Dallas Buyers Club.

Rom Woodroof.

Ron Woodroof was a heterosexual Texas electrician, a macho rodeo fan. He was also a racist homophobe who was diagnosed with HIV and given thirty days to live which led to him being ostracised by his friends and fellow worker’s.  It was when writer Craig Borten read an article about Woodroof in 1992 that he thought his story would make a good movie. After extensive interviews he decided to tell how Woodroof’s fight for life involved a battle for the anti viral medication he believed would prolong his life. To this end he become a smuggler of what were classed as unapproved drugs by America’s Federal Drugs Agency and therefore illegal. By 1987 Woodroof had established a business to supply unapproved drugs to aids sufferers. In an attempt to get around the law, that could mean a hefty prison sentence for anyone selling ‘illegal’ medicine, he set up a scheme based on one already running in New York City. “Clients” would pay a monthly subscription entitling them to as much free medication that they required. The operation was called the Dallas Buyers Club and by 1992 had 4000 regular customers receiving treatment that was more innovative than the treatment given at that time by the medical profession.

 

Our heterosexual cowboy is told he has AIDs.

Although there were many other such clubs operating, Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack’s script concentrates on Ron Woodroof’s activities. Into this true life scenario comes two main characters that are composites of real people. Namely the sympathetic female doctor Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) and the drug addicted cross dresser Rayon, played by Jared Leto who deservedly won the 2013 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Finally, topping even his award winning roles in Mud (2012), Killer Joe (2012) and The Paperboy (2012) Matthew McConaughey, who lost around 50 lbs. to play the part of Ron Woodroof, has finally won an Academy award for the Best Actor for his first class performance as Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club (2013).

 

Rayon is Ron's way into the gay community. 

The supportive doctor.

Jean-Marc Vallee, the French Canadian filmmaker who was responsible for the award winning The Young Victoria (2009), makes a remarkable job of highlighting the grey area that covers the prescription drug laws administered by the Federal Drug Agency and America’s for-profit medical establishment along with the time that was taken by a civilised and humane country to respond to the treatment of Aids.

 

A deep friendship develops between these two misfits. 

The finance for the movie took two and a half years to raise and because of budgetary problems the shoot time was reduced from 45 to 25 days and was shot in available light for the same reason. Resulting from this strict filming schedule has come an exceptional movie that even managed to draw a tear or two from the most hardened film blogger especially when Ron finally realises that he has feelings for Rayon and lets be honest who could not fall in love with Jared Leto’s Rayon, a character who hides ‘her’ frailty and fear so well behind a frock. A non-judgmental and humorous film that will appeal to all, but the most bigoted amongst us.

Mud

Matthew McConaughey is an actor that improves with every new film. I felt that in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) his portrayal of defence lawyer Mickey Haller gave him a chance to leave his lightweight roles behind and to be fair he grabbed the chance with both hands. In William Friedkin’s Killer Joe  he plays the lead role with sinisterly threatening menace and along with Juno Temple made this one of the best films of 2012. Playing opposite an ultra sexy Nicole Kidman in The Paperboy (2012) brought the role of Ward Jansen, a Miami Times investigative journalist, to life.

 

The love obsessed outlaw Mud.

My latest opportunity to evaluate his body of work was in Mud (2012) where he plays the love-obsessed outlaw of the title in a film that’s seen from the viewpoint of two 14-year-old boys. Ellis and his friend Neckbone travel to a deserted river island to make a secret ‘camp’ in a boat that has been lodged up a tree from a storm, there living in the boat they find a man called Mud. He tells them that he killed a man in Texas that was beating a pregnant woman, the same women he has been in love with since he was at school with her. He goes on to tell them how he plans to renovate the boat so he can meet with Juniper and escape into the sunset. The boys agree to help him by transporting food and equipment to the island but what they don’t know is that the murdered mans family, along with some bounty hunters are following Juniper with the aim of flushing out Mud and carrying out their own form of retribution.

 

Neckbone and Ellis.

This coming of age adventure drama, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, is set on the banks of the Mississippi River in Arkansas and brings to mind the Mark Twain novels of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, a character that was based on Twains boyhood friend Tom Blankenship and the name of a character in the film played by the great Sam Shepard (Blackthorn 2011)!

 

Juniper.

