Throughout Matthew McConaughey’s career, he’s exerted a certain level of charisma and charm in every role he’s played. Even in this reinvented hot streak of his career where he’s played sleazy, scary and strange characters who could not be more off type from his rom-com roots, there’s a certain mark of personality that has allowed him to settle into yet another comfort zone.
His performance in “Dallas Buyers Club” is different, one that drains him of any likability and finds him at this lowest point. Doing purely lived-in and physical work, McConaughey shows his abrasive, lewd, intense and vulgar dark side before winning us over again. This may not be the showiest performance of his recent run of movies, but it’s the one that demonstrates the most range, the most compassion and the most chance at winning him an Oscar.
“Dallas Buyers Club” is the true story of Ron Woodroof, a slimy electrician and rodeo jockey in Texas in the 1980s. Despite his lanky appearance (McConaughey lost nearly 40 pounds for the role), greasy hair and scummy potty mouth, he still finds himself having sex with women and “$100 hookers” in his trailer home and in dark corners of the rodeo arena.
After being brought to the hospital due to an accident at his job, the doctors inform him that he has tested positive for HIV, that it has already become AIDS and that he has roughly 30 days to live. Woodroof is staunchly heterosexual and shockingly bigoted and refuses to believe he has a disease like “that Rock Cocksucker Hudson” until he does his own research and pleads for help from Dallas Mercy’s Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner).
She gives Woodruff two options: a support group where he can “go get a hug from a bunch of faggots” or a double blind test of a drug called AZT, in which some patients will only receive “sugar pills,” better known as placebos.
The film operates firstly as a cold criticism against the medical system and the conditions in which people were treated and cared for during the initial outbreak of this widespread disease. That the film doesn’t have much to say about the current state of American healthcare is perhaps a missed opportunity by director Jean-Marc Vallée, but he turns Woodroof’s story into an inspiring one and a respectful one of the era and tumultuous gay culture in which it takes place.
Woodroof eventually finds his way to Mexico and finds himself vastly improved by a discredited American doctor. He keeps him off AZT and provides other vitamins and medications not approved by the FDA. Woodroof’s bright idea is to open the Dallas Buyers Club, a program in which he offers drugs to those in need for a membership fee. He operates on a clever loophole that lets him evade the FDA regulations, and he makes a fortune off the afflicted gay community despite his rampant homophobia.
Only with the help of Rayon (Jared Leto), a transgender person he meets in the hospital, can Woodroof find customers willing to pay him. Rayon is the real heart of the film, and Leto plays him with authenticity from the moment he appears on screen. It’s not at all a showy performance as these supporting roles often are, and Leto earns all of Rayon’s sass and spunk without any hint of a parody. He allows Rayon to operate as a compassionate counterpoint to Woodroof’s surliness, and only through him do we find that Woodroof has real white trash chivalry.
“Dallas Buyers Club” is as expertly made as it is acted. The camera is as rickety and abrasive in its movements as its main character in his lowest moments. It edits with purpose and conviction just as Woodroof feels blunt. Vallée ultimately makes it a smart film about morality and sexuality as much as it is a biopic. Though staying out of the protests and social movements and difficulty for those to come out as gay, it’s a film in which the ideas don’t stop at the inspiring level.
All of this gets back to how good McConaughey’s performance is. The movie would hardly be possible without his level of nuance and energy. Another director and another actor would’ve led “Dallas Buyers Club” too easily down the path of being a flimsy tearjerker, but this is a film that marries the gristle and charm, and it tells a better story for it.
3 ½ stars
Good review Brian. Well worth the watch, especially since its boasts two Oscar-worthy performances from Leto and McConaughey.
Your review has boosted my anticipation to see this film, which has already been high since first seeing the trailer months ago. Last year’s How to Survive a Plague doc really opened my eyes to how devastating the AIDS epidemic was, and how inhumane victims were treated in society. If you haven’t seen it yet, WATCH IT.
“His performance in “Dallas Buyers Club” is different, one that drains him of any likability and finds him at this lowest point.” This is why I’ve been so impressed with his career lately; he’s choosing non-type roles, and this one in-particular is important for people to see.
Glad to hear it Courtney! And yes, How to Survive a Plague is definitely on my list. As for McConaughey, couldn’t agree more. He’s had a lot of great roles recently but this one should really put him on the map in that it’s juicy but also serious and nuanced, not just broad.