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==Cast==
==Cast==
[[File:Dallas Buyers Club 08 (9765736361).jpg|175px|thumbnail|right|McConaughey at the [[2013 Toronto International Film Festival]] premiere]]
[[File:Dallas Buyers Club 08 (9765736361).jpg|175px|thumbnail|right|McConaughey at the [[2013 Toronto International Film Festival]] premiere]]
* [[Matthew McConaughey]] as [[Ron Woodroof]],<ref name="casting1" /> a real-life [[AIDS]] patient who smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas when he found them effective at improving his symptoms. In an interview with [[CBS News]]' [[Lee Cowan]] in February 2014, McConaughey told that he selected the role because he thought it was not just a normal story, but it was a story of a "wild man".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cowan|first1=Lee|title=Matthew McConaughey on "Dallas Buyers Club"|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/matthew-mcconaughey-on-dallas-buyers-club/|publisher=cbsnews.com|accessdate=September 1, 2014}}</ref> As McConaughey was born and raised outside of Dallas, so he was very familiar with the culture and he also thought the script was "incredibly human, with no sentimentality,". So he worked really hard for the film like he lost nearly 50 pounds to play Woodroof in the film.<ref name=five-things>{{cite news|last1=Stevens|first1=Matt|title=5 Things to Know Before Joining the Dallas Buyers Club With Matthew McConaughey|url=http://www.eonline.com/news/482006/5-things-to-know-before-joining-the-dallas-buyers-club-with-matthew-mcconaughey|accessdate=September 1, 2014|publisher=eonline.com|date=November 17, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Matthew McConaughey]] as [[Ron Woodroof]],<ref name="casting1" /> a real-life [[AIDS]] patient who smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas when he found them effective at improving his symptoms. In an interview with [[CBS News]]' [[Lee Cowan]] in February 2014, McConaughey told that he selected the role because he thought it was not just a normal story, but it was a story of a "wild man".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cowan|first1=Lee|title=Matthew McConaughey on "Dallas Buyers Club"|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/matthew-mcconaughey-on-dallas-buyers-club/|publisher=cbsnews.com|accessdate=September 1, 2014}}</ref> McConaughey was born and raised outside of Dallas, so he was very familiar with the culture and he also thought the script was "incredibly human, with no sentimentality,". McConaughey lost nearly 50 pounds to play Woodroof in the film.<ref name=five-things>{{cite news|last1=Stevens|first1=Matt|title=5 Things to Know Before Joining the Dallas Buyers Club With Matthew McConaughey|url=http://www.eonline.com/news/482006/5-things-to-know-before-joining-the-dallas-buyers-club-with-matthew-mcconaughey|accessdate=September 1, 2014|publisher=eonline.com|date=November 17, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Jennifer Garner]] as Dr. Eve Saks, who treats AIDS patients like Woodroof and Rayon. Upon Garner's casting, after reading the script she expressed, "I had heard about it, and I had seen pictures of Matthew losing weight. And really couldn't imagine how I was going to do it, and was so happy at home."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Aurthur|first1=Kate|title=14 Things To Know About Jennifer Garner’s "Dallas Buyers Club" Experience|url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/dallas-buyers-club-jennifer-garner-matthew-mcconnaughey#9m9y9d|accessdate=September 1, 2014|publisher=buzzfeed.com|date=October 29, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Jennifer Garner]] as Dr. Eve Saks, who treats AIDS patients like Woodroof and Rayon. Upon Garner's casting, after reading the script she expressed, "I had heard about it, and I had seen pictures of Matthew losing weight. And really couldn't imagine how I was going to do it, and was so happy at home."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Aurthur|first1=Kate|title=14 Things To Know About Jennifer Garner’s "Dallas Buyers Club" Experience|url=http://www.buzzfeed.com/kateaurthur/dallas-buyers-club-jennifer-garner-matthew-mcconnaughey#9m9y9d|accessdate=September 1, 2014|publisher=buzzfeed.com|date=October 29, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Jared Leto]] as Rayon,<ref name="casting3" /> a fictional trans woman with HIV who helps Woodroof. As Leto wasn't looking to return to acting, since he'd been busy working as a writer/director and singer/musician for five years, but he couldn't ignore the role after reading the script and because of the plum part. Leto worked really hard on Rayon's voice, on which director Vallée expressed, "I don't know Leto, Jared never showed me Jared." He also lost about 30 pounds for the role.<ref name="five-things" /> Leto told in an interview that he had faced a real man with HIV and AIDS when he moved to Los Angeles in 1991. He also expressed that he had not looked in the mirror during the filming, except in the makeup trailer when they were going to work on me. He said, "It was unlike anything I had ever done before."<ref>{{cite news|last1=MALKIN|first1=MARC|title=Jared Leto Opens Up About Roommate Who Died From AIDS: "I Was There During His Final Days"|url=http://www.eonline.com/news/456877/jared-leto-opens-up-about-roommate-who-died-from-aids-i-was-there-during-his-final-days|accessdate=September 1, 2014|publisher=eonline.com|date=September 10, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Jared Leto]] as Rayon,<ref name="casting3" /> a fictional trans woman with HIV who helps Woodroof. As Leto wasn't looking to return to acting, since he'd been busy working as a writer/director and singer/musician for five years, but he couldn't ignore the role after reading the script and because of the plum part. Leto worked really hard on Rayon's voice, on which director Vallée expressed, "I don't know Leto, Jared never showed me Jared." He also lost about 30 pounds for the role.<ref name="five-things" /> Leto told in an interview that he had faced a real man with HIV and AIDS when he moved to Los Angeles in 1991. He also expressed that he had not looked in the mirror during the filming, except in the makeup trailer when they were going to work on me. He said, "It was unlike anything I had ever done before."<ref>{{cite news|last1=MALKIN|first1=MARC|title=Jared Leto Opens Up About Roommate Who Died From AIDS: "I Was There During His Final Days"|url=http://www.eonline.com/news/456877/jared-leto-opens-up-about-roommate-who-died-from-aids-i-was-there-during-his-final-days|accessdate=September 1, 2014|publisher=eonline.com|date=September 10, 2013}}</ref>