A movie about the power of love and how it lets you down if you believe in it too much but one that is surprisingly male dominated in which women are shown as untrustworthy and hard to pin down. This rich slice of Americana has a great script that goes far deeper than the adventure story it appears to be on the surface. A large pat on the back must go to DOP Adam Stone for making it such a good-looking picture. But it’s the acting that really makes this film stand out with McConaughey in his most watchable role to date but one that’s nearly upstaged by the raw talent of 16-year-old Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life 2010) who plays Ellis; Neckbone is played by Jacob Lofland who appears to be a natural actor in only his debut feature film. The movie also includes Reese Witherspoon as Juniper, Michael Shannon as Neckbone’s Uncle Galen and the veteran actor Joe Don Baker as King the father of the man Mud killed. Certainly one of the best and most enjoyable films I’ve seen this year from a director who shows great promise. 

The Paperboy.

The very charming Charlotte Bless.

Directed by Lee Daniels, best known for the award-winning Precious (2009), The Paperboy (2012) has had very mixed reviews but most agree that the best thing about the film is Nicole Kidman. In it she plays Charlotte Bless, a deliciously trashy 40-year-old blond who falls for a prisoner on death row that she has been corresponding with and although she has never met the man they are engaged to be married.  Her role certainly deserved some recognition for Best Actress at the big award ceremonies but as usual she didn’t get it.

Ward Jensen interviews Hillary von Wetter.

Based on a novel of the same name by American author Pete Dexter it’s mainly located in the simmering sun drenched swamps of Louisiana in 1969. Hillary van Wetter (John Cusack) is on death row for the murder of Thurmond Call an unscrupulous local sheriff who it is alleged killed a cousin of van Wetter. Charlotte Bless requests the help of two Miami Times investigative journalists, Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) and the Englishman Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), to prove that her beloved is innocent and should be released from prison so she can marry him. Ward, who is determined to get to the truth, is back on his home turf were his father and brother Jack (Zac Efron) are still living. Jack, who is to drive the two out of town reporters, has fallen in love with the sexpot Charlotte, which, as usual with matters of the heart, complicates things.    

Charlotte Bless pleads van wetter's case.

Its not as if this gothic thriller is not enjoyable, as I have already pointed out the acting from our leading lady is, as Peter Bradshaw put it in his Cannes review, “terrifically good, funny, sexy, and poignantly vulnerable” Macy Grey is very amusing at Anita the family’s maid who also narrates the story. John Cusack is scary as van Wetter and the other three main stars play their parts effortlessly. But, yes there is a but, the film is flat, and by that I mean it does not move you, its unemotional, but if you like your movies to be fun and somewhat raunchy then give it a try.

Who's taking who for a ride?

Killer Joe.

Best known for The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin’s Killer Joe (2012) is the second adaptation of a play by Tracy Letts, the first being Bug (2006) a disturbing film that probes the blurry lines between paranoia and nightmarish reality, an intense mind bending psychological thriller.

William Friedkin’s latest movie is a family drama, not your average mum, dad and one and a half kids living in a two story semi in some ‘tidy’ Newtown, but a very dysfunctional Texas trailer park family that includes father Ansel Smith (Thomas Haden Church) a motor mechanic who is none to bright, his adulterous waitress wife Sharla (Gina Gershon) and Ansel’s nubile daughter Dottie (the splendid scene stealing Juno Temple). Dottie’s brother Chris (Emile Hirsch) lives with their estranged troubled, alcoholic mother Adele. When Chris’s drug dealing debt’s catch up with him he hatches a plan to kill his mother who has a life insurance policy that pays out a substantial sum of money on her death to the bequeathed Dottie. Sharing this plan with his father they decide to hire a professional killer in the form of Joe Cooper a detective in the Dallas Police Department who moonlights as a contract killer. Joe demands his fee up front, which is something father and son are unable to do, they offer Joe half of the $50000 insurance money. He agrees as long as he is given a retainer namely sexual access to the virginal Dottie.

The sinister Joe Cooper.

In this dark tale of violence, sex and betrayal Friedkin manages very successfully to convey a great sense of evil mainly in the form of Killer Joe, played with sinisterly threatening menace by Matthew McConaughey, a character on the same wavelength as the sadistic cop in Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me (2010). McConaughey, following up his serious role in last years Lincoln Lawyer, has made quite a transformation from his ‘nice guy’ rom-com roles he was best known for, a similar transformation that Henry Fonda, another ‘nice guy’ made in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) when he became a child killer.

The nubile Dottie.

This extremely well made blackly comic slice of American film noir is not for everyone and I can assure you your never look as a piece of KFC fried chicken in the same light ever again. But if you enjoy a hardboiled violent cinematic experience this is the film for you.

A family that scheme together don't always stay together.