Oscar Nominee: Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée

I love how this is being called his McConnaissance!

This film tells the story of Ron Woodruff, an American who contracted AIDS in the 1970’s and spent the rest of his life finding ways to get unapproved medications into the country and fighting to have the treatments of his choice rather than what was generally prescribed. He starts what’s known as a ‘Buyers Club’ to get around the laws prohibiting the sale of unapproved drugs, with AIDS patients buying memberships and being given treatments included in their club memberships!

I’m not sure if Woodruff was clever or just determined, personally I think it’s the latter. There has been lots of debate (as there often is over biopics or just most of the best film nominees), with many people giving different views on what Woodruff was really like. At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, the film is just one perspective of matters.

Regardless of the historical figure, the key to this film is Matthew McConaughey giving his take on Woodruff in the lead role. Nominated at the Oscars for ‘Best Actor in a leading role’, he seems to have worked very hard at getting this film made, from interviews I’ve heard with him, he was very determined to get production started after many years of delays, and used achieving the extreme weight loss to get things rolling! He makes the character very interesting, and somehow likable by the end.

There’s also a ‘Best supporting actor’ nomination for Jared Leto as Woodruff’s transvestite business partner Rayon. A win seems very likely, with Leto also losing a lot of weight, and there being a noticeable change in appearance not least due to the change in attire and makeup also.

I like how this film highlighted the issues with the FDA, which is a very interesting topic that is sometimes raised in documentaries and films. It was never really going to have a happy ending as almost everyone in the film has AIDS, but it’s an interesting, if controversial story, with some fascinating characters and some likely Oscar-winning performances!

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