Revision as of 14:48, 3 September 2014

Dallas Buyers Club
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJean-Marc Vallée
Written byCraig Borten
Melisa Wallack
Produced byRobbie Brenner
Rachel Winter
StarringMatthew McConaughey
Jennifer Garner
Jared Leto
CinematographyYves Bélanger
Edited byJohn Mac McMurphy
Martin Pensa
Production
companies
Truth Entertainment
Voltage Pictures
Distributed byFocus Features (USA/Latin America)
Entertainment One (UK)
Release dates
  • September 7, 2013 (2013-09-07) (TIFF)
  • November 1, 2013 (2013-11-01) (United States)
Running time
116 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5 million[2]
Box office$55,198,285[3]

Dallas Buyers Club is a 2013 American biographical film drama, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, and written by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack. Matthew McConaughey stars as the real-life AIDS patient Ron Woodroof, who smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas when he found them effective at improving his symptoms, and distributed them to fellow sufferers by establishing the "Dallas Buyers Club" while facing opposition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The other cast includes Jennifer Garner as Dr. Eve Saks, and Jared Leto as Rayon, both playing fictional characters.

Screenwriter Borten interviewed Woodroof in 1992 and wrote the script, which he polished later with writer Wallack in 2000, and then sold to producer Robbie Brenner. Several other actors, directors, and producers who were attached at various times to the development of the film left due to reasons such as the delay of financing or other personal commitments. Universal Pictures once tried to make the film happen, but couldn't. A couple of other screenwriters wrote drafts that were rejected. Later, in 2009, producer Brenner got McConaughey involved to star in the film, because of his Dallas origins, the same as Ron Woodroof's. Brenner selected the first draft, written by Borten and Wallack, for the film, and then Vallée was set to direct the film. Principal photography began on November 11, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana, continuing for 25 days of filming, which also included shooting in Baton Rouge. Brenner and Rachel Winter co-produced the film.

