Popular reviews

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  Review by Jake Cole ½ 81

  It's easy, if one only ever has to suffer a few times a year the no-budget, no-talent indies dumped on one-week NY runs and burned onto screener discs, to have a charmed view of what constitutes a bad film. Truth be told, with the number of films produced domestically exploding in recent years thanks to mass proliferation of acceptable-quality, cheap DV, it's a good bet that the vast majority of American movies made each year now consist of films made by people with little to no experience, often no real ambition or even point of view, and no discernible talent. Even those of us who only ever see about five or six of these a year are confronted with stunted…

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  Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★ 3

  they always say yee haw they never ask haw yee, the movie

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  Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★ 46

  Matthew fuckin' McConaughey as Ron fuckin' Woodroof a cowboy-bigot-homophobic-party-animal who becomes a pioneer in the treatment of AIDS after his own diagnosis. Wasted-Hollywood-pussy. A sad-face clown. Shocking the shit out of yourself. Shocking-fuckin'-news. Nothing can kill Ron Woodroof in 30-fuckin'-days. A trailer-park-orgy. Elektra's cardboard acting. Alienation by your so-called-friends. Back the fuck off Tinkerbell. Scoring a lifeline in a strip club. Handsome in a Texas-hick-white-trash kind of way. Rayon doesn't bite. Preferring to die with your boots on. A little-white-lie to the FDA. An unlikely business partner. The bar you never thought you would visit. Starting up a new club. Global travels. A big-as-fuck cellphone. The fuckin' IRS. A dinner date with the good doctor. Feeling human again. A total-fuckin'-bullshit…

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  Review by Grayson ½ 4

  Updating my review to the lowest possible rating after reading this:

  "Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, who directed Dallas Buyers Club, spoke to CBC's Jian Ghomeshi, who asked whether he ever considered casting a transgender actor.

  "Never. [Are] there any transgender actors?" he said."

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  Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 11

  Two thoughts:

  1) This is an incredible performance by McConaughey, and one that makes smart use of his existing star text in new, interesting ways; Wooderson gone to seed. Jared Leto is excellent as well.

  2) These incredible performances are in a movie that lives into every negative stereotype of Hollywood filmmakers examining a minority issue--in this case the impact of the HIV virus on the gay community in the 1980s, and the FDA's lethargic response to it--from the perspective of a heroic straight white dude. It's not necessarily a bad version of that kind of movie. But it's still that kind of movie.

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  Review by Frandi Peralta ★★★★ 10

  What would you do if you find out that you are going to die in 30 days?

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  Review by James Whistler ★★★★½

  This movie is wonderful. It contains all the elements a great movie should have. It has a strong script, excellent acting, compelling themes and terrific cinematography. This movie contains what is Matthew McConaughey's best performance as he carries the movie. He is in just about every scene. The movie deals with several themes - AIDS, terminal illness, government regulations, response to crisis, change of life issues, homosexuality, promiscuity, personal responsibility, and capitalism. All these themes are treated forthrightly.After watching this movie, one should come away with a better understanding and appreciation of the issues raised. But although the movie touches on themes that have political implications, it is first and foremost a drama. Although the movie takes some literary license, such as frank depictions of sickness and drug abuse, none of it is gratuitous.

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  Review by Lise ★★★½ 42

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  My mom is sitting on the couch watching this right now, reacting to everything she is seeing. When McConaughey has his 3rd trip to the hospital, she utters "oh, that's hard" about life with AIDS. When he decides to leave the hospital in disgust, walking down the hallway with his open gown flapping about showing his cheeks she giggles. She laughs quite a bit whenever Jared Leto gives him a good dressing-down, and she utters "good for you" when McConaughey makes his former friend shake Leto's hand in the grocery store. She is glued to the screen, trying to eat something or other out of a bowl, not daring to look down too much at her spoon for fear of…

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  Review by DirkH ★★★★ 14

  Film #63 of Make me watch your favourite. Recommended by Piper.

  
  Dallas Buyers Club isn't an exceptional film. It's fine. Its plot safely remains within the boundaries of the based on a true story/biopic realms, making it neither thought provoking or offensive. And that's perfectly fine as Vallée's strong and solid direction manages to avoid melodrama and keeps it refreshingly straight, never forcefully trying to evoke a reaction from his audience and truly focusing on telling the story and the characters in it.

  It's solid entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. And then two actors come along and just raise the film to a completely different level.

  Now, Tom Hanks probably ruined depicting AIDS in movies for most of his colleagues…

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  Review by Jizzmonkey ★★★

  One star each for the two leads, one star for the crew turning up.

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  Review by Thomas Flight

  Watched on the plane, and it was a sanitized cut which lead to some of the scenes having a very abrupt and abstract nature to them. Oops. Anyway it's definitely one of the great performances from Matthew.

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  Review by Peaceful Stoner ★★★★ 18

  ”There ain’t nothing out there that can kill fuckin’ Ron Woodroof in 30 days.”

  From being just another actor whose career seemed to be getting nowhere and was risking fading into the horizon after an overdose of romantic comedies, a dramatic turnaround happened with The Lincoln Lawyer and he has not looked back ever since. It would have been an unpardonable waste of talent had he been typecast in rom-coms for the rest of his life. Half his career has already vaporized being in mediocre to averagely good films and now he is hungry as ever. He is certainly on a spree to prove his worth and mettle.

  I was totally in awe with his saucy, smoothly dangerous and extremely…