Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

It’s the 1980s. Bull-riding Southern boy Ron (Matthew McConaughey) drinks hard, snorts a lot of coke and engages in heaps o’ sex.

After being electrocuted, he lands in the hospital where he’s diagnosed with AIDS. He’s told that his T-cell count is 9 (a healthy range is 150-200) and will be dead in 30 days. Ron doesn’t like gays and the news is too much to bear. He leaves the hospital against doctor’s orders despite his persistent cough, his emaciated frame and dizzy spells.

He delves into research to learn all he can about AIDS, its causes and what drugs have success combating the virus. He learns about AZT but trials won’t start for another year. He treks to Mexico to get drugs. He shares the diagnosis with his best friend and soon, Ron’s friends turn on him, he gets evicted and he loses his job.

Ron’s resourceful and intelligent. He battles the FDA, bamboozles at border crossings, travels to other countries to get supplements and proteins. He starts a drug buyers club where he sells the meds that are helping people with the virus. Early on, Ron’s finesse needs work. With the help of Rayon (Jared Leto), a transvestite he meets in the hospital, they build a very successful business that helps scores of sick people despite the incessant obstacles.

This is a remarkable movie that delves into interesting history about a dark era. The facts are alarming and moving. The resilience of Ron and Rayon is inspiring as are their personal struggles. The movie tells its story without beating us with how we are supposed to feel or respond. We are given insight into information in ways that don’t distract from the main events, such as how Ron contracted AIDS.

The cast bursts with talent. Jennifer Garner as the doctor who supports Ron and Rayon’s mission. Bradford Cox (lead singer of Deerhunter) as Rayon’s boyfriend. A white-haired Griffin Dunne as a doctor exiled from practicing in the US. Steve Zahn has a bit role.

You’ve heard about McConaughey’s physical transformation for this one. He’s difficult to behold, he’s that thin. His acting is his best yet, but it’s Jared Leto that is the pulse of Dallas Buyers Club. He’s unrecognizable: his voice, his walk, his shaved eyebrows. He seizes the role of Rayon.

Dallas Buyers Club details the strength of a person who transforms from homophobe to tireless supporter of individuals whose dire needs were largely ignored by the slow-to-act medical establishment. The movie stays with you afterwards.

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 117 minutes

Scale: 5

Crazy Heart (2009)

Perhaps it’s the influence of my favorite not-so-new show Nashville, but I loved Crazy Heart. Jeff Bridges can go from The Dude to Bad Blake and make an oft-told story shine.

Alcoholic country crooner Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is playing gigs across the Southwest at unknown saloons, tiny bars and even a bowling alley. With no new songs in years and his unpredictability due to his drinking, washed up Bad is living in the shadow of his former protégé Tommy Sweet, a huge star in the new wave of young Nashville.

Bad grants his first interview in years to a young, unknown writer Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal). During their interview, the chemistry is electric. Their banter is easy. They possess a comfort level unique between strangers. When Jean asks him about his four marriages and kids, the spell is broken and the interview is over. They agree to meet again the next night. The unlikely pair can’t fight the attraction. With his addiction to whiskey and her affliction for bad boys, can they forge a future?

His agent Jack (Paul Herman) presses him to write songs again and make his way back up. Jack secures him a gig headlining for Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell). It bring a crushing blow to Bad’s ego. He wants the big bucks but he can’t stand to be an opener and for the star who has surpassed him. Bad balances his life with Jean and her son Buddy, his life on the road and his drinking. He’s even inspired to write until he hits a series of snags that lead to a life-altering rock-bottom.

We don’t meet Tommy Sweet until 42 minutes in but we have heard about him so much, he deserves a drumroll advancing into the shot. The cast is an eclectic delight. The friendship between Wayne (Robert Duvall) and Bad give us perspective into the two men. Bridges as Bad comes alive on stage and provides glimpses into Bad’s past glory. (Bridges and Farrell contributed their own singing.)

