Dallas Buyers Club

Two fixed Oscar winners. If I would like you to watch Dallas Buyers Club my first argument would be: watch it for the magnificent and exciting interpretations of Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey in characters that most certainly will give them the coveted prize within a month. 

But also you should see this film because of a remarkable narrative precision, if we consider that it was filmed in 25 days due to its low budget; because it makes visible a story that deserves to be known and develops a topic that is almost never discussed and that we should take more seriously: AIDS.

For too long it was thought that AIDS was a "divine punishment" for homosexuals. In the '80s, a conservative and hypocritical society allowed AIDS patients to agonize because nobody was interested in finding drugs for "them", the "different ones". 

That is why it is very interesting what the main character of the film represents: Ron Woodroof, an electrician, a bull rider, a womanizer and a drunk, the typical "macho" who was outraged to learn that Rock Hudson was gay. When Woodroof is diagnosed with this disease his first thought is that he can not have AIDS, because he is not homosexual. Only then he will face his prejudices and will have to learn, at a library, that AIDS is also transmitted among heterosexuals and drugs users (a truth that was known but not much shared at the time).

One of the greatest achievements of the film is that it manages to combine the personal and real story of Woodroof with the fight that other patients and himself gave to have better medicines. I you are interested in the topic, you should see "How to survive a plague", nominated documentary for the Oscar's last year. Nevertheless, the clarity of the script for Dallas Buyers Club allows us to understand the reasons of personal change behind Woodroof's evolution; and yet he is not, fortunately, transformed here into a saint, as it is often done in American movies. 

The main reason that leads him to get forbidden drugs in the United States for HIV patients is greed, not altruism or goodness. Just the blows of life and his friendship with Rayon, the cheerful and energetic transvestite played by Jared Leto, will teach him several things. To be tolerant to whom is different, to whom he previously despised without a reason and even to appreciate women, as shown in the beautiful scene of a lovely dinner with the doctor performed by Jennifer Garner.

It is undeniable the parallel can be drawn between Woodroof, who decides one day to live healthily to extend the 30-day-old that was diagnosed and McConaughey, who finally decided to be the actor that he promised to be from the beginning. Dallas Buyers Club has the virtue of reminding us that  our choices are what make us who we are. That we will be what we dare to be.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Writers: Craig Borten, Melisa Wallack

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto