Best movie of the past couple of years

Rating: 10/10 (23 April 2014)

Well scripted, brilliantly acted by the leads, and with the added bonus of being based on a true story. The movie not only explores the early history of the AIDS epidemic, but there are some topical messages about the continuing power of the big pharmaceutical companies on the FDA. It begs the question about the extent to which Big Pharmaceutical has the medical market sewn up.
Matthew McConaughey is completely convincing in the lead role as Ron Woodroof and thoroughly deserved the Best Actor Oscar. His weight loss for this movie was jaw dropping.
Jaren Leto also played an excellent role as Rayon and deserved the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Apparently he's been in quite a lot of movies before this one, but I've never noticed him in anything previously.
The only annoying note in the movie is Jennifer Garner, who acts exactly the same in every single movie she's in - an overload of "sweet" and "earnest" - a bit distracting in a serious movie.