By Jonathan Coffman

[email protected]

Dallas Buyer’s Club may seem like a familiar concept: a man develops a terminal illness and must fight for his health. However, Dallas Buyer’s Club avoids cliches at several turns, separating it from similar films.

Director Jean-Marc Vallee came from a long, strange road leading to this point. After directing several unknown features in his home in Quebec, he was hired by director Martin Scorsese to direct The Queen Victoria biopic in 2009. Interested in real life stories, Vallee used Dallas Buyer’s Club as an opportunity to tell what he’s described as a “strong point of view drama” for a lead character, and he succeeded in doing that.

Matthew McConaughey stars as the bull riding, homophobic, drug abusing Texan, Ron Woodroof. That alone gives you a sense of how unapologetic the film is, giving you things exactly as they are. To make things even more real, Woodroof tests positive for HIV.

He now faces death because of his careless addiction to hard drugs and unprotected sex, reminding him of the people who he hated most. That’s the kind of painful irony you can expect from this film.

However, instead of a depressing account of Woodroof’s battle against the disease, the audience gets a somewhat quirky battle.

In Mexico, Woodroof finds favorable alternatives to the FDA approved drugs for HIV treatment, and brings those back to Dallas to sell. Dealing these superior but unapproved drugs is his solution for HIV patients.

Woodroof’s survival story isn’t shown through hospitals and grueling treatment, but rather through a drug dealer’s twisted notion of the American Dream.

The story is a fascinating look at FDA drug approval and America’s medical treatment, but what lends the film so much heart are the acting performances.

McConaughey truly shines as the white trash wastoid turned forward thinker. It seems safe to say this is perhaps his finest role. He has so much to work with in this emotionally confused and tortured character.

Jared Leto also brings Woodroof’s partner-in-crime Rayon to life in astounding fashion, transforming himself into the cross-dressing patient that Woodroof is paired with upon being diagnosed.

Finally, Jennifer Garner brings some cool insight into the true story as the hospital’s doctor who is conflicted between working within legal formalities and finding the best treatment for patients.

This is a film that challenges the audience to overcome tension through the story’s unsettling realism. It brings laughter as well as social commentary, and makes you feel hopeful while still breaking your heart. It is something that’s truly all over the place, yet keeps the mess in an orderly, Oscar-worthy fashion.

Follow @KyKernel