Dallas Buyers Club

What makes 'Dallas Buyers Club' truly brilliant is that it becomes a roaring crowd-pleaser even while dealing with a slow and morbid topic like death due to disease. The film achieves this feat by making sure that none of the main characters accept the role of a victim, least of all Ron Woodroof played by Matthew McConaughey. Although the film is still one of the dark horses next to the other big names in the Oscar race, this is one film you will not want to miss, sheer brilliance all the way.

There are films that get you hooked right from the start and then there are those like Dallas Buyers Club that start off slowly off the blocks and then sink you in deeper and deeper as it progresses. By the end, you are deeply submerged in it...This is Matthew McConaughey's best performance and his transformation reminds of Christian Bale, in The Machinist as well as The Fighter. When you walk out of the theatre after watching the film, you are left with so much to admire and ponder about.

Shedding so much weight as to be barely recognizable , Matthew McConoughy is just brilliant in the lead role and goes through a full gamut of emotions that could well win him the Best Actor Oscar this weekend. He is ably supported by Jenifer Garner who grows on the viewer but it is Jarred Leto who also takes the cake and her role reminds one of Pedro Almadovar's All About My Mother as far as gender determination is concerned. The other cameos are minimal in this not-to-be-missed real life experience.

A film on an AIDS-stricken protagonist (who, in order to prolong his life, becomes an accidental entrepreneur-crusader-activist) could easily emerge as a melancholic piece of socio-medical drama. Instead, Jean-Marc Vallee uplifts and inspires by just showcasing Ron's relentless resilience without glorifying his bigoted views or outrageous (drugs-prostitutes-beer) lifestyle...Brilliant would be an understatement.

Dallas Buyers Club is definitely worth watching, it's a powerful film! Almost everything is just perfect in Dallas Buyers Club. A superb script by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack and touchingly sensitive direction by Jean-Marc Vallee, not to mention he never shifts focus from his subject.

The '80s setting of the story gives it an edge as Ron and Rayon work around the system to bring aid to HIV victims. The film is really worth a watch for its lead cast. While McConaughey, ferocious and funny at the same time, comes of age as a leading man, Leto gives his complex role an understated resolve.

We're so used to rooting for white characters, that we tend to forget that we're all actually grey. Dallas Buyers Club reminds us of the fact that in real life, we're all grey, and yet some of us lead lives that are worth living and worth dying for. It entertains you, moves you and educates you, just like that.

McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof with deep sincerity. The physical as well as the emotional evolution of the character through the film is incredibly and spectacularly real. He shines as the despicable, selfish, racist, homophobic and equally excels as a caring and a likeable person.

What really elevates the film is the intensity of McConaughey's performance. Looking skeletal and broken, his eyes glitter with a steely sense of desperate determination.

Ultimately, however, Dallas Buyers Club rides on the McConaughey force. Who would have imagined that an actor best known shirtless, hewn in middle America, always the fetching, bedraggled son of the soil in romcoms, would immerse in a character that demands so much to execute yet have no gratifyingly happy climax?

This is Matthew McConaughey's movie through and through. Apart from physically transforming himself (he lost 21 kg for the role), it is the way he takes over the character that is spellbinding. The golden good looks are obliterated for this grandstanding cowboy. McConaughey captures every nuance of Ron Woodroof's journey from racist bigot to inclusive businessman, from parochial to evangelist, from traditionalist to new wave in fascinating detail.