Westside Steve Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Dallas Buyers Club Focus R 117 min Another short run film I happened to catch over the holiday break was DALLAS BUYERS CLUB. Partly because I assumed it would be less crowded with holiday shoppers’ kids but mostly because of the Oscar buzz for Matthew McConaughey. He's always been one of those actors who hasn’t lived up to his early hype. That's partly because he's taken some really second class roles, (and who can blame a guy for accepting the paycheck), and partly because he's allowed himself to be typecast as kind of a southern lightweight romantic lead. He'd kind of slipped out of that rut last year with MUD and way outside his comfort zone here. Now he gambles on a truly unsympathetic character in rodeo con man Ron Woodroof . He’s an unrepentant alcoholic drug addicted cheat and over the top homophobe who eventually seas the light (albeit for the wrong reasons) after being diagnosed with HIV contracted from and intravenous drug using hooker. Outside of those characteristics he's also and nasty son of a bitch. The story itself concerns his battle as the president of a buying club that imports non approved medicines from overseas for people dying of AIDS. His adversaries? The bureaucrats and fools in the Food and Drug Administration. Yes indeed this film is political and agenda driven, but should appeal to folks on the left or right with a healthy distrust of governmental bureaucracy. I'm positive McConaughey will receive at least an Oscar nomination for this, the most aggressive role of his career. Rumor has it that he lost something like 40 pounds for this and it shows. B WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cysko Kid Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Jared Leto was also excellent. I thought the third act kind of fell off but the first two had me rapt. This movie made me spend a good portion of the following day reading up on the real story of it, so I'd give it a b+ because of the relatively weak third act after the death of rayon, when I wanted to give it an A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowburn Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 Maybe I misinterpreted some of the scenes but I deducted that he (MM) was infected with aids after a homosexual encounter. I base this assertion on the flash backs he experienced while gathering aids information on the microfiche machine at the library. Prolly MM career highlight. HIs metamorphosis from homophobe to aids treatment advocate was impactful and believable. Film demonstrated the power and influence of big pharmacy which I fond interesting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted March 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 Maybe I misinterpreted some of the scenes but I deducted that he was infected with aids after a homosexual encounter. I base this assertion on the flash backs he experienced while gathering aids information on the microfiche machine at the library.IV drug addicted hooker encounter.WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowburn Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 well that fact changes the entire complexion of the flick. my best guess, still, is that Ron Woodroof is (was) a dye-in-the-wool, garden variety homo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted March 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 well that fact changes the entire complexion of the flick. my best guess, still, is that Ron Woodroof is a dye-in-the-wool, garden variety homo. Well that's kind of the point, and the political agenda, of the entire movie bud. See the gay community needs the world to think that aids is not a gay disease. However, and I'm not sure of the numbers exactly, almost every AIDS victim who is not an IV drug user nor picked it up from a transfusion, is gay. It is, of course, possible to get it through straight sex but very very unlikely especially in the case of a man getting it from a woman. The whole point of the movie is that this guy hated homosexuals and wound up with the disease and learned something from it. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slowburn Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Ron hated himself for becoming all that he loathed in his miserable south Texas existence. Don't know if I can agree re gays trying to shift the primary cause of transmittal away from their agenda. Philadelphia was released twenty or so years ago. Gays didn't suffer any blowback for that. I still contend the prime theme of the movie (Dallas) is Rons' unresolved acceptance of his homosexuality. His help of the gay community was nothing more than his self- absorbed bargaining with God, nature, whatever. Is there a scene in the movie that reveals his initial contact of the HIV virus to be IV drug use? I don't remember it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted March 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 Yes there is indeed a flashback scene in the movie where Ron having sex with a prostitute who is an intravenous drug user. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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