Dallas Buyers Club

[marjoreemarjora]

saw this last night at Edinburgh Lothian Road and so glad they put us in Cinema 2 rather than Cinema 3. Perhaps because the last screening was oversubscribed??

Had been keen to see this MM in this role and thought he and Jared Leto were totally believable in the roles, and that the fear and prejudice of others to their plight was also convincing. Good story, well told

Having said that, thought the film was a bit long and could easily have lost some time.

Hope MM gets the Oscar as thoroughly deserved.

8/10 from us.

[Roma2006]

Just got tickets to see this. Looking forward to watching.

[sandypiper]

Sensational performances by both Actors.

[valda]

Saw this on Friday at the Mayfair Hotel. I have to say, due to the people around me, I have never been so stressed out at a screening before Around me the people were a bit smelly, the sort of musty smell of people who don't wash their clothes. The couple Behind me were whispering most of the time, when they weren't doing that, they were rustling in thier carrier bags for food. The guy next to me kept on belching, and was a really heavy breather. But worst of all, someone kept on farting, silent but deadly

I was so close to getting up and going to the front but didn't want to annoy the rest of the audience.

Now the film itself was excellent especially the leads, I could hardly recognize Matthew M, how he is changing as an actor, each role, getting better and better.

the story was engrossing, people forget how it was with the whole Aids thing in the 80's.

9/10

[sandypiper]

Matthew McConaughey is on Graham Norton Show on Friday night...BBC1 10.35. Will watch the Show.

Definitely an Oscar winning performance by an Actor, not seen a better one for a long long time, and Jared Leto for Best Supporting Actor.

Here's hoping.

[rawsalsa]

An excellent film with Oscar worthy performances from both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto (for Best Supporting Actor). I saw this at the Odeon Greenwich and it was lovely to catch up with both cliveas, zoebanfield and prettyxcool. I found it interesting that they made McConaughey a homophobic heterosexual in the film when it appears that there are a number of accounts that the real-life AIDS victim, Ronald Woodroof was bisexual. The film brought back a number of memories for me, since at the time I was involved in research about AIDS and HIV. I certainly remember the ignorance around the subject at the time.
8.5/10

[sandypiper]

I didn't realise that AZT was such a dangerous drug.

[chelle1973]

I'm making an exception to go see this on Tuesday....I just have to!

[Jayman]

Easily the best movie of the year so far. I know Jared Leto's getting a lot of love for his role but Matthew McConaughey....wow...just wow!
Hope he manages to snag the Oscar from Leo. He genuinely deserves it.

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

I saw a Cineworld Unlimited preview of this this evening.

Although this is based on a true story with a somewhat depressing theme about a Texan man with HIV battling medical establishments, the film is nevertheless highly entertaining and compelling thanks to a knock it out of the park performance by a hugely enigmatic Matthew McConaughey. I always thought he will blossom into a Paul Newman-esque actor and he sure has.

The dialogue has a raw energy that really bites and although often insulting, racist, sexist and homophobic, I laugh uneasily at the protagonists naivety in the delivery of their offensive lines. The film deliberately plays on this for us to either pity their ignorance or, depending on how you feel, hate them outright. Regardless, the journey is one of enlightenment, disillusionment, sacrifice, tragedy and Boy George. I recall the 80s AIDS awareness boom but on reflection it was also very misunderstood, and the era had a heightened shock awareness not for the big AIDS issue but of the huge ignorance and ugliness of pocket society prejudices. This film reflects that pitiful state, very well.

But this is cinema and the film never forgets to entertain while driving the hard messages. It's ultimately a heart warming film and does not in anyway manipulate the audience emotions with sugar coated dramatics. We dont get Spielbergian mechanical tear inducing moments. What we get here is a study of character transitioning through experience and shock education. The film is of an episodic structure with no fancy directorial flair. It doesn't need that because McConaughay provides the flair in his dynamic southern delivery supported with a beautifully poignant career defining performance by Jared Leto playing a transgender. Leto is truly unforgettable, wow. I didnt know who this guy was until I looked him up on imdb after the film. Its ironic that the only film I saw him in was Mr Nobody as I didnt think he was a somebody of importance at that time. Now I am learning that his day job is a big successful singer/songwriter for 30 seconds to Mars (I dont know that group, I am obviously not in touch with the modern music world). Well, he's got a talent for acting, I'll say that. Swap it around, Jared.

It was also a beautiful relationship story and what makes this film really spark is the chemistry of the unlikely growing friendship.

The reason I keep carping about the importance of this film to entertain when its a serious issue based on a true story is well, because cinema is cinema and when I see a film based on a true story I know I am still watching a work of fiction. For those of you that have seen the film, below is a piece that I extracted from Wikipedia listing the differences of the this film and the real story. The differences are HUGE. But that's what we should expect. When I go to a cinema to watch a movie with actors, then I want to be entertained and thought provoked and inspire me to find out more about its real truth or subject matter. This film does that and it appears to me that half to three quarters of it is pure fiction. Keep that in mind for those of you that still yet to see it. I wanted to know about what happened to certain characters when I got back home only to find they didnt even bloody exist!

So I rate this

8.5/10 for entertaining me. If I want real truth then I'll just read the encyclopaedias or watch documentaries.

Spoiler regards to the true story Ron Woodruff (extracted from wiki):

[spoiler]The characters of Rayon and Dr. Eve Saks were fictional; the writers had interviewed transgender AIDS patients, activists and doctors for the film and combined these stories to create the two composite supporting roles. However, Woodroof did lose all his friends after they found out he was HIV-positive. In his interviews with Borten, Woodroof implied that this, along with interactions with gay people living with AIDS through the buyers club, led to a rethinking of his apparent homophobia and changed his views on gay people. Other people who knew him said that he was not homophobic and was himself bisexual.[29] Also, while a rodeo enthusiast, he never rode any bulls himself.[30] Although the film shows Woodroof diagnosed in 1985, he told Borten that a doctor had informed him he might have the disease well before that; Woodroof believed he may have been infected in 1981, something that was briefly alluded to in a flashback in the film.[7] He may have suppressed his bisexual past when talking to doctors to try and get a more sympathetic response to his need for drugs.
While Woodroof was known for outlandish behavior, according to those who knew him both the film and McConaughey made him rougher than he actually was, describing him as "outrageous, but not confrontational" and not as obviously homophobic earlier in his life.[31] The real Woodroof also had a daughter and a sister who were not approached by the writers and were left out of the script to make the film more of a character study.[7] Some also expressed concerns that while the film was a generally accurate portrayal of Woodroof's life, it misled many to believe that Dallas Mercy Hospital was guilty of mistreating its patients.[/spoiler]