Dallas Buyers Club premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was released theatrically in the United States on November 1, 2013, by Focus Features, entering wide release on November 22. The film received acclaim from critics and won numerous accolades. Most recognized the performances of McConaughey and Leto, who respectively received the academy award for Best Actor and for Best Supporting Actor at the 86th Academy Awards, making this the first film since Mystic River (2003), and only the fifth movie ever, to win both awards. The film also won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, having received Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing nominations, as well. The film grossed over $27 million domestically with a total box office revenue over $55 million against a budget of $5 million.

Plot

In 1985, Dallas electrician and rodeo cowboy Ron Woodroof is diagnosed with AIDS and given 30 days to live. He initially refuses to accept the diagnosis, but remembers having unprotected sex with an intravenous drug-using prostitute. Ron quickly finds himself ostracized by family and friends, gets fired from his job, and is eventually evicted from his home. At the hospital, he is tended to by Dr. Eve Saks, who tells him that they are testing a drug called zidovudine (AZT), an antiretroviral drug which is thought to prolong the life of AIDS patients—and which is the only drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for testing on humans. Saks informs him that in the clinical trials, half the patients receive the drug and the other half are given a placebo, as this is the only way they can determine if the drug is working.

Ron bribes a hospital worker to get him the AZT. As soon as he begins taking it, he finds his health deteriorating (exacerbated by his cocaine use). When Ron returns to the hospital, he meets Rayon, a drug addict, and HIV-positive trans woman, toward whom he is hostile. As his health worsens, Ron drives to a Mexican hospital to get more AZT. Dr. Vass, who has had his American medical license revoked, tells Ron that the AZT is "poisonous" and "kills every cell it comes into contact with". He instead prescribes him ddC and the protein peptide T, which are not approved in the US. Three months later, Ron finds his health much improved. It occurs to him that he could make money by importing the drugs and selling them to other HIV-positive patients. Since the drugs are not illegal, he is able to get them over the border by masquerading as a priest and swearing that they are for personal use. Meanwhile, Dr. Saks also begins to notice the negative effects of AZT, but is told by her supervisor Dr. Sevard that it cannot be discontinued.

Ron begins selling the drugs on the street. He comes back into contact with Rayon, with whom he reluctantly sets up business since she can bring many more clients. The pair establish the "Dallas Buyers Club", charging $400 per month for membership, and it becomes extremely popular. Ron gradually begins to respect Rayon and think of her as a friend. When Ron has a heart attack, Sevard learns of the club and the alternative medication. He is angry that it is interrupting his trial, while Richard Barkley of the FDA confiscates the ddC and threatens to have Ron arrested. Saks agrees that there are benefits to Buyers clubs (of which there are several around the country) but feels powerless to change anything. She and Ron strike up a friendship.

Barkley gets a police permit to raid the Buyers Club, but can do nothing but give Ron a fine. In 1987, the FDA changes its regulations such that any unapproved drug is also illegal. As the Club runs out of funds, Rayon—who is addicted to cocaine—begs her father for money and tells Ron that she has sold her life insurance policy to raise money. Ron is thus able to travel to Mexico and get more of the peptide T. When he returns, Ron finds that Rayon has died after being taken to hospital and given AZT. Saks is also upset by Rayon's death, and she is asked to resign when the hospital discovers that she is linking her patients with the Buyers Club. She refuses to comply and insists that she would have to be fired.

As time passes, Ron shows compassion towards gay, lesbian, and transgender members of the club and making money becomes less of a concern – his priority is provision of the drugs. Peptide T gets increasingly difficult to acquire, and in 1987 he files a lawsuit against the FDA. He seeks the legal right to take the protein, which has been confirmed as non-toxic but is still not approved. The judge is compassionate toward Ron and admonishes the FDA, but lacks the legal tools to do anything. As the film ends, on-screen text reveals that the FDA later allowed Ron to take peptide T for personal use and that he died of AIDS in 1992, seven years later than his doctors initially predicted.

