‘Dallas Buyers Club’ FFCC Reviews
FFCC member reviews of Jean-Marc Valee’s Dallas Buyers Club.
Joe Bardi – Creative Loafing Tampa
“People go to the movies for all kinds of reasons. Maybe they want to see an inspiring story, or gaze in wonder at breathtaking cinematography. Sometimes the viewer is dragged to the theater by a significant other, taking a cinematic bullet for the relationship. Solid reasons all. Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club is a performance movie. You’re buying a ticket to be shocked and amazed by the very sight of Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. Beyond the physical transformations, what the two men do on screen transcends the craft of acting. It’s something more akin to magic.”
Steve Persall – Tampa Bay Times
“The movie reaches another level entirely when McConaughey’s dedication is paired with Jared Leto’s equally astonishing physical transformation into a transgendered HIV patient named Rayon. Initially used as comic relief and later a tragic heroine, Rayon is a bracing character Leto invests with uncanny feminine sensibilities. She makes Ron want to be a better man, and that conflict — what the change entails and especially who’s inspiring it — leads to McConaughey’s subtly vulnerable moments.”
Rene Rodriguez – The Miami Herald
“Dallas Buyers Club is, on one level, a fascinating dramatization of small businesses versus large corporations and how difficult survival can be for the little guy without deep pockets. But the movie ultimately rests on McConaughey’s able, emaciated shoulders, who never once plays to the audience’s sympathies. This is a straight-up portrait of a man who figured out a way to cling to life longer than anyone expected and, in the process, learned to let the world in.”
Ruben Rosario – Miami Sun Post
“Dallas Buyers Club hints at exploring more intimate layers of a man whose resilience in the face of death gave him the strength to keep fighting, and McConaughey rises to the challenge with tour-de-force abandon. The actor’s hungry to showcase his chops, and he does not disappoint. Woodroof’s an ideal fit for the versatile actor, even if he doesn’t quite prevent the movie from turning into a red-state Philadelphia.”
Skip Sheffield – Skip Sheffield’s Flix
“For this desperate role McConaughey leaves his handsome-hunk, leading-man image behind. He has never invested himself as fully in a character as he does in this redneck, racist, sexist, dishonest stereotype who finds his humanity through his own suffering and the suffering of others. Musician (“30 Seconds to Mars”) turned actor Jared Leto proves he has the dramatic power to both make you laugh and pull at your heartstrings as the fragile, doomed Rayon.”
