Dallas Buyer's Club: Harrowingly Beautiful

Dallas Buyers Club is the second Oscar-nominated blockbuster set in the 1980's to hit UK cinema's this winter. Yet, DBC has a far more palpably dark, gritty tone than its bedfellow, Wolf of Wall Street. A tale (based on a real story) of disease and bureaucracy, DBC has all of Wolf's vices and none of it's colourful revelry. Yet, it carries a far finer sentiment, exploring emotions of hope, friendship and love in times of difficulty. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are unlikely, but perfectly complimentary, co-stars in this modern classic.

Michael McConaughey is unrecognisable as protagonist Ron Woodroof: a drug and sex-addict (sound a bit like Belfort, anyone?), who discovers he is HIV positive. McConaughey has always been a slim man, but after losing 3.5 stone for the role, he was sickeningly thin. It made for hard viewing. The way I described it to my friend was like 'skin stretched over a skeleton' - no flesh, no blood. Every move he made, every time he fell, you expected him to break every bone in his body. Yet, the dramatic physical change did not seem gratuitous. As McConaughey said himself, 'this wasn't an affectation or an eccentric idea, I had a responsibility to play the man to the best of my ability'.

It was so refreshing to see McConaughey executing a serious role with such passion and, evidently, hard work. This wasn't a gig he just rocked up to and got on with: you can sense the labour which went into getting each line perfect. But, it was completely worth it. There wasn't a moment when his performance lagged or he was outshone - a mean feat considering the weighty talent of his co-star.

Jared Leto gives an absolutely stunning performance as the cheeky, charismatic, but inherently troubled transvestite Rayon. If I had not heard he was in DBC before I watched the film, I honestly would never have guessed it was him. Leto's performance somewhat eludes description - just watch it and see. Hopefully his brilliance will be rewarded with the 'Best Actor in a Supporting Role' Oscar: and, hopefully, he won't take such a long hiatus from acting again.

The friendship between the two protagonists is tenuous but ultimately beautiful. Woodroof is initially fiercely homophobic, but he is eventually able to overcome his prejudices, love Rayon as a person and build a life based around a shared need for companionship and support. Two very disparate worlds intersect in a fabulous way. 

Jennifer Garner plays it safe in the role of Dr Eve Saks; yet, this film needed a bit of safeness. While there is little remarkable about her performance, there is also nothing bad to say about it. Garner took the back seat so McConaughey and Leto could drive.

Dallas Buyers Club is not an easy watch. It requires some effort on the part of its audience: to stick with it, to not shy away from the often terrible scenes that unfold. Although I still maintain the 'Best Actor' Oscar is Leo's, McConaughey gives the performance of his career in DBC: drains himself physically and mentally. It is so, so far away from How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, and Magic Mike. McConaughey surely now enters into the realm of the greats and carries DBC along with him.

The Oscar's Yours Leo: The Wonderful Wolf of Wall Street

A colourful, clamorous, raucous cinematic experience, I’ll be bold and - in January, no less - assert that Martin Scorsese’s latest offering is THE film of 2014.

The eponymous ‘Wolf’ of Wall Street is one Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio), who transforms from Queens kid to Stock Tycoon - helped along the way by vast quantities of drugs, alcohol, and sex. I cannot help but gush about DiCaprio, and not merely because at age 39 he’s still ‘got it’ - in every sense of the phrase - but because of his sheer artistic versatility. He exhibited - progressively - Belfort’s youthful aspiration and naïveté, his manic substance addiction and predilection for hedonistic excess, his Midas-like lust for cold hard cash and his affection - both real and superficial - for friends and women alike. I could happily do a scene-by-scene analysis of DiCaprio’s glorious performance but, suffice to say, he dominated every single shot. Both - paradoxically - disliking and coveting who Belfort is and what he stands for, the audience remains captivated by DiCaprio’s impassioned portrayal for the film’s entire 180 minutes. 

Jonah Hill excelled in the role of Donnie, Belfort’s business partner and pal, adding just the right amount of buffoonery. The ‘bromance’ between him and DiCaprio was entirely convincing. A surprisingly complex character, the eventual treachery Donny enacts allowed Hill to excersice a rarely before-seen, darker capacity as an actor. 

Relative newcomer Margot Robbie oozed equal measures of class and coarseness, passivity and fire as Belfort’s second wife, Naomi. Moreover she was, of course, unbelievably beautiful and immaculate throughout. Her occasional full nudity, as Robbie has said herself in interviews, was necessary to Naomi's character. Aged only twenty-three, Robbie has exploited her youthful inhibition in a way older, more private actresses could not have done. The small glimpses of ‘hard’ acting we saw from Robbie were equally tantalising; she evinced real pathos in an extremely uncomfortable sex-scene before Belfort’s ultimate demise. 

Cinematically, the film was absolutely breathtaking; music surged, colour whirled - it plunged you under its surface and forcibly held you there for three hours. I particularly liked Scorsese’s technique of rewinding the film to tell us what really happened (a simple example being Belfort’s car changing from red to white). His incorporation of early videography - i.e. a hazy clip of Belfort and Naomi’s wedding video, promotional advertisements for the yacht and Belfort’s motivational speaking - insistently reinforced the 1980’s setting. On a related note, costuming was immpeccable; pastel suits, perms, versace on versace, colour clashes and fashion faux-pas mingled in an ever-exciting palette.

Scorsese's blockbuster is not without its critics. The Wolf of Wall Street has been accused of glamourising prostitution, violence and crime. Personally, I admired the cinematography, and felt that - even at its most rampant - the film quite overtly satirised and criticised these vices rather than condoned them. Opinions will diverge, yet, for me, the issues critics raise are unfounded; as long as viewing age restirictions are enforced, there shouldn’t be a ‘moralistic’ problem with the film. It is not ‘simply’, but overridingly, a wonderful piece of twenty-first century art. 

The Wolf of Wall Street is an enthralling, breathtaking film. DiCaprio has concreted his status as one of the finest actors of the twenty-first century; hopefully, his extraordinary efforts will be rewarded in March. 

NB: The DVD, apparently, contains an hour of extra footage. Excuse me while I pre-order it.