Cast

McConaughey at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival premiere
  • Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof,[4] a real-life AIDS patient who smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas when he found them effective at improving his symptoms. In an interview with CBS News' Lee Cowan in February 2014, McConaughey told that he selected the role because he thought it was not just a normal story, but it was a story of a "wild man".[5] McConaughey was born and raised outside of Dallas, so he was very familiar with the culture and he also thought the script was "incredibly human, with no sentimentality,". McConaughey lost nearly 50 pounds to play Woodroof in the film.[6]
  • Jennifer Garner as Dr. Eve Saks, who treats AIDS patients like Woodroof and Rayon. Upon Garner's casting, after reading the script she expressed, "I had heard about it, and I had seen pictures of Matthew losing weight. And really couldn't imagine how I was going to do it, and was so happy at home."[7]
  • Jared Leto as Rayon,[8] a fictional trans woman with HIV who helps Woodroof. As Leto wasn't looking to return to acting, since he'd been busy working as a writer/director and singer/musician for five years, but he couldn't ignore the role after reading the script and because of the plum part. Leto worked really hard on Rayon's voice, on which director Vallée expressed, "I don't know Leto, Jared never showed me Jared." He also lost about 30 pounds for the role.[6] Leto told in an interview that he had faced a real man with HIV and AIDS when he moved to Los Angeles in 1991. He also expressed that he had not looked in the mirror during the filming, except in the makeup trailer when they were going to work on me. He said, "It was unlike anything I had ever done before."[9]
  • Denis O'Hare as Dr. Sevard[10]
  • Steve Zahn as Tucker[11]
  • Michael O'Neill as Richard Barkley
  • Dallas Roberts as David Wayne[11]
  • Griffin Dunne as Dr. Vass[10]
  • Kevin Rankin as T. J.
  • Bradford Cox as "Sunflower",[10] Rayon's lover, a cross-dresser dying of AIDS
  • Adam Dunn (cameo) as a bartender

Production

Development

The film is based on the real life of Ron Woodroof, a patient of HIV and AIDS, who was the subject of a lengthy 1992 article in The Dallas Morning News written by journalist and author Bill Minutaglio.[12] A month before Woodroof died in September 1992, screenwriter Craig Borten was told about the story by his friend, so he went to interviewed him to create the screenplay; Borten recorded many hours of interviews with Woodroof and had access to his personal journals.[13][14] Borten wrote script for what he believed would make a great movie and attempted to attract interest in making the film in the mid 1996, with Dennis Hopper was attached to direct the film.[15] Columbia Pictures was set to buy the script but the film was unable to secure financial backing.[16]

In an interview, Borten revealed that he met Melisa Wallack in 2000, he asked her to help with the script, so she said yes.[17] In 2001, after one year of working on the script they sold it to producer Robbie Brenner, who then set Marc Forster to direct the film for Universal Pictures, but left due to some personal delays.[18] So after seven years, in June 2008, the project had become Hollywood's longest stalled script when director Craig Gillespie was in talks to helm the film with the producers David Bushell and Marc Abraham which was a project of Universal and Strike Entertainment that time.[19] Chase Palmer was writing the script that time, which screenwriters Guillermo Arriaga and Stephen Belber had reportedly also written the subsequent drafts for the film.[19] In 2009, producer Robbie Brenner got involved again and rejected all scripts, but the original written by Borten and Wallack was sent to actor Matthew McConaughey to see if the Dallas native would be interested in playing the role.[15][17] On March 9, 2011, Jean-Marc Vallée was confirmed to direct the film based on the script by Borten and Wallack.[4][14] Rachel Winter also attached to produce the film.[8]

On November 14, 2012, it was announced that Remstar Film had acquired the Canadian rights while Entertainment One would handle the United Kingdom rights for the film.[20] On April 23, 2013, Focus Features acquired the United States and Latin American distribution rights for theatrical release of the film.[21] In May 2013, it was announced that Voltage Pictures and Truth Entertainment would be producing the film.[22]

Casting

A profile picture of a middle-aged man with green eyes and light beard.
Jared Leto portrays Rayon, a transgender woman in the film.

