The internet age has created a bad habit in many of us – checking RT ratings to decide if we’ll bother watching something. Who says they’re right? I miss the days when I watched a film because it was on TV that night, the Radio Times gave me a time slot and a two-line blurb, I either liked it or didn’t like it and then moved on with my life without discussing it online with four people at once. So, I tried not to notice the 94% given to Dallas Buyer’s Club and allow it to pre-bias me. Damn you, Google!
Luckily, some industry folks still have better ways of making you want to watch a movie. One such thing is trailers. Five seconds in and I already want to see this film.
First off, casting. There’s really no better choice to play an over-confident, uber-moustachioed Texan rodeo rider than Matthew McConaughey. The main supporting role goes to Jared Leto, who I didn’t even notice until the last few frames since he appears to playing a transvestite hooker. Leto is one of those guys, like Pitt, who we tend to forget are actually good actors thanks to the obnoxious image pasted over them. The unrecognisable trick is at least Depp territory and at its best Oldman-style. Job well done.
Second, plot line: aforementioned uber-moustachioed rodeo person (rodeoist? rodeoer? rodeoso? The last one goes well with moustachioed) is diagnosed with HIV, laughs in its face and sets off on a quest to cure himself, ditching the American medical system and ending up in Mexico, where he begins smuggling unregulated drugs back over the border not to sell but to offer to fellow HIV patients in a members-only clinic, the eponymous Dallas Buyers Club. Doesn’t that sound epic?
What’s more, it isn’t all made up. Usually when Hollywood attaches the “based on a true story” byline to a film, we immediately call bullshit and pin it somewhere on the low end of the 0-30% reality graph. In this case the extent of its accuracy is uncertain, and I don’t care. This film looks brilliant, at worst hugely entertaining. Roll on February.
Luckily, some industry folks still have better ways of making you want to watch a movie. One such thing is trailers. Five seconds in and I already want to see this film.
First off, casting. There’s really no better choice to play an over-confident, uber-moustachioed Texan rodeo rider than Matthew McConaughey. The main supporting role goes to Jared Leto, who I didn’t even notice until the last few frames since he appears to playing a transvestite hooker. Leto is one of those guys, like Pitt, who we tend to forget are actually good actors thanks to the obnoxious image pasted over them. The unrecognisable trick is at least Depp territory and at its best Oldman-style. Job well done.
Second, plot line: aforementioned uber-moustachioed rodeo person (rodeoist? rodeoer? rodeoso? The last one goes well with moustachioed) is diagnosed with HIV, laughs in its face and sets off on a quest to cure himself, ditching the American medical system and ending up in Mexico, where he begins smuggling unregulated drugs back over the border not to sell but to offer to fellow HIV patients in a members-only clinic, the eponymous Dallas Buyers Club. Doesn’t that sound epic?
What’s more, it isn’t all made up. Usually when Hollywood attaches the “based on a true story” byline to a film, we immediately call bullshit and pin it somewhere on the low end of the 0-30% reality graph. In this case the extent of its accuracy is uncertain, and I don’t care. This film looks brilliant, at worst hugely entertaining. Roll on February.
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