On D List of Movie Reviews
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Dallas Buyers Club (2013)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
8/14, 1/26
8/14:
I've said this before that Matthew McConaughey is a talented actor.
For Dallas Buyers Club, he scored an Oscar. However, it's not a great performance as advertised but
rather ordinary. Apparently, Matthew McConaughey sacrificed around ten to fifteen years of his life by taking
the Christian Bale route in terms of drastic weight loss, which is fifty pounds in four months, for the
precious but worthless trophy.
If it's how Hollywood will reward these thespians, then I guess acting as I know it is dead. In all honesty,
Matthew McConaughey looks ghastly...like death on a stick. I was more concerned for his health than what he's
doing on screen. On the other hand, Jared Leto, who's talented and also lost thirty pounds, is somewhat better
than his co-star, but his character isn't memorable. In fact, he was much better in
Requiem for a Dream, convincing me that he could be a solid, serious
actor.
As for the story, I find it extreme and unbelievable and don't sympathize with either of the characters. Perhaps
if they would stop drinking, abusing illegal drugs, and engaging in reckless unsafe sex so much, I might believe
in the efficacy of their radical treatments. So, no...I'm not convinced. Of course, like all Hollywood films,
the truth is rather distorted.
The camera work is sometimes atrocious and unprofessionally handled. Most of the shots should be moved farther
back, so I can see more of the ambience. The first hour is bad while the second half is slightly improved. All the
mistakes committed here have been the reasons why I rarely view anything made after the year of 2000.
All in all, Dallas Buyers Club is nothing special, featuring average Oscar-winning performances by Matthew
McConaughey and Jared Leto.
1/26:
Somebody thought I misjudged Dallas Buyers Club and asked me to give it another go.
I now conclude it's a better movie. The performances by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto stand out, and they
probably deserved Oscars after losing so much weight (50 and 30 pounds, respectively). As for the content,
it's rather low in substance. Once the basic idea is established, that's the whole film without explaining the
business side or the characters' motivations deeply enough.
AZT was actually disproven as the miracle drug for AIDS because of toxic side effects such as
depletion of red blood cells. According to The Lancet, "preliminary results of the trial were
published in a letter and made headlines worldwide. The results suggested that early intervention with
AZT—for people who were HIV-positive but had not yet developed any symptoms of AIDS— was a waste
of time." In other words, AIDS patients didn't live longer or develop the disease more slowly while on AZT as
it killed white blood cells vital to the immune system. Sure, they might be feeling better in the first few
months, but that went away completely afterwards.
Back then, "the FDA's stringent testing requirements meant that most new drugs took between eight and ten
years to pass from development to the marketplace. AZT was pushed through in just 20 months." Does that sound
familiar? You guessed it correctly: that's what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines were
never proven to be the cure, but there was so much misinformation that it became impossible to get the truth.
That's because certain pharmaceutical companies stood to make billions of dollars, regardless. It turned out
that the "double-blind studies" weren't so blind and that many rules were broken to ensure the success of AZT.
Today, AZT is being prescribed to treat AIDS/HIV patients but at a very low dose in combination with other drugs.
All in all, Dallas Buyers Club may feel like Oscar bait because of the subject matter that's
more than twenty years past its prime, but Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto make this one a compelling watch.