A skirt chasing, hate spewing, rodeo hustler (a skeletal
Matthew McConnaughey) receives a baffling AIDS diagnosis, is told he has thirty
days to live, and becomes a pariah amongst his fellow Texas good ol' boys.
Unable to procure the miracle drug AZT, which is being distributed in hospitals
through blind testing, and determined not to wither away quietly, he seeks
alternate medicine in Mexico. Finding this FDA unapproved treatment suitable, he illegally
transports the remedy to sell out of his hometown hotel under the titular
associative guise. The Dallas Buyers Club starts as a gritty and excitingly
edited work before resorting to more conventional storytelling modalities. It is almost as if the filmmakers knew they had this tour-de-force star performance
(and also a really nice turn from Jared Leto playing a transvestite) and rushed
the movie out, leaving transitory scenes on the cutting room floor as
McConnaughey's character transforms from a remorseless homophobe almost instantly to a redneck
Oskar Schindler travelling to the ends of the earth (literally) and even
hocking his car to save his infected club members.
*** out of ****
*** out of ****
