Movie · 2013 · Drama, History · 1h 57m · R · English
Curator score: 8.2/10 (1.2M ratings)
Dare to live.
Overview
Loosely based on the true-life tale of Ron Woodroof, a drug-taking, women-loving, homophobic man who in 1986 was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and given thirty days to live.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.2/10
IMDb: 7.9/10
Letterboxd: 4.02/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 77
TMDB: 7.9/10
Director
Jean-Marc Vallée
Production
Truth Entertainment, Voltage Pictures, CE, Evolution Independent, R² Films, Rainmaker Films
Cast
Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O'Hare, Steve Zahn, Michael O'Neill, Dallas Roberts, Griffin Dunne, Kevin Rankin, Donna DuPlantier, Deneen Tyler, J.D. Evermore, Ian Casselberry, Noelle Wilcox, Bradford Cox, Rick Espaillat, Lawrence Turner, Lucius Falick, James DuMont, Jane McNeill
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A powerful, performance-driven drama with real emotional force, even if it sometimes leans on familiar awards-movie framing and a somewhat conventional outsider-hero structure. McConaughey and Leto give the film its electricity, and the AIDS-era urgency still lands hard.
Best for
viewers who like transformative lead performances
audiences interested in AIDS-era history and activism
fans of gritty, emotionally intense prestige dramas
people who can tolerate imperfect but compelling true-story filmmaking
Skip if
you want a strictly historically nuanced ensemble perspective
you are sensitive to trans representation issues in older prestige dramas
you dislike Oscar-bait tonal cues or disease-centered dramas
you prefer subtle, low-key storytelling over big acting showcases
Overview
Dallas Buyers Club is built around a classic prestige-drama engine: a swaggering, deeply flawed man is forced to confront mortality and, in the process, becomes an unlikely advocate. The film’s greatest strength is how fully it commits to that transformation without sanding off Ron Woodroof’s ugliness or volatility. McConaughey’s performance is ferocious, physical, and oddly vulnerable, and Jared Leto brings a fragile, lived-in counterpoint that gives the movie much of its emotional charge.
Worth noting
At the same time, the film has the limitations of its era and its awards-season packaging. It can feel like it’s filtering a major public-health crisis through the redemption arc of a charismatic straight white antihero, which narrows the story’s perspective. Some viewers will find that framing frustrating, especially given how much richer the surrounding historical context could have been.
Bottom line
Even with those caveats, it remains a gripping watch because it understands momentum, desperation, and the messy ways people change under pressure. It’s not the most elegant AIDS drama, but it is one of the most forceful, and its performances still hit with real impact.
Top Letterboxd reviews
˗ˏˋ suspirliam ˊˎ˗ (4★) · 2829 likes
they always say yee haw they never ask haw yee, the movie
john (3.5★) · 2068 likes
Jared Leto might be annoying as hell in real life, but he acted the hell out of this movie.
Todd Gaines (4★) · 1968 likes
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… more 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… more
Gio (4.5★) · 1237 likes
hate to say it but i think jared leto was good in this
Kay (0.5★) · 1141 likes
casting a man as a trans woman is bad enough on its own but like
it had to be jared leto?? jesus christ what an insult to injury
2010 · Drama · 1h 56m · R · Curator 7.6/10 (688.8K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A muscular, performance-heavy true-story drama about survival, family conflict, and self-reinvention.