All the drugs you need

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2014)

The early day of AIDS dramas in the mid 1980s concerned the effect of the disease in heterosexual or covert bi-sexual men.
Look at the BBC television film from 1986 such as 'Sweet as you are' starring Liam Neeson where he gets HIV after an one night stand with another woman.
It was only in later years that we had films dealing with AIDS and the homosexual community, epitomised by film's such as Philadelphia.
Dallas Buyers Club focuses on Ron Woodroof an electrician and a hustler on the rodeo scene. He is also heterosexual. You clearly shown early on with his buddies that he is a casual racist and homophobic. He is diagnosed with HIV and given one month to live.
The film is set in the mid 1980s just about the time Rock Hudson died of AIDS although the film deals less with the period setting but more with attitudes of that time.
Matthew McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof. From the very beginning he looks gaunt and ill. This is an actor lost in rom-com mediocrity until he snapped back in Magic Mike and let loose.
He goes one better here holding centre stage as he deals with the rejection from friends and is denied drugs that can help him. The role gave him a best actor Oscar win.
Woodruff soon becomes a hustler for alternative HIV drugs as he forms the Dallas Buyers Club which dispenses these drugs for a monthly subscription whilst evading the drug regulators. He becomes an ally of the gay community.
Jared Leto is a transsexual also suffering from AIDS who befriends Woodruff and helps him sell the medicine.
Both actors deliver good performances. You will think the film would be long, drawn out and heavy going but it's rather light on its feet. It maybe has too much medical politics with its tirade on AZT, the antiretroviral drug used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS infection even today.