Reviews for this film from our members:
- Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
- Excerpt: Di fronte ad un film come Dallas Buyers Club del canadese Jean Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., Café de flore) si riconoscono ancora una volta gli ingredienti che fanno l’eccezionalità del cinema americano: sceneggiatura perfetta per toni e colori, interpretazioni insuperabili, realismo nel ritratto d’ambiente, regia personale e minimalista. Da non perdere.
- [New – 4/3/14] | Rick Aragon @ Rick’s Cafe Texan
- Excerpt: What happened to Matthew McConaughey? I’m not referring to his physical transformation for Dallas Buyers Club. I mean what happened to the guy who couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag, the spiritual father to Channing Tatum? Who need McConaughey actually acted.
- José Arce @ LaButaca.net [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Sin duda alguna, una de las mejores películas de 2013. La historia de este tipo extraordinario es una de las producciones más carismáticas que hemos visto en mucho tiempo, tanto a nivel técnico como interpretativo. Enorme Matthew McConaughey.
- Edwin Arnaudin @ Ashvegas
- Excerpt: Key to the film working are the much-publicized physical transformations of its two stars, and though the emaciation of McConaughey and Leto provide a steady visual power, each amplifies that effect through their respective masterful performances.
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: Sure, Rayon is a type; the free-spirited, life-lusting queen full of earthy humor and slightly overcooked tragic tendencies has been done and done, and the two characters’ dynamic is an awful lot like that of Hanks and Washington in Philadelphia (to name but the most obvious example). But that doesn’t mean it can’t still play, or that the film’s thematic coup — that by facing his mortality, Woodruff discuss his humanity — lands with any less grace.
- David Bax @ Battleship Pretension
- Excerpt: Dallas Buyers Club is the rare, inspiring real-life film that doesn’t insult its viewers. It has a message without preaching and it is moving without being disingenuous.
- Luke Bonanno @ DVDizzy.com
- Excerpt: The weakest of the eight Best Picture Oscar nominees that I’ve seen, “Dallas Buyers Club” still succeeds on the basis of its performances, especially the excellent, transformative McConaughey (whose emaciation is far from the extent of his acting here).
- Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Excerpt: Its worst parts are all bunched up at the end, which makes it hard to feel great about it… But the sheer electric force of McConaughey’s performance puts it over and then some.
- Joshua Brunsting @ The CriterionCast
- Enrique Buchichio @ Cartelera.com.uy [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Un drama intimista, efectivo y finalmente conmovedor que revela una de las tantas historias ocultas que permanecían sin ser contadas. Formidables actuaciones de Matthew McConaughey Jared Leto.
- Daniel Carlson @ Pajiba
- Samuel Castro @ Ochoymedio.info [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Más allá de unas actuaciones fantásticas, Dallas Buyers Club es un relato de enorme importancia y humanidad
- Bill Clark @ FromTheBalcony
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …director Jean-Marc Vallée’s (“The Young Victoria”) film succeeds on the strength of its performances more than in the telling of the story.
- Edwin Davies @ A Mighty Fine Blog
- Excerpt: The true revelation, for me, is Jared Leto, an actor who I’ve never been particularly interested in, even when he’s in films that I like. He’s always struck me as a performer who treats acting like weightlifting; he needs to show everyone that what he is doing requires a very great deal of effort.
- Tony Dayoub @ Cinema Viewfinder
- Excerpt: …Woodroof and Rayon form one of the most dynamic street couples to grace cinema since MIDNIGHT COWBOY.
- Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Grandes actores en una película que no lo es tanto.
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: Ron is willing to live with the pain because at least it’s living, which, we can almost hear him saying in that Texas twang, is better than the alternative.
- Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk
- Dustin Freeley @ MoviesAboutGladiators.com
- John Gilpatrick @ JohnLikesMovies.com
- Excerpt: Despite some screenplay hang-ups, there’s plenty of meat on this film’s bones—even if there’s very little on those of its star, Matthew McConaughey
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: An admirable, desperately sad, yet redemptive character study.
- Roderick Heath @ Ferdy on Films
- Excerpt: Dallas Buyers Club is by far at its best in the first half when concentrating on Ron’s dizzied journey from the centre to the fringe of his culture, and the confrontation with mortality by such a rudely sensual man, who deals with imminent death in the same way he deals with everything else, with fuck-you attitude, wheeler-dealer conceit, and spidery wit.
- Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: Dallas Buyers Club is highlighted by Matthew McConaughey’s extraordinary performance. His achievement is the pinnacle of a career that continues to impress with each successive role.
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: There’s nothing the least bit sentimental here. Nothing flashy or showy in McConaughey’s rough-edged portrait. But there is enormous compassion.
- Jennie Kermode @ Eye For Film
- Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Makes no apologies for Ron’s seedy, despicable behavior. That’s what strips “Dallas Buyers Club” of prefab filmic convention.
- Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
- Donald Levit @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Glenn Lovell @ CinemaDope.com
- Excerpt: … unrelievedly downbeat, but provides McConaughey with his juiciest role yet … Leto can start honing his Oscar acceptance speech. He’s that good.
- Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
- Excerpt: It may seem like the AIDS epidemic has waned in recent years thanks to drug cocktails and better health care choices, so why is a film like Dallas Buyers Club, a semi-biographical story of an AIDS patient struggling to survive, so important? Precisely because the epidemic hasn’t declined, just the pervasive fear has.
- Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
- Matthew McKernan @ FilmWhinge
- Excerpt: Dallas Buyer’s Club does not always feel fresh or new, but it is a film that works much better than a bald synopsis would suggest it should. This is mainly thanks to some great direction and camerawork, real world relevance and to Matthew McConaughey’s great performance, which reveals a rich and unpredictable humanity from within a role too often a Hollywood standard.
- Jason McKiernan @ Film Racket
- Excerpt: …what the film conveys so well is the fear, the confusion, the desperation, and the urgency of AIDS sufferers in this period of crisis.
- Ryan McNeil @ The Matinee
- Excerpt: The band played on, but we’re beginning to forget the tune they played.
- Simon Miraudo @ Quickflix
- Pat Mullen @ Cinemablographer
- Excerpt: Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto shine as a pair of unexpected outlaws.
- Frank Ochieng @ SFcrowsnest
- Excerpt: Disturbing, poignant and brilliantly acted, the potent impact of ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ certainly is a shocking triumph as both social commentary and absorbing entertainment. McConaughey’s gritty Oscar-worthy turn should hopefully erase the previous forgettable and flaccid romantic comedies that notoriously grace his filmography.
- Michael Pattison @ Tribune
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: We know going in that this story will not have a happy ending, but there’s a kind of catharsis in the knowledge that Woodruff’s struggle meant something: his battle against the FDA, while not exactly landmark legal precedent, nevertheless highlighted what was wrong with the system.
- Jamie S. Rich @ DVD Talk
- Excerpt: Valleé and cameraman Yves Belangér (Laurence Anyways) shoot Dallas Buyers Club with a minimum of glitz, letting the earthy tones of the Texas decor match the dour mood of the subject matter. Period details look authentic without being overplayed.
- Jonathan Richards @ www.jonrichardsplace.com
- Excerpt: Both Leto and McConaughey are going to be contenders in the awards season, and deservedly so.
- Jerry Roberts @ Armchair Cinema
- Excerpt: Matthew McConaughey reminds us why he became a movie star in the first place.
- Thomas Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: Dallas Buyers Club manages to be a good film without being great, significant without being important.
- Amir Siregar @ Flick Magazine [Indonesian]
- Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: Matthew McConaughey delivers his best performance to date in director Jean-Marc Vallée’s workmanlike adaptation of the true story of Texas HIV-infected Ron Woodroof’s struggle to stay alive against the negligent, if not malicious, policies of Big Pharma.
- Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: Can be criticized for shoehorning its story into a familiar formula to make it more comfortable for mainsrtream audiences. But the astronishing performances by McConaughey and Leto nonetheless give it a powerful charge.
- Sam Turner @ Film Intel
- Excerpt: ‘McConaughey’s rejuvenation may be partially built of films such as this, but the real keystones of his now borderline brilliant career will be the tales that allow him to be great without tempting a grandstand. For this year’s best, see: Mud.’
- Jean-François Vandeuren @ Panorama-cinema.com [French]
- Ron Wilkinson @ ItsJustMovies.com
- Excerpt: Great performances by McConaughey and Leto, important history and gritty realism save this screenplay from the mundane.
- Andrew Wyatt @ Look/Listen (St. Louis Magazine)
- Excerpt: What ultimately lifts Dallas Buyers Club above its well-worn outlines and political timidity is Vallée’s marvelous direction, with vigorous assists from the cinematography and editing.