In 1996, Woody Harrelson was attached to film to play Ron Woodroof, but left the film because of financing issues.[15] In 2002, Brad Pitt was attached to play the lead role, but left due to personnel delays.[19] In June 2008, Ryan Gosling was in talks to join the film for the lead role to play Woodroof, but couldn't take the role.[19] In 2009, producer Brenner sent the script to actor Mathew McConaughey and got him involved to star in the film.[15][17] On March 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times's 24 Frames confirmed that McConaughey would star in the film as Ron Woodroof, a trafficker in illegal AIDS drugs. On which McConaughey said, "It's a great script and a great story. And I think it can be a great movie."[4] Woodroof's sister Sharon Woodroof Braden was reportedly pleased with the casting of McConaughey as Woodroof because he had a similar swagger and personality. She had shown concern earlier in the development process when Pitt and Gosling were attached, due to their personalities not matching Woodroof's.[23] On May 11, Hilary Swank was reportedly in talks to join the film with McConaughey's role was confirmed.[24] On October 3, 2012, it was announced that Swank was dropped out of the film and Gael Garcia Bernal was in talks to join McConaughey in the Dallas Buyer's Club, he would play a member of the club, an HIV patient who meets Woodroof in the hospital and helps him in the club.[25] On November 6, Jared Leto was returning to acting after five years, he would play the role which Bernal was previously in talks to play.[8] In January 2014, Jared Leto has admitted that he was sent a script 15 years ago but never read it.[26] On November 14, Dallas Roberts and Steve Zahn joined the film, Roberts would play David Wayne, Ron's defense attorney, while Zahn would play a Dallas police officer who is sympathetic to Ron.[11] On November 26, Griffin Dunne, Denis O'Hare, and Bradford Cox joined the cast when the shooting was underway in New Orleans.[10]

McConaughey lost 47 pounds (21 kg) for the role, going from 183 pounds (83 kg) to 136 pounds (62 kg).[27][28] He reportedly stayed indoors in his Texas mansion for six months to become paler and ceased socializing and had to find new ways to entertain himself, which made him "smarter". When he reached as low as 143 lbs, his eyesight began to fail.[28] He began to feel extremely weak to the point that he would be sore from doing five push-ups and his legs would lock up after running 30 feet.[28] Leto lost over 30 pounds (14 kg) for the role and confessed to having stopped eating to lose weight quicker; his lowest record weight was 114 pounds (52 kg).[29]

Filming

Principal photography began on November 11, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana.[30][31] Filming also took place in Baton Rouge.[32] Jennifer Garner has stated that the film was shot very quickly over just 25 days and has remarked that McConaughey "gave an even wilder performance in takes that didn't appear onscreen".[33] McConaughey stated that "I was riding a new way of making a film. There were no lights, one camera, 15-minute takes."[33] Half of the shots were lit with artificial light and the other half were not. Vallée said: "I now had a perfect opportunity to try to shoot an entire movie without artificial lights, using the Alexa digital camera. Like the RED, the Alexa offers a broad spectrum of colors and shadows in even the darkest natural lighting conditions. I felt that the approach was right for this project. The look and feel became that we were capturing reality; even though Dallas Buyers Club is not a documentary in content or structure, it could have that subtle quality. We shot the movie 100% handheld with two lenses, a 35-millimeter and a 50-millimeter. These get close to the actors and don't skew the images. [Director of Photography] Yves Belanger adjusted for every shot at 400 or 1600 ASA [camera speed], displaying different color balance."[34]

Music

The official soundtrack album was announced on October 16, 2013, and it was released digitally on October 29, 2013, by the Relativity Music Group.[35] The soundtrack album was featured by various artists, include Leto's band Thirty Seconds to Mars, Tegan and Sara, Awolnation, The Naked and Famous, T. Rex, My Morning Jacket, Fitz and The Tantrums, Blondfire, Neon Trees, Cold War Kids, Capital Cities, The Airborne Toxic Event, and more.[35] It was announced that 40 cents of every sale of album at iTunes would go to the AIDS relief charity Project (RED)'s Global Fund.[36]