Based on the eponymous novel by Thomas Cobb, the movie scored Bridges a Best Actor Oscar, Golden Globe and several other awards. Crazy Heart isn’t a new story but the writing and cast make it a worthwhile viewing. Several folks told me they liked the it despite the country music. I loved the music. If you don’t like the music, you can blame Nashville.

Co-writer/Director: Scott Cooper

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 106 minutes

Scale: 4

Flight (2012)

Denzel Washington brings new meaning to drunk driving while portraying boozy pilot Whip Whitaker. The opening scene depicts among the most terrifying plane-going-down sequences in recent memory.

Whip lands the plane in what his peers, superiors, the public call a miracle. He’s hailed a hero because only four of 106 die in the crash landing, but Whip isn’t off the hook. When admitted to the hospital, his blood was drawn and tested and his hair was snipped and examined for drugs and alcohol. The results cause Whip professional and personal problems that put him under the watchful public eye. Two empty airline-size bottles of vodka are found in the a bin only Whip and the crew had access to. Because of turbulence, beverage service had been suspended on the flight, making the empty bottles even more mysterious. Will Whip reveal what he knows or will he throw his dead friend under the metaphorical bus?

Whip has to face other issues he’s veiled himself from behind a wall of drugs and anger: his ex-wife only contacts him when she wants money. His son doesn’t get in touch at all. Katerina (Nadine Velazquez) his partying friend is dead. Whip meets Nicole (Kelly Reilly), an addict in recovery after an accidental OD, at the hospital and the two form an unlikely friendship. While this relationship gave some insight to the depth of Whip’s disease, the character of Nicole doesn’t anchor strongly in the plot. There isn’t investigation as to why Whip turned to drugs and alcohol, which would have given his character more insight but it didn’t occur to me until afterwards.

Flight is compelling. You see the scheming that goes on behind the scenes when big business stands to lose a lot of money and how deep pockets can erase medical records, skew evidence and disprove facts. Washington delivers an honest portrayal for which he was deservingly nominated for an Oscar. He may not have taken that prize but he does Flight right.

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Country: US

Genre: Drama

Run time: 138 minutes

Scale: 4

Smashed (2012)

I gravitated to Smashed because it co-stars Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame. I also wondered if a movie called Smashed would deliver a serious or ironic portrayal of addiction. Would it overpromise and under-deliver?

Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) oversleeps and wakes up, hung over and soaked in urine. She and husband Charlie (Aaron Paul) realize Kate has peed herself as they awake in the wet spot. Kate readies herself for work, taking a swig of beer as she showers and nipping whiskey before entering school to teach her grade schoolers, who are equally cute and aggressively nosy. When Kate suddenly pukes, missing the trash bin, her students are disturbed and horrified. They pummel her with questions, including whether she’s pregnant. To move along quickly, she affirms them but this white lie is the first complication in a series of events that stand to separate Kate from the two things she loves—her husband and drinking.

Kate and Charlie go out. They drink to excess. Kate wakes up on the street the morning after offering a stranger a ride, drunk driving and smoking crack. After another one of these nights, Kate tells Charlie she wants to slow down. This is not music to Charlie’s ears—drinking is what bonds them. She takes the advice of a fellow teacher and pal Dave Davies (Nick Offerman) and attends an AA meeting. She attempts sobriety and enlists the help of Jenny (Octavia Spencer), another AAer, who becomes her sponsor, but can she get clean and keep her husband?

I loved Smashed. I sought it out for Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame but the movie belongs to Winstead (a nearly unrecognizable Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim). Smashed is honest, funny, sad, hopeful and sad again. Charlie and Kate’s relationship isn’t maudlin or sentimental. Megan Mullally, as Principal Barnes, in a non-comedic role takes some getting used to. For Parks & Recreation fans, we also get Offerman in a very un-Ron Swanson-like role (no whittling).

Smashed is the indie film for the addiction section of your DVD collection. It deserves a watch, two, even three. I was riveted watching a couple who are so in love with one another until one of them ends the relationship with the bottle.

Co-writer/Director: James Ponsoldt

Country: US

Genre: Drama with funny moments

Run time: 82 minutes

Scale: 4