What is it like when you find out you've got less than a month to live? Is everything you see or hear a marker signifying the dwindling amount of time you have in the face of impending death? According to director Jean-Marc Vallée's Dallas Buyers Club it just might be. The Canadian director's last film, Café de Flore, displayed a penchant for magical realism even in the context of profound grief, perhaps overly so. But Dallas Buyers Club tempers Vallée's predilection for the whimsical while still allowing him to indulge in some not inappropriate lyricism. Small details like the perfectly timed but tangential Billy "Crash" Craddock lyric "...he loves her so much he wants to die..." playing on a car radio or a bright, bold "30" on a blank calendar after doctors inform shitkickin' electrician Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) of his terminal condition bolster the story of this irreverent antihero, on a quixotic quest to extend the lives of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS, including his own. But it's the sober, strong performances by McConaughey and costar Jared Leto that keep Dallas Buyers Club firmly anchored in reality.
