Too much of everything

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Decent movie about a guy who, on discovering he's got AIDS, and that the government has way too many legal hurdles, cuts out the middle man and starts helping others with drugs that people can't get due to government interference.

McConaughey has always been an amazing actor, and this 2013 bio thriller Dallas Buyers Club marks his career-best performances, even one of the best among all the Oscar winners. He just reminds me of Day-Lewis' acting in There Will Be Blood. The direction of this film is somehow awkward. The first forty minutes is kind of loose and off-topic, and just leads to nowhere. However, after the first forty minutes, the real tension begins. Both the struggle between the life and death, and the conflict between Woodroof and FDA, hold the attention of the audiences towards the end. This film is set in the 1980s but still resonates today. The medical systems in the United States has been problematic for a very long time, in the sense that the capitalists can easily maneuver the FDA to sell their drugs and to ban other competing drugs.

Going into the film, I knew nothing about the story or the man it's based upon, Ron Woodruff, and to put it out there, I am a bit disheartened to hear and read that so much of the story is based upon exaggerations and outright lies, especially with two characters, Eve, and Rayon being complete fabrication in order to put the character of Ron into various circumstances and in order to show his changing of opinions and beliefs regarding those in the LGBTQ community.With that said, I felt like the character of Ron in strictly film sense was an interesting one, and a few of his lines, were very witty and made me chuckle a few times throughout the mostly somber run time, which focuses on Ron finding out he is HIV positive, later having AIDS and how he manages to start this organization, The Dallas Buyers Club, in order to help people who have HIV and AIDS get treatment other than AZT, which according to the film is harmful and toxic to humans, while Ron's various drugs that he has acquired aren't.The camera-work and cinematography are well done in sections, working to accentuate the emotions and feelings of the characters and situation on the screen, and the supporting character of Rayon is quite fascinating in her ability to be a foil to Ron's rough nature, with Leto's performance being noteworthy and memorable.The film compels you to side with Ron and Rayon as well as Eve later on in the film as she breaks away from the protocol of the medical community in Dallas, as all three are seen as the underdogs wanting only to fight for their survival and the survival of so many inflicted with AIDS and HIV. Ron himself is even viewed as a hero, right until the end of the film.I started off having a great impression of the film, but this is an instance where once I learned the real story behind it all, I grew to dislike the film and while it is a well-made film in the technical aspects, the liberty with which the filmmakers went with their portrayal of the character(s), nonexistent and otherwise, and the story itself grew to be too much and I cannot recommend this film to anyone other than for the solid acting by both McConaughey and Leto in their performances.

Matthew McConaughey gives a no-holds-barred, Oscar-winning performance as real-life medical rights pioneer Ron Woodroof, a profane, prejudiced Texas electrician/rodeo aficionado/crooked gambler, who contracted the HIV/AIDS virus in the mid-'80s (through either unprotected sex with an HIV-positive female or through drug use) and was given 30 days to live. Belligerent in his quest to keep himself alive--and finding no relief from the "wonder drug" AZT--Woodroof began obtaining powerful drugs from Mexico, Japan and other countries. Unapproved in the U.S. by the FDA, these 'illegal' medications proved to keep Woodroof alive, and also the many HIV-infected people who lined up outside his motel room to purchase them (much to the chagrin of the local medical professionals). McConaughey, painfully gaunt and thin, performs without a shred of vanity; his startling work here shows an actor of great courage and depth. As his drug-addicted transvestite sidekick, Jared Leto (also a deserved Oscar winner) is McConaughey's equal; their slowly developing admiration for each other is convincingly nonchalant, spare and lovely to watch. Jennifer Garner gives her finest performance to date as their doctor, who begins to realize her AZT studies are doing more harm than good, and Denis O'Hare is excellent as Garner's colleague-cum-adversary. A well-realized and incredible drama for adults, hampered now and then by prosy dialogue but almost always kept on-track by the performances, as well as by Jean-Marc Vallée's tight direction. *** from ****