Dallas Buyers Club
Academy Award × 3
Rent/Purchase
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
What critics thought
Critics converged almost unanimously on McConaughey's performance as something genuinely transformative — not just the physical weight loss but a full psychological reinvention — and Jared Leto's supporting work drew nearly equal admiration. The film itself drew slightly more divided responses: some found it a conventionally structured awards drama whose script relies on familiar beats, while others argued its controlled rage toward the medical establishment lifts it past those limitations. After awards season, the casting of a cisgender actor as a transgender woman became its own sustained debate.
“Matthew McConaughey brings a jolt of unpredictable energy to Dallas Buyers Club, an affecting if conventional real-life story of medical activism.”
A. O. Scott·The New York Times
“The movie's often touching and very watchable, but what gets you past the script's sincere calculation is the growing sense of rage toward a medical–industrial complex that saw AIDS sufferers as guinea pigs and sources of profit.”
Ty Burr·The Boston Globe
“Dallas Buyers Club is just about a selfish boor who arguably gets a pass in terms of posterity, because while looking out for No. 1, he paved the way for change for everyone else.”
Bob Mondello·NPR
“bold, drastic and utterly persuasive inhabiting of a doomed fighter”
Time
“McConaughey is the only reason to see Dallas Buyers Club, but he's enough of a reason to see Dallas Buyers Club.”
Alonso Duralde·TheWrap
Genres
Biography, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorJean-Marc Vallée
StarringMatthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O'Hare, Steve Zahn
Dallas Buyers Club
Academy Award × 3
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
What critics thought
Critics converged almost unanimously on McConaughey's performance as something genuinely transformative — not just the physical weight loss but a full psychological reinvention — and Jared Leto's supporting work drew nearly equal admiration. The film itself drew slightly more divided responses: some found it a conventionally structured awards drama whose script relies on familiar beats, while others argued its controlled rage toward the medical establishment lifts it past those limitations. After awards season, the casting of a cisgender actor as a transgender woman became its own sustained debate.
“Matthew McConaughey brings a jolt of unpredictable energy to Dallas Buyers Club, an affecting if conventional real-life story of medical activism.”
A. O. Scott·The New York Times
“The movie's often touching and very watchable, but what gets you past the script's sincere calculation is the growing sense of rage toward a medical–industrial complex that saw AIDS sufferers as guinea pigs and sources of profit.”
Ty Burr·The Boston Globe
“Dallas Buyers Club is just about a selfish boor who arguably gets a pass in terms of posterity, because while looking out for No. 1, he paved the way for change for everyone else.”
Bob Mondello·NPR
“bold, drastic and utterly persuasive inhabiting of a doomed fighter”
Time
“McConaughey is the only reason to see Dallas Buyers Club, but he's enough of a reason to see Dallas Buyers Club.”
Alonso Duralde·TheWrap
Genres
Biography, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorJean-Marc Vallée
StarringMatthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O'Hare, Steve Zahn
Rent/Purchase