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Created Nov 21, 2013 10:23PM PST • Edited Feb 21, 2023 05:57AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Dallas Buyers Club is another triumph for Matthew McConaughey. It’s also a vivid evocation of the gritty side of Dallas circa 1985, along with the chaos that accompanied the early years of the AIDS epidemic. However, like its lead character, the movie is self-satisfied to a fault, self-rightous even. This becomes somewhat wearying over a nearly two hour runtime.

   DBC tells the truthy tale of Ron Woodruff, a wild man of the urban cowboy variety, the kind of guy who chases skirts when not riding steers and doing all manner of drugs. He’s also proudly homophobic, just one of his many problems when he comes down with AIDS.

   Always quick to find the angle in a situation, he establishes a Buyers Club in order to procure unapproved AIDS drugs for the gays of Dallas, thereby putting himself on the road to Easy Street, AIDS aside.

   See the movie for McConaughey’s Oscar caliber performance, for the laughs it generates along the way and as a reminder of how overwhelming AIDS was when it descended on the country. Just be prepared to grin and bear it when the movie lays the sanctimony on thick as Texas toast.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Matthew McConaughey is all the way back from his romcom nadir. DBC’s emaciated urban cowboy – Ron Woodroof – comes on top of several other recent triumphs, including as Mud and in Bernie. He’s such a seriously impressive serious actor now, he should do a silly romcom just for grins.

   Jared Leto slays as a transvestite prostitute. The onetime teen heartthrob deserves an Oscar nod for his convincing and sensitive performance. That’s not all. He won’t be allowed to pay for a drink ever again in the Castro, the Village or West L.A. She gets it on the house from here on out, however far that may be.

   Jennifer Garner disappoints as an AIDS doctor. She – a real she – simply isn’t convincing or affecting.

   The serviceable supporting cast includes Denis O’Hare as a conflicted physician, Steve Zahn as a friendly cop and James DuMont as the conflicted Father of a gay son.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    Ron Woodruff is such a self-satisfied character, always on the make, that he doesn’t have to travel far to veer into sanctimony, nor does Jean-Marc Vallée’s film. That said, it has quite a few laughs, plus tells the story of both the AIDS epidemic and a gritty slice of Texas in compelling fashion.

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 3.2

    It’s the rare edge pattern that is highest on Rudeness, next on Sex and least on Violence – a high toned Sordid if you will.

    Going for the one in the middle, McConaughey’s Woodruff gets it on with two girls in one of the stables at the Dallas Rodeo Arena, while a bull’s being ridden in the Rodeo no less. Now that’s hot. Too hot. The movie is about how he pays the piper.

17. Sex Erotic 3.2

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.9

21. Reality

    Glib 1.3

    Ron Woodruff apparently did the Buyer’s Club things in Dallas Buyers Club, per a lengthy profile about him in Dallas Life Magazine entitled Buying Time. The article doesn’t mention anything about him being a raging homophobe however, as he’s depicted in the movie. Surprise, surprise. Hollywood’s at it again.

22. Circumstantial Glib 1.6

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0