Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club – Dir. Jean-Marc Vallée (2013)

We are living in the McConaissance. Matthew McConaughey first charmed audiences as the lovable stoner David Wooderson ("Alright, alright, alright.") in Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused." He cemented his status as an actor to watch, particularly due to projects like Lone Star and Frailty. However, McConaughey became a punch line thanks to his Southern twang, his willingness to go shirtless, and a string of lackluster romantic comedies. In recent years, he seems to have taken the criticism by heart and re-dedicated himself to the craft. He turned down the easy payday for a big screen version of Magnum P.I. in favor of working with renowned directors such as Jeff Nichols, William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, and reunited with Linklater for Bernie. Despite only being in two scenes, McConaughey is one of the best things in The Wolf of Wall Street. The crown jewel of McConaughey's recent output is Dallas Buyers Club, a performance that earned him a slew of accolades including a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Actor.

Based on a true story, Dallas Buyers Club features McConaughey as Ron Woodroof, an electrician and rodeo cowboy with a predilection for promiscuous sex and drugs. He's not the most enlightened fellow either. Woodroof reacts with disgust when Rock Hudson's affliction with AIDS became public and casually tosses around a few racial epithets. An accident at work sends Woodroof to the hospital where Drs. Sevard (Denis O'Hare) and Saks (Jennifer Garner) break the news that he too has AIDS and only has 30 days to live. Woodroof angrily storms out of the hospital. How could he possibly have AIDS when he's an all-American heterosexual? That is, until he remembers having sex with an intravenous drug user. Woodroof is evicted from his home, loses his job, and is shunned by his family and friends. However, he's hardly resigned to his fate.

At first, Woodroof bribes a hospital janitor to get AZT, a drug with the best results for fighting the disease, but whose side effects can be just as debilitating. When he runs out of AZT, Woodroof meets a doctor in Mexico (Griffin Dunne), who points him towards other medication that have not been approved by the FDA. Driven by self-preservation and profit, Woodroof makes frequent trips to Mexico, Japan, and Europe to stockpile drugs. He establishes the Dallas Buyers Club with a membership fee of $400 that will allow other AIDS patients access to medicine not available in the US.  As he battles government bureaucracy, Woodroof finds his attitude changing, especially when he forms an unlikely friendship with Rayon (Jared Leto), a transgendered woman also suffering from AIDS.

When the AIDS epidemic first began to sweep the country, those who were sick and their loved ones faced an uphill battle against the spread of misinformation and prejudice. Under the Reagan administration, the government did little to stem the tide. After all, gays and drug addicts were not exactly their constituency. These early days of AIDS activism were captured with amazing detail in How to Survive a Plague, my pick for best documentary of 2012. Dallas Buyers Club isn't as rabble rousing. This is an intimate character study focusing on just one of the many powerful stories of that era.

The real Woodroof died in 1992, a full seven years after the doctors' grim prognosis. Shortly before he died, screenwriter Craig Borten (who co-wrote the script with Melisa Wallack) interviewed Woodroof and set about to tell his story. The film has been in development ever since with actors like Woody Harrelson and Brad Pitt previously attached. Borten stuck by the production though you wish a little more subtlety was introduced during the lengthy writing process. The writers don't paint in shades of gray as evidenced by a scene with a room full of butterflies meant to symbolize his spiritual transformation.

It's a credit to McConaughey's abilities that he's able to sell corny lines like, "Forget about the FDA. I'm gonna be DOA." Physically, he went through a grueling transformation by staying out of the sun and dropping nearly 40lbs to play the gaunt and ailing Woodroof. No matter his outward appearance, there's no hiding McConaughey's innate charisma and likeability. Another role destined for awards season is Jared Leto, who netted the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Leto is no stranger to body transformations having lost weight (Requiem for a Dream) and gained weight (Chapter 27) for other movies. Leto disappears into the character of Rayon with assistance from the award winning make-up team.

Dallas Buyers Club follows all the established steps in creating a critical darling. This is an inspiring true story with a pair of performances that required radical metamorphoses. It's hard to fault the filmmakers for adhering to the formula when they've done so with spectacular results.

