside McConaughey.

As for McConaughey, he’s never been better. He’s already shown his true acting potential with “Mud” earlier this year, but carries it even further with his role as Woodroof. Not only does he completely embody this character in every aspect of his performance, he’s also physically transformed to look more like the real Ron Woodroof. McConaughey shed his usual rugged good looks in favor of a skinny, gaunt and sickly apperance. There are many times when watching him that I forgot it was McConaughey in that role. This is the best performance of his career and one of the year’s best performances all around.

“Dallas Buyers Club” sheds some light on the backwards inner-workings of the FDA and how much government bureaucracy interferes with treating sick people. It doesn’t make any kind of political stances even though it does vilify the government agency to an extent. It’s really well made and quite entertainment even though it really brings nothing new to the cinematic table. McConaughey and Leto’s performances are the best reasons to check this one out. I can’t say it enough: they are absolutely sensational.