Dallas Buyers Club

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790636/

Dallas Buyers Club is not a great movie. It’s a picture of what happens when some good actors get a script they can really sink their teeth into. The acting is the main thing on display here and nearly every part is perfectly played.

Leading the way is Matthew McConaughey perfectly cast as an anti-hero for whom you don’t have much sympathy. He’s a womanizing drunkard with the extra baggage of egotism, bigotry and chauvinism. One might be tempted to experience Karmic glee when he receives his diagnosis of HIV. Then his character’s soul undergoes a metamorphosis that is subtle and realistic, meaning it never wallows in the sentimental.

McConaughey’s character, Ron Woodroof, was a real person. Receiving his diagnosis in the 80’s at a time when the victims of HIV were received with fear and loathing, Woodroof becomes frustrated with a medicine’s inability to treat his condition and looks for alternatives. This search puts him at odds with a system ideally designed to protect the public but ostensibly serving the financial interests of Big Pharma, the folks making huge profits on drugs of questionable safety and utility.

Rayon (Jared Leto) and Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) forge a business alliance and eventually a friendship in Dallas Buyers Club

These are desperate times and Woodroof meets a number of desperate people, the most dazzling (and fabulous) of whom is Rayon. She’s a flashy, in-your-face transgendered person portrayed by Jared Leto. Although the pair gets off to a shaky start, before they know it they’ve become partners in an enterprise that mainly provides hope for those without hope.

Both actors underwent their own metamorphosis to prepare for the roles. They both shed startling amounts of body mass to look the part of wasting patients. I’m sure such changes can’t be healthy so it’s difficult to applaud them for their sacrifice, but the results are dramatic.

Once Ron Woodroof establishes his network of purchasers of non-traditional treatments, many of which require trips across the border, he runs afoul of the FDA, DEA, AMA and assorted other authorities, otherwise known as The Man. The Man comes down hard on Woodroof and the film becomes a predictable series of legal thrusts and parries and, well, you know how that always turns out.

While many of these clubs existed then and may still be around now. The people involved in these clubs, I’m certain, had more wistful and heroic reasons for challenging the system and helping people in great need. However, Woodroof’s story is the one producers selected to set the times in the amber of our motion picture consciousness. They don’t pull any of their punches. The characters are raw and not too sympathetic. 

Their extracurricular activities are not honorable and many people will be disgusted by some of the situations. If you aren’t bothered by that, then you’ll enjoy some groundbreaking performances by actors in their best roles to date and that’s saying something for someone like McConaughey who seems to have two or three pictures out each year.

Dallas Buyer’s Club is a good history lesson and allows us to experience one of the darker times of recent history and for that, it gets three Wilders out of four.

  

 This week’s Overlooked Film of Significance: David Fincher’s masterpiece Fight Club could hardly be considered obscure, but next time you watch please note the minor role played by Jared Leto. Bleached blond with a never-say-die attitude, Leto’s character is almost euphoric as his pretty boy looks are pummeled into a freakish mush.

Blue Jasmine

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334873/

Blue Jasmine is an unpleasant piece of film making. The characters are lightly drawn, the photography uninspired and if were it not for a fine jazz/blues soundtrack there would be nothing about which to recommend it. If we step outside Woody Allen’s film, to take a good look at the elephant in the room, it’s a tacky exposé of a troubled woman dealing with the most stressful moments in her life. Sound familiar?

Cate Blanchett does a great job with her role and I’m pretty sure she’s gold for the golden statue next month. The rest of the cast is great, there’s just not much for them to do. Allen has the plot, the jokes and everything else on auto-drive. I like Bobby Cannavale, Alec Baldwin and Louis CK but there’s just not much for them to sink their teeth into. Andrew Dice Clay’s name surprised me in the opening credits. Sadly, he’s really not up to the task so we’re probably spared an Act II in his career.

Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) can't shake the blues - nor can viewers - in Blue Jasmine.

Now for that elephant… Before seeing this film I had no intention of discussing the story we all know – the betrayal, the accusations, the courts.  A good reviewer is supposed to keep his remarks to what is inside the frame.  Little did I know that what Allen has presented here forces me not only to discuss the issue but also to take sides.  I guess, in a way, that’s some strong film making.

