MOVIE REVIEW - Dallas Buyers Club

Here comes another really powerful movie this week, the Dallas Buyers Club starring Matthew McConaughey.

He stars in a true story of a real life cowboy named Ron Woodruff from rural Texas who in 1985 was diagnosed with a new viral disease, called AIDS.  Of course, little was known about AIDS at the time, and this is the story of the infancy of drug treatment of the horrible viral disease and the road blocks that were, and still are in the way of effective treatment.

Woodruff is a oil field electrician, and a part time rodeo bull rider.  He is also an insanely irresponsible man in his 30's who spends most of his time hard drinking, smoking, doing cocaine, and sleeping with basically any woman from any bar, or rodeo groupie he can hook up with.  All of it reckless and unprotected.   He is diagnosed with AIDS and goes into denial immediately.  He is given 30 days to live and he starts on a journey to find ways to treat himself, and eventually others with ways not yet legal in the United States.

He comes to terms with his plight, and starts to figure out the stigma of having the disease.   He goes through the prejudice and panic from people in his life and finds himself in a position to go it alone, or with people he previously hated with this own prejudice. 

He then becomes highly educated about his disease and attempts to help others in the same situation He invents a group called the Dallas Buyers Club, where he travels to numerous countries around the world to bring back alternate AIDS treatments.   He sells memberships to others with the disease for all the treatments they need.   In the end, he becomes a huge pioneer in the fight against the disease, and the Food And Drug Administration, and the U.S. Government in general.

This is a very powerful movie that tells a story that none of us really knows.   This is straight forward movie making that tells a great story, that is hard to digest at times.  You have to remember that this takes place almost 30 years ago, and you'll have to judge how far we have come in the fight against AIDS.   This movie takes you where none of us have been, and does make you think and think deeply. 

McConaughey is terrific in this HUGE role, as I think he is in every single scene in this movie.  Certainly any scene that is over 60 seconds.   I loved him here, and his physical appearance is haunting and shocking, as his character is stricken with the worst of viral diseases.  You will not believe that is him.  This, on the heels of his fabulous performance in Mud earlier this year, and this has been his best year in a long time.   He could be Oscar nominated twice this year.  He's that good.

Dallas Buyers Club.  Provocative, and very good.