Pass the Popcorn review

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2014)

Dallas Buyers Club is a low budget biographical movie, portraying the life of Ron Woodroof, a Dallas electrician who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and who soon after that started the 'Dallas Buyers Club' – a club made exclusively for people diagnosed with AIDS who paid a fixed membership fee and in return got as much experimental drugs (that were also unapproved by the Food and Drug Administration) as they needed. At some point in the development of the movie, first Brad Pitt and afterwards Ryan Gosling, were attached to play Ron Woodroof, but the role finally went to Matthew McConaughey – which turned out to be a magnificent casting choice, but I'll get to that in a minute.
The movie opens with Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) engaged in activities he likes best – having sex with women, doing drugs and watching bull riding. However, his life soon takes an unexpected turn when he has an accident on his job, ends up in a hospital and is there informed by Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) and Dr. Sevard (Denis O'Hare) that he has AIDS and will die in 30 days. He doesn't believe them at first, but when he starts feeling more and more sick, he decides he will do anything to survive, including starting the aforementioned Buyers Club.
Despite being a movie based on a real life story that deals with difficult topics, like living with AIDS, fighting the 'system' (FDA) and fighting for survival, Dallas Buyers Club is a surprisingly funny movie. The movie works both as a depiction of a real life drama and a black comedy - much of the humor comes from Ron's interaction with his transgender friend Rayon (Jared Leto) - and I enjoyed both of these aspects equally. Matthew McConaughey is an experienced actor in both this genres and he was the perfect choice for the role of Ron Woodroof. His performance was absolutely amazing and I think it's safe to say he will be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. And speaking of Academy Awards – Jared Leto is amazing as Rayon and I wouldn't be shocked if he got more recognition, in form of a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. I'm not much of a Jared Leto fan, but I must admit he was incredible in the movie.
Of course, not everyone in the movie was as good as McCounaughey and Leto. And with that, I mainly mean Jennifer Garner, who was just bleak and underwhelming as Dr. Eve Saks, and personally I wouldn't have minded if her character had been completely cut out of the movie. Actually, both her character and Jared Leto's character Rayon were made up exclusively for the movie (which is rather obvious since they fall into stereotypical Hollywood character clichés) but while Rayon's character and his relationship with Ron works and is somewhat plausible, the character of Eve was the movie's third wheel. However, McCounaughey and Leto have more than enough charisma to make Dallas Buyers Club a very pleasant and funny experience.
Rating: 8/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/