An archetypal Oscar movie

Rating: 8/10 (8 March 2015)

After you've seen enough of them, you begin to identify their characteristics. There's this particular type of music that are tailored for the awards season, and more specifically, for the Oscars. They are released on a certain date, and they have a certain cinematography and editing. The plot usually revolves around a certain character that faces a big challenge, usually due to a systemic injustice (eg: slavery, or the way pharmaceutical companies make business with AIDS medicine), and in the process of overcoming this challenge, the character goes through a deep transformation and comes out as a hero. If it's based on a real story, even better. And this is somehow bothering: it's a cold reminder that after all, Hollywood is an industry, and within this industry there's a particular niche for movies that are nominated in the Oscars, who aim at a specific target market and make money out of priding themselves as "quality movie", as certified by the Academy. It's almost a joke the way in which the first ten months of the year Hollywood releases cr*ppy movies with weak plot lines and millions spent in visual effects, and then towards the awards season cinemas are flooded with allegedly "better quality" movies. Dallas Buyers Club is one of these.
But at the end of the day, the Oscars do award better than average Hollywood movies, and they Oscar movies are indeed of "better quality" than the rest of what Hollywood makes. In this case, a special effort was made for the casting. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are simply superb, and they definitely deserve their Oscar for Best Performance. Both of them are unrecognizable in their roles, and they pull out an amazing acting when interpreting their characters. Of course, the role of a terminally-ill AIDS patient is specifically designed for giving the actor enough cues to pull out an Oscar-worthy performance, but it works. Jennifer Garner is not bad, but she is completely overshadowed by the other two actors. The story is pretty good, quite predictable (after all, the character is told at the beginning of the movie that is going to die) but enjoyable, and definitely emotional. So while you have to be psychologically prepared for watching a tough movie about AIDS, you will definitely not regret having watched this movie.