Dallas Buyers Club
2013 · Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
Original language: English
- drama
- history
The story
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.
What it’s like
Handheld, close-cropped camera work and a deliberately grimy palette of sun-faded Texas browns, sickly fluorescent hospital whites and smoky bar amber give this film a rough, documentary-adjacent texture, with 1980s Dallas rendered in dusty heat, rodeo arenas, cramped apartments and sterile clinics. The score is sparse and unobtrusive, so the rooms and the silences carry the weight. Its vibe is gritty, raw and defiant, with bursts of dark humour cutting through long stretches of sickroom dread. It suits a late evening alone or a serious, unhurried watch rather than background viewing. Pacing is brisk in the dealing scenes and heavier in the hospital ones, and the emotional arc follows a prejudiced, hard-living man reluctantly reshaping his worldview through the people he once shunned. Intensity is moderate to high: frequent drug use, coarse language, sexual content, brief bloody medical images and a few sharp outbursts of violence, but no gore spectacle. It is for viewers who want a grounded, unsentimental portrait of resilience, and it is not gentle.
More films like Dallas Buyers Club
Closest in mood, pacing and theme. Tell us why you loved Dallas Buyers Cluband we’ll explain which ones fit you.