All through the film I just couldn't figure out what Allen was getting at.  Jasmine, Blanchett’s character, is extremely disturbed. From the first scene we can tell she’s off her rocker and she doesn't improve in the course of the film. Is Allen poking fun at mental illness? Has he decided to trade intelligent social commentary for cheap shots at an unwell person? In the end I couldn't ignore the impression that he’s telling us his version of Mia Farrow’s side of the whole Woody-Mia-Dylan-Sun-Yi saga.

I've tended to defend Allen over the years even though there has been a cloud over his work for near 20 years. Recent films like To Rome With Love and Midnight in Paris have been inspired pieces of work, even if their chief appeal is a sophist's view of art, music and literature.

After sitting through Blue Jasmine, I don’t think I’ll defend Allen anymore. While I've often found Mia to be the kind of person who craves drama and the resulting attention she gets, this film is just too low a blow. No one deserves to be portrayed the way Allen portrays Mia in this film… Blue Mia…  When you see the conversation between Jasmine and her husband as their marriage comes to an end, you’ll get an idea of why I’m so bothered by this film. Of course, for my theory to hold up Allen must be admitting that there was something in his actions that justified Mia's charges. If this is the case, Allen errs by being too clever by half and having a good laugh on us, his loyal fans.

During the viewing, I wondered if certain aspects of the story were intended to indicate Allen’s true intentions. Is Mia’s favorite flower jasmine? Does the song Blue Moon mean something to her and not simply a colorful allusion made by a capable auteur? For me, Allen just made that cloud over his work that much darker. I may even choose to skip his work in the future. I realize I could be wrong. I’m no clairvoyant. There are many facts supporting both positions and just as much misinformation about what actually took place. Many people still think Allen was married to Mia or that Sun-Yi was his adopted daughter, neither of which is true.

I can’t say for sure whether Woody Allen is guilty of the things of which he’s been accused. We’ll probably never know. Were Our Patron to have made a film lampooning someone he felt had wronged him - and let's face it he probably did - not only would the result have been more subtle, there'd have been some laughs along the way. Sorry Woody, no Wilder for you.

This week’s Obscure Movie of Significance: If you haven’t seen The Station Agent with Peter Dinklage and Bobby Cannavale, then you need to get to the library or Amazon Prime and see it – a very nice movie all around.

12 Years a Slave

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/

Watching a film about the evil that was slavery is very difficult. Writing about such a film is no better. 12 Years a Slave is a very good movie. All aspects of the film – acting, direction, script, editing, music, sets, costumes and sound are superlative. In a less dynamic year, not packed with a half dozen really fine films, this is the kind of film that could sweep all the awards. As it is, producers of this film will still have plenty to celebrate when award season is over.

The film is based on a true story about a free black man living a pleasant life with a house, wife and children, running into some swindlers who drug him and then turn him over to slave traders in Washington DC years before the Civil War. Thus viewers are treated to a view of slavery from the point of view of someone dropped into a nightmarish world of endless toil and torture.

The difficulty in experiencing all this comes from the knowledge that this is our legacy – an ugly scar on the history of our people whose founding documents promised equality for all. This was driven home in my consciousness as recently as 2009 when President Obama’s arrival in the White House prompted many to point out the irony that the president’s new home, along with the  other buildings in our capital, had been built with slave labor.

Participation in Christian observances was considered an moral requirement of slave holders -- the prevailing thought was that enslaving heathens was sinful.

I am comforted somewhat by the fact that there were many people of that time, black and white, who lead the way in abolishing this sin. From that we can take great pride, although the promise of equality would not begin to be realized until my lifetime. It’s a fight each generation much wage.

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Adepero Oduye are really good as the slaves. They painfully convey torture and what they endure is surely some of the most violent acts I’ve ever seen on film. Michael Fassbender gets special attention as a sadistic, deranged slave owner. His character is sure to end up on top of lists of great movie villains going forward.

Troubling as 12 Years a Slave is, it’s a film everyone should see at some point and for that I’m giving it four Wilders.

   

Our Obscure Film of Significance for the Week: Not sure if I’ve mentioned this one before, but Chiwetel Ejiofor has a part in Children of Men, which is not only one of the all-time great scifi films, it’s unusual in that it’s a British scifi film – a country not known for great scifi nor great wines.