The soundtrack got 3.63 out of 5.0 from 5 ratings on the Rate Your Music.[37] New Noise Magazines Joseph Tucker said, "The score on this record is incredibly diverse and of equally incredible quality, unlike so many others. Pick this up before or after you go and see Dallas Buyers Club."[38] Matt of Homo Razzi said about the album, "Overall this soundtrack has a little bit of everything and it works perfectly, mirroring some of the themes, emotions and moments of the film."[39] Stephanie Ochona reviewed for Renowned for Sound and gave the soundtrack 4.5 out of 5 ratings, she said, "Set in the 80′s where drugs and other experimentation was all the rage, music plays a big factor in the entire atmosphere of the movie. The soundtrack includes a diverse group of artists, from country stars, indie icons and modern rockers. All the songs featured help bring out the kind of mood a movie like Dallas Buyers Club is." Ochona also said, "Without such an accurate soundtrack, the film wouldn’t have made such a big impact, and both the visual and aural aspects work together to create a beautiful story of a man fighting for the right to live his life."[40]

Music critic Green Baron reviewed the music for the Sputnikmusic, Baron said, "Dallas Buyers Club itself was a breathtaking motion picture driven by the extraordinary performances from Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. Its accompanying soundtrack, however, is less than satisfying. Filled to the brim with lifeless, stale indie-rock tracks, the supporting album to one of the year’s most gripping films is a complete waste of talent and potential." Baron thought Dallas Buyers Club was saved by a few excellent songs, which were "Ready to Be Called On", "After the Scripture" and "City of Angels". He said, "Overall, the Dallas Buyers Club soundtrack is one that really isn't worth your time or money. Aside from three superb songs, the whole album is a collection of drab indie pop/rock that ultimately falls flat due to its lack of memorability."[41]

Dallas Buyers' Club (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
No.TitleArtistsLength
1."Sweet Thang"Shuggie Otis4:09
2."Following Morning"The Naked And Famous5:03
3."Hell and Back"The Airborne Toxic Event3:52
4."Ready to Be Called On"My Morning Jacket3:46
5."Life of the Party"Blondfire3:23
6."The Walker"(Ryeland Allison remix) by Fitz And The Tantrums3:28
7."Shudder to Think"Tegan & Sara3:24
8."Mad Love"Neon Trees3:39
9."Main Man"(T. Rex cover) by Portugal. The Man6:15
10."Stayin' Alive"(Bee Gees cover) by Capital Cities4:03
11."Romance Languages"Cold War Kids2:52
12."Burn It Down"(Innerpartysystem remix) by Awolnation4:56
13."After the Scripture"Manchester Orchestra4:36
14."City of Angels"Thirty Seconds To Mars4:29
15."Main Man"T. Rex4:13
16."Life Is Strange"T. Rex2:32[43]
Total length:1:04:40[42]

Release

The first trailer was launched on August 27, 2013.[44] The film premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, on which Deadline's Pete Hammond said, "It would seem an absolute no-brainer that both (McConaughey and Leto) will be sitting front and center come March 2nd at the Dolby Theatre when Oscar winners are announced. If there are two better performances by anyone this year I have not seen them."[45] Focus Features released the film on November 1, 2013.[46]

Box office

Over its opening weekend of limited release in the United States, the film grossed $260,865 from 9 theaters,[3] and expanded to 184 locations in its third week of release.[47] The film then widely opened on November 22, in 666 theaters and expanded to 1,110 locations over its first widely opening weekend, and grossed $2,687,157.[3]

After a total of 182 days, the film ended its American theatrical run on May 1, 2014 with a gross of $27,298,285 in North America.[47] It grossed $27,900,000 in foreign countries, making a worldwide total gross of $55,198,285.[3]

