Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Set in 1985 Dallas and based on a true story, The Dallas Buyers Club follows rough-edged electrician Ron Woodroof after a hospital test reveals he is HIV-positive and given only weeks to live. Angry, frightened and initially steeped in the prejudices of his time, Ron refuses to accept the status quo. He hunts down alternative treatments—working with an exiled doctor in Mexico—and begins smuggling therapies into the U.S. to save his own life and those of others. Teaming up with Rayon, a vulnerable and streetwise transgender woman, Ron builds the “buyers club” that bypasses pharmaceutical gatekeepers and pits him against doctors, regulators and the FDA. Watching the film you’ll experience a gritty, character-driven drama that blends raw, sometimes brutal realism with moments of surprising tenderness and dark humor. The story charts Ron’s uneasy, transformative relationship with Rayon and his growing empathy amid the fear, stigma and bureaucratic indifference of the early AIDS crisis. Expect tense confrontations, moral complexity, emotional highs and lows, and a portrait of resilience and defiance—an uncompromising, moving look at lives fought for outside the system. Content is intense and deals with illness, drug use, discrimination and loss.

Actors: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Runtime: 117 min

Genres: Biography, Drama

7.5 /10 77 /100 7.9 /10 7.7 /10