Dallas Buyers Club

Matthew McConaughey has come a long way since his "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and "Fool's Gold" Days. I'm not saying those are terrible movies… but they're pretty terrible. After the release of the former, McConaughey took an unplanned hiatus from acting. I say unplanned, because he says he didn't really make a conscious decision to do so. He simply just started turning roles down and decided his time was better spent with his family.

Somehow, this was the best decision (or coincidence) of his career. Some would argue since his return to acting with the film "The Lincoln Layer", which I have yet to see, that his filmography has become significantly higher in quality and his roles have become more deep.

This is all extremely apparent with quite possibly his best role yet, in "Dallas Buyers Club".

In the film, McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof, a bigoted rodeo-cowboy/electrician who lives every day as if it were his last. Consumed by drugs, alcohol, gambling and unprotected sex, his life takes a turn for the worse when he passes out after being injured on the job and wakes up in the hospital. The doctor's tell him that while performing some tests on his blood, they found that he was HIV positive and only had 30 days to live.

This film takes place in the 80s, when AIDS and HIV weren't as widely understood as they are today. The extreme ignorance is shown throughout the film through Woodroof and his friends who now believe that Woodroof is a homosexual and is contagious to the touch. They shun Woodroof and force him to become estranged. Through all of his tribulations, Woodroof befriends a man he would have shunned and belittled in his past life. A transexual named Rayon, played by Jared Leto.

The big thing that stands out in this film are all of the great portrayals, particularly by McConaughey and Leto, who both took extreme measures to become their roles. Both had gone through dramatic dramatic weight loss to look their parts. But I feel even without their transformations, they still would have given outstanding performance worthy of several award nods.

I could never be an actor, because I like to eat too much.

This gritty, emotional and at times, humorous film is sure to see some Awards this coming season. Specifically Leto and McConaughey. But Judging by the trailers I saw prior to seeing this, they're gonna be given a run for their money. Regardless, these two give their best performance of their careers, in my opinion. This is definitely a hidden gem.

My Grade: A-

Killing Them Softly

I had such high hopes going into this movie. Brad Pitt starring and Andrew Dominik directing. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is my favorite movie and has been since I saw it in 2007. (If that seems random, Brad Pitt Starred in that and Andrew Dominik directed). But this movie just didn't meet my expectations.

With undertones of the Recession being shoved in your face at every scene and nothing really quite flowing, Killing Them Softly is about greed and the effect the recession has on Mob bosses and their employees. Interesting concept, but it comes off as everyone just being a whiny little bitch (excuse my French).

When three nobodies rob a mob controlled game and frame one of the card sharks for it, The mob bosses bring in an enforcer, played by Brad Pitt, to control the situation. And he does. But the entire time, everyone is just complaining about the recession and how it has affected times. But they're mob bosses in a non-Martin Scorsese gangster movie, so you don't care about them.

This is another case of a movie trying to be something that it's not. It couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It wanted to be a gangster movie but also have a deeper meaning, while also pointing out how bad President Bush was (We get it. He's the reason your life sucks, now move on!).

If this film had just been a gangster movie about a hit man hired to take out the idiots that knocked over the card game, it could have been great! But that wasn't enough.

This movie wasn't completely bad, though. It had great acting by everyone involved, and very good cinematography. Although, the writing and story left something to be desired.

My Grade: C

But, as always, form your own opinion. You may enjoy this movie more than I did.

ATTENTION! I WILL BE RELEASING THE NOMINATIONS FOR THE MIKEY AWARDS JANUARY 10th COINCIDING WITH THE ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS! I WILL POST THE WINNER ON FEBRUARY 24 DURING THE OSCARS!