Home media

Dallas Buyers Club was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 4, 2014.[48] In the United States, the film has grossed $4,532,240 from DVD sales and $3,097,179 from Blu-ray sales, making a total of $7,629,419.[49]

Reception

Critical response

Upon its premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, Dallas Buyers Club received universal acclaim by critics and audiences, who greatly praised the film for its acting[50] (particularly for McConaughey and Leto), screenplay and direction. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 93% based on reviews from 177 critics, with an average score of 7.7 out of 10, with the site's consensus stating, "Dallas Buyers Club rests squarely on Matthew McConaughey's scrawny shoulders, and he carries the burden gracefully with what might be a career-best performance."[51] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 84 based on 45 reviews, indicating universal acclaim.[52]

Richard Corliss of Time magazine considered McConaughey's portrayal to be a "bold, drastic and utterly persuasive inhabiting of a doomed fighter", remarking that "if the camera occasionally suffers a fashionable case of the jitters, the movie transcends its agitated verismo to impart dramatic and behavioral truth".[14]

Leto's portrayal of Rayon, a drug-addicted trans woman with AIDS who befriends McConaughey's character Ron Woodroof, received critical acclaim.[53] The writers created Rayon, to show "Woodroof’s gradual acceptance of a subculture he had dismissed."[53] Time's Richard Corliss noted, "Leto captures the sweet intensity and almost saintly good humor of a glamorous, poignant and downright divoon creature — a blithe Camille who may surrender her health but never her panache."[53][54] Leto was awarded an Academy Award, Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a variety of film critics' circle awards. After the 86th Academy Awards ceremony, the casting of a non-transgender actor was critiqued as a missed opportunity, with some LGBT activists criticizing the choice as misogynistic.[55][56][57] A guest blogger published on the L.A. Times website compared the issue to white actors appropriating, and exploiting, the roles of East Asians and Africans in the past;[56] and guest contributors noted in The Guardian and The Independent that transgender actors are often relegated to roles such as prostitutes, corpses and "freaks."[58][59]

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club received six nominations at the 86th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor for McConaughey, Best Supporting Actor for Leto, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing for Martin Pensa and Vallée (Vallée being credited under the pseudonym "John Mac McMurphy"),[60] and Best Makeup and Hairstyling for Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews. McConaughey and Leto won Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively – the first film since Mystic River 10 years earlier to receive both awards and only the fifth overall to do so.[61] Lee and Mathews won the Academy Award for Best Makeup, although Mathews had a budget of only $250.[62]

The film received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Best Actor (McConaughey) and Best Supporting Actor (Leto); it was also nominated for Best Cast.[63] At the 71st Golden Globe Awards McConaughey and Leto again won Best Actor – Motion Picture – Drama and Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture respectively.[64] The film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards,[65] while Leto's performance won a range of awards from critics groups, including the New York Film Critics Circle[66] and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.[67] The National Board of Review named Dallas Buyers Club one of the top ten independent films of 2013.[68]

Historical accuracy

Logo of the Dallas Buyers Club

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.[69] 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 anti-gay sentiments and changed his views on gay people. Other people who knew him said that he did not harbor anti-gay sentiments and was himself bisexual.[70][71] Also, while a rodeo enthusiast, he never rode any bulls himself.[72] Although the film shows Woodroof diagnosed in 1985, he told Borten that a doctor had informed him he might have had 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.[13]

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 anti-gay earlier in his life.[73] The real Woodroof also had an ex-wife, Brenda, 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.[13]

References

  1. ^ "DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (15)". Entertainment One. British Board of Film Classification. December 4, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
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  53. ^ a b c For 25 Days, Transsexual to the Core:Jared Leto Stayed in Character on 'Dallas buyers Club' Set
  54. ^ Dallas Buyers Club: McConaughey Shines as a Homophobe Who Gets AIDS: McConaughey and Jared Leto give bold, true performances in this fact-based drama about disease and redemption
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  71. ^ ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ may play fast-and-loose with facts, but those who lived it say its portrait of a man driven to save lives during the AIDS crisis is just right
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Awards
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