Rating: *** (*****)

The Grey

The Grey - Dir. Joe Carnahan (2012)

Once more into the fray.
Into the last good fight I'll ever know.
Live and die on this day.
Live and die on this day.

The early part of the year is generally the season for movie goers to catch up on all the best picture nominees as well as a dumping ground for forgettable action flicks and rom-coms. There's a new tradition now with Liam Neeson led action movies being released almost on a yearly basis. There was Taken in 2009 and Unknown in 2011. 2012 follows suit with The Grey with Neeson reunited with Joe Carnahan, the director of The A-Team. The script is based on the short story, Ghost Walker, by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers, who also penned the awful revenge thriller Death Sentence. Given the participants, I would have been satisfied with an hour and a half of Liam Neeson punching the fuck out of wolves. Indeed, the money shot of the trailer is Neeson duct taping a knife and broken miniature bottles to his hands as he prepares to dive into battle. Imagine my surprise to find The Grey is far more philosophical and contemplative than one would expect from Joe Carnahan.

Neeson stars as John Ottway, a sharpshooter stationed at an oil pumping station in the remote Arctic. He protects the workers from the wolves living in the surrounding wilds. It's not exactly a noble profession as the station employees are mostly reprobates and desperate men. As Ottway describes them, they are "unfit for mankind." Memories of his late-wife (Anne Openshaw) are the only things keeping him going.

A plane ride to Anchorage turns to disaster when the aircraft is caught in a blizzard and crashes into a snowy wasteland. Ottway assumes leadership of a handful of survivors that include the hotheaded ex-con Diaz (Frank Grillo), the devout family man Talget (an unrecognizable Dermot Mulroney), and the reserved Hendrick (Dallas Roberts). Their journey back to civilization is endangered not only by the harsh elements, but by a pack of vicious wolves. These wolves are stalking the survivors not for food, but for vengeance as they are trespassing on their territory.

What differentiates The Grey from the winter season's cinematic detritus is the existential tone as it deals with faith in the face of a cruel world. There's an overriding sense of the impermanence of mankind, who will always be at the mercy of Mother Nature. These are certainly heady subjects for what Open Road Films has marketed as a standard action movie.

The Grey does offer a visceral experience as the deaths can occur suddenly and without warning. The wolves themselves are like unrelenting creatures from a horror film. One shot features the protagonists face to face with the pack as their eyes glow a stark white against the jet black night sky. Another sequence sees the survivors, forced to trudge through deep snow, helplessly watch as wolves tear apart their friend. Amidst all the brutally, some of the deaths are handled with emotional gravitas. The first one occurs when one man is found in the wreckage bleeding to death. Ottway doesn't bother to comfort him or mince words, he tells the man in a matter-of-fact manner that he's dying and nothing can be done. Despite the survivors being a collection of stock characters, it hits hard when one of them goes.

Liam Neeson has had a long career as a respectable actor, but it's only recently that he's become a top shelf action hero. With his booming voice and imposing 6'4 stature, he definitely has the credibility. As Ottway, Neeson gives a rich performance that's tinged with an unshakeable sadness. It's obvious this was something of a therapeutic role allowing Neeson to work through issues following the death of his wife Natasha Richardson in 2009. There's talk The Grey may be re-released for a run during awards season. Frank Grillo, previously seen as the trainer in Warrior, gives an excellent performance here and is the centerpiece for one of the film's most powerful scenes.

The Grey represents Joe Carnahan's best work, even better than his breakout film, Narc. His direction is still stylish, but almost understated, refraining from his usually overly kinetic tricks. The plane crash is one of the most realistic and harrowing crashes committed to film. After that, we see Neeson lying peacefully next to his wife and underneath a white sheet only for her to be ripped away as he awakens in a snow drift.

The Grey is one of the first great films of 2012, a gut wrenching tale of survival in the vein of Jack London. The ways in which it deals with manhood, spirituality, and the inevitability of death would make Hemingway proud.

Rating: *** (*****)

If you want to read my spoilerific thoughts on the ending, click on the comments section.