Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey give eye-opening performances in gripping DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013)
In theaters now
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When foul-mouthed homophobic womanizing racist Ron Woodroof (a career redefining Matthew McConaughey) suddenly finds out he has contracted the AIDS virus and has thirty days to live, he is determined to do whatever it takes to stay alive. Soon he has set up a small operation where people with HIV and AIDS can obtain medications that the FDA has not approved but that appear to help control the disease. Based on a true story that was documented in a Dallas Life magazine article in August 1992, Dallas Buyers Club is a gripping look at the AIDS crisis as seen through the eyes of a macho Texas electrician and rodeo man who doesn’t like what he sees when it comes to the medical establishment, believing that doctors and the FDA are in bed with the big pharmaceutical companies, who want to fast-track the questionable AZT drug. Jared Leto gives a spectacular performance as Ron’s business partner, Rayon, a transgender woman trying to live life as a woman; Leto, almost unrecognizable, immerses himself in the complex role, avoiding genre clichés as the Marc Bolan-worshiping Rayon works alongside Woodroof. And McConaughey goes the full Christian Bale route as Woodroof, losing fifty pounds to play the gaunt wheeler-dealer who loves life too much to just give up. The cast also features Jennifer Garner as Eve Saks, a doctor who is sympathetic to Ron and Rayon’s plight; Denis O’Hare as her strict boss, Dr. Sevard; Griffin Dunne as a former doctor helping AIDS patients in Mexico; and Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox as Rayon’s lover, Sunny. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria) and written by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club has already started collecting end-of-year awards, and more should be coming for this powerful examination of a different side of the AIDS dilemma.
Nominated for six Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jared Leto), Best Film Editing (John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa), Best Original Screenplay (Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack), Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews)
When half-siblings Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and Laser (Josh Hutcherson) decide to track down their anonymous sperm-donor father, their two moms, Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening), are justifiably concerned with how that might affect their close-knit family. And when the donor ends up being a motorcycle-riding, free-spirited hottie (Mark Ruffalo) who would like to become part of the kids’ lives, it doesn’t take long for some major dysfunction to set in. The third feature-length narrative written or cowritten and directed by Lisa Cholodenko, following 1998’s High Art and 2002’s Laurel Canyon (she directed 2004’s Cavedweller but did not write it), The Kids Are All Right is another intimate drama that explores deeply personal relationships with grace and intelligence — along with a little lesbianism. Bening is strong as the man of the house, overly determined to control and protect her family; Moore is beguiling as the other mother, wanting to develop her own business as a landscape architect; and Wasikowka, who was so outstanding in the HBO series In Treatment, impresses again as the prodigal daughter preparing to go to college. Ruffalo, however, is too flat, and the film takes several missteps, including a final scene that is sadly predictable, detracting from an otherwise fresh and original story. The Kids Are All Right is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image on December 1 at 7:00 as part of the weekend series “Julianne Moore,” which pays tribute to the award-winning actress known for taking on challenging roles, showing six of her films, including the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and Todd Haynes’s Safe and Far from Heaven.
The first half of Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective is as dreadfully boring as Detective Cristi’s (Dragos Bucur) assignment, tailing a student, Victor (Radu Costin), who enjoys a joint with two of his friends every day after school. While Cristi wants to nail the kid’s supplier, the cop’s boss has him on a tight deadline, insisting he arrest Victor if the investigation continues to go nowhere, but Cristi strongly disagrees with putting the teenager away for up to seven years for a crime he believes will soon be abolished by the government. However, the film picks up considerably as Cristi seeks help from various contacts, getting caught up in red tape and public servants who would really rather not be bothered. And when he get called in by the chief (Vlad Ivanov from 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days) and gets a long lecture in linguistics, well, you won’t be able to control yourself from laughing out loud. Porumboiu keeps the pace very slow and very steady, but hang in there, because the end is a riot. Police, Adjective, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, screened at the New York Film Festival and at MoMA as part of the “Contenders, 2009,” series, and was Romania’s official entry for the Foreign Language Film Academy Award, is being shown December 2 at 3:00 at the Francesca Beale Theater as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2013,” which runs November 29 to December 3 and consists of works dating from 1962 to 2013 by such directors as Calin Peter Netzer, Nae Caranfil, Tom Wilson, Adrian Sitaru, Laura Capatana-Juller, Dan Pita, and Mircea Veroiul. Also on the schedule are the rest of Porumboiu’s films, including 12:08 East of Bucharest, the shorts trio Liviu’s Dream, A Trip to the City, and Gone with the Wine, and his latest, the closing-night selection When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, which is being presented December 3 at 6:00 and will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
Douglas Sirk and Thomas Mann would be proud. In Todd Haynes’s wonderfully retro Far from Heaven, Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore is amazing as 1950s housewife Cathy Whitaker, who thinks she has the perfect idyllic suburban life — until she discovers that her husband (Dennis Quaid) has a secret that dare not speak its name. Mr. & Mrs. Magnatech they are not after all. When she starts getting all chummy with the black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), people start talking, of course. Part Imitation of Life, part Death in Venice, and oh-so-original, Haynes’s awesome achievement will have you believing you’re watching a film made in the 1950s, propelled by Elmer Bernstein’s excellent music, Edward Lachman’s remarkable photography, and Mark Friedberg’s terrific production design. Far from Heaven is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image on November 30 at 4:00 as part of the weekend series “Julianne Moore,” which pays tribute to the award-winning actress known for taking on challenging roles by showing six of her films, including the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski, Steven Spielberg’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, Haynes’s Safe, and Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right.