LogFAQs > #946839353

27. Dallas Buyers Club
Total score: 208 (tie)

Inviso - 5
Charon - 9
Gen - 12
Karo - 17
JONA - 27
Snake - 31
John - 34
Metal - 35
KBM - 38

Inviso
Im a big fan of movies that have a running undercurrent of the law and business and politics in
their overall plot. That sort of story just appeals to me because I think it allows me to feel like
Im watching something more intellectual. Now granted, Ron Woodruff is not an intellectual.
But I think thats part of the movies charm. Hes a normal guy, perhaps even a bit more white
trash than one would expect, and we get to watch him grow and change as a person, rising to the
occasion to fit the moment. When diagnosed with AIDS, he fights for his own survival, and
parlays that into a business that helps to guarantee the survival of countless others. Its also nice
to have him share an experience with the LGBTQ+ community, effectively allowing him to find
common ground and get over his homophobia. Its just a really interesting story to watch, and
the characters, while rough around the edges, are still really likable.

Charon
An interesting one considering the main character of the film is actually not presented as part of the LGBT culture, which I believe makes it unique to this list entirely. Wonderfully acted by Matthew McConaughey, this film shows us the path of a character that's stricken with a disease that became synonymous with the community at the time and how he dealt with being labeled as something he was not (though according to reports he actually WAS bisexual in reality). The thing I liked most about this film was seeing the growth of the main character as events happened around him; to go from stereotypically southern and ignorant to a well-versed, accepting man that at the very end was only interested in helping the community that he had been raised to so despise. As a southern person myself, I connected with this character because he broke out of the mold that is so easy to be formed into here in the American South.

Gen
I'm not a big fan of Matthew Mcconaughey, but he gave a helluva respectable performance in Dallas Buyers Club; and honestly I felt the same about Jared Leto, who's almost unrecognizable in his supporting role. As this one is loosely based on a true story, it's fascinating to think that people could have once been so ignorant about a disease like AIDS. Also fascinating is the character growth of our protagonist who begins as more than a bit of an asshole, and, as he learns more about the disease ravaging him and gets more involved with the people it affects, evolves into a clean and (mostly) sober empathetic and selfless being. It's a touching journey, and I only wish Rayon and all the people who inspired her character could've seen it through to the end. Unfortunately the sad reality is that not everyone can be saved, but it was thrilling to watch Ron evade the FDA, DEA, law enforcement, and medical practitioners for as long as he did. What a wild ride!

Karo
So a homophobic white trash redneck asshole contracts AIDS in what can only be described as sweet sweet karma.
Now that he actually cares about something because it affects him, he illegally smuggles drugs from mexico and
sells them to his fellow AIDS patients.
While competently made, what really holds this film back is a main character I have zero sympathy for. The only
reason I want him to succeed with his scheme is that it might save the life of someone who actually deserves it.
I am all for seeing change in a protagonist over the course of a film, but honestly Ron doesnt really change
significantly. Wow, he doesnt want to lynch gay people anymore? What a saint. He still is a belligerent asswipe
who is rude to everyone and rants about medical conspiracy theories like some right-wing blogger and I believe I
speak for everyone when I say 'will you just shut up, man?'

Score: 69/100

JONA
Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto brought great performances but the movie never clicked for me.
I recognize the quality in this movie but maybe I was not in the mood, but I never found it engaging or
appealing.

Snake
The performances are fantastic, par for the list at this point. Yet, I don't think it's the strongest story being told here. I know it's based on real events, but as dramatized in the film, I think tries too hard in a few places, attempting humor especially that doesn't really work. McConaughey & Leto though ARE superb, and their chemistry sublime. A solid emotional center really does the film well too, overall it's a good watch just not the best on this list by a long shot.

John
Why I Chose It
Ultimately there was no way to not include the first film to win an Academy Award for an actor playing a transgender character (though, of course, it was not a transgender actor, which only added to critcism of the film after Leto's performance was flooded with praise). The praise for and controversy around this role (and the significance of the transgender community in the film) brought a lot of much-needed attention to transgender issues, even if the focus on McConaughey and Leto potentially overshadowed it.

What I Thought
What is a pretty inspiring story is ultimately brought down by inconsistent performances. That's the struggle with trying to put great performances in films. When one performance is excellent, it makes it that much more obvious when another is less so. Matthew McConaughey gives perhaps the best performance of his career, while Jennifer Garner just COMPLETELY phones it in. Ultimately I felt like the movie was more about trying to show that McConaughey and Leto could act than it was about the actual story at its heart. Years later this movie still just doesn't hold the intended impact for me.

Metal
Promising from the get-go, Dallas Buyers Club proceeds to slowly squander that initial intrigue by devolving into yet another clichd, questionably accurate grassroots figures versus the system story complete with a jerk of a protagonists transformation by his cause. Uninventive filmmaking hardly helps sustain the drama in a film that treats its major LGBTQ+ character to an unceremonious offscreen death mentioned almost in passing. Ill concede that Matthew McConaughey does quite effectively inhabit his role, something which even most of this movies fans have in turn conceded is the one great reason to watch it.

KBM
Mehhh. Not much more than a paint-by-numbers Oscar-bait movie about the AIDS
crisis, I was baffled by this movie's reception in 2013 and I'm still baffled today. Critics
fell over themselves to praise Jared Leto's opportunistic portrayal of a trans woman,
and though his performance is admittedly pretty good in a vacuum, by 2013 it was
well past time that actual trans people get trans roles. Meanwhile, Matthew
McConaughey straight-up won his Oscar for the wrong 2013 film he was way better
(and gave a much less standard McConaughey performance) in the movie Mud (to
say nothing about his performance the next year in Interstellar which blew them both
away). As for the actual content of the movie, like I said, very paint-by-numbers,
baby's-first-queer-acceptance story. I suppose it would be an okay recommendation
for someone who's just starting to learn about queer issues and the history of AIDS
and such, but even then, you can do much better than this trite, mediocre effort.


---

Khal Kirby, warlord of the Super Star Khalasar
PSN/Steam: CheddarBBQ https://goo.gl/Diw2hs