Dallas Buyers Club

Movie, 2013, R

Premise - A man diagnosed with AIDs is estimated to have 30 days left to live. Desperate for treatment, he travels to Mexico where he finds several live-saving drugs unapproved by the American FDA. Smuggling them back to Dallas, he starts a business in dealing the unapproved vitamins, proteins, and drugs to others with his same diagnosis.

Review - What a timely movie to be watching during a global pandemic. I cannot think of a movie perhaps more thought provoking right now than this exact one, which I had previously never seen before. This movie is all about mistrust of the CDC, FDA, and pharmaceutical industry in effectively researching and evaluating antiviral medications. It is a film that questions the efficacy of fast-tracking human clinical trials and using risky treatments for those who have no other options. It can actually be a dangerous film to watch at the current time, because it has an anti-federal overtone. Now, it's not anti-research, as plenty of research was conducted in other countries. But it is anti-CDC/FDA, which is not the kind of rhetoric the world needs right now. At the end of the film, however, it does make a note that the drug being tested by the CDC for HIV, "AZT", is widely effective and has saved millions of lives. It just took time and research to figure out the right dosage and human trials with the terminally ill... it's a tough moral concept. What the film failed to mention in the credits, however, was that many of the drugs Ron was taking and selling were actually deemed ineffective, and are still not in use today despite the film's positivity towards those substances.

But this is based on a true story, and Ron lived for 7 years after being given a 30-day death sentence. So, something was working. And I do believe that those drugs he was taking were helpful for HIM - they just might not have been the most helpful compared to AZT once a correct dosage was figured out, nor the most helpful for the population at large. Also, there are several other confounding factors - his elimination of hard drugs and processed foods and change in lifestyle for instance. But the drugs were doing something, that much feels clear to me. And for most of the people at the time, they were not legally allowed to have access to that "something" and ended up dead.

The film also brings into question individual's medical rights. I believe people have the right to choose their medical treatment, unless A) that choice has public health impacts, like vaccines should be mandatory, B) they are a child whose parent should decide, and C) they have other developmental/cognitive disabilities that make them unable to understand the decisions being made. Or they have a drug addiction that may bias them towards a particular treatment. Otherwise, people should be able to choose. If someone has AIDs and they refuse AZT treatment, that's on them. And the supplements Ron was using were not illegal, they were unapproved (until the movie's climax, that is).

Apart from the discussion about medical rights generally, let's specifically discuss this film's exploration of the AIDs epidemic - SO WELL DONE. Jared Leto's trans character, for which he one the Academy Award, was SO lovable. There was such an outpouring of love for the gay/trans communities in this film, and a journey out of homophobia for our main character.

Matthew McConaughey's performance as Ron (a real life historical figure) was also absolutely deserving of his Academy Award. Most people say so because all of the physical weight he lost. For me, it is the emotional journey that's worth the award. The character starts out with such flippancy towards life, and upon diagnosis lashes out as angry, defensive, and confused. In denial. As he comes to terms with his disease, we see the desperation, the fear, the sadness. And, most importantly, as he discovers the drugs that can save his life, his character transforms into someone with the most powerful will to live than I have practically ever seen in film. Not only that, but the will to make his life mean something, to save the lives of others, was such a profound character growth I doubt I will witness for years of film-watching to come. (93/100)

Quote - "Sometimes I feel like I'm fighting for a life I ain't got time to live."

What to watch for - I mentioned Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey as having award-winning performances.

If you liked this film, I'd recommend The Normal Heart! Maybe... only if you've got the stomach for it. That film scarred me far more than this one did. So maybe I'd recommend Milk instead, which is not about AIDS, but gay culture.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee
Distributed by Focus Features