Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Matthew McConaughey has been on a tear recently: “Lincoln Lawyer” and “Mud,” etc. (I have yet to see “Magic Mike.”) He dives into the true-story Fight the System AIDS drama “Dallas Buyers Club” with a live-wire nerve and swagger that is awesome to behold, it’s near terrifying. This guy burned many years in terrible, Xerox rom-coms. Now he’s killin’ it. 

Unrecognizably taunt and spoiling for a fight, McConaughy is Ron Woodroof, a swinging, swaggering, swearing Dallas country boy with a knack for liquor, threesomes with women, gambling, and generally burning life out before he hits 50. Then he learns he has HIV. In 1985. Back when no one knew what the fuck HIV or AIDS was and I (hating myself now) joined in on Rock Hudson jokes. 

Ron is a good ol’ boy, would vote GOP if he voted, and hates homosexuals. When word leaks on his health, family and friends bolt, tag him queer, and he has 30 days to live. 

But the man won’t die. Not yet. 

He blows off Big Pharma cell-killer-med AZT and finds better drugs over the border, and with the help of a waif transgendered woman (Jared Leto of “Requiem for a Dream”), he brings those meds to the U.S. And then he fights the protectors of profit. The FDA. 

Don’t think this an AIDS drama, mark this next to “Silkwood” or, dare I say, “Rocky.” Unlikely heroes. I understand much of the story here is fictionalized. Well, it’s damn fine, smart fictionalizing that rarely falters. 

(Jennifer Garner plays a doctor written so tidy bland, a hand-holder surrogate for old church-going ladies in the audience, I cringed every time her face appeared. Not a slam to the actress. I like her. But the writing.) 

This is McConaughey’s show as he bullies, taunts, rages, screams, cries, takes a pistol to his head, and just chars the screen black with his walk and burning eyes. Remarkable. Leto also nails his tragic, beautifully penned role, deteriorating into nothingness. 

(Both men deserve every award they have coming their way, although I pitch a preference to “12 Years a Slave.”)

The finale -– that we all know is coming, history -- might not punch the emotional button we need to leave weeping, but it comes close. A-

The Kingdom (2007)

“The Kingdom” is a helluva hybrid film -- thinking person’s political brain cruncher of all things Middle East/United States and a damn good action film. The very last of this 2007 thriller with Jamie Foxx, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner and the awesome Chris Cooper may be way too Hollywood, but it’s preceded by bare-knuckle big-screen entertainment. And nasty, true politics. Director Peter Berg and his writers provide a shot of whiskey that won’t be found in any other Hollywood film that would go for “can’t we all get along” easiness. This film dares suggest maybe we can’t get along. But that’s only part of the film. On the action side, an explosive highway chase delivers shocking thrills, and leads up to a shoot-out that is eye-popping, if not a bit silly. Hell, I’ll give it away: All our American heroes walk out alive from a vicious battle with dozens of bomb-throwing, machine-gun-totting terrorists. A big Bruce Willis-like slump for a film that opens with a shocking attack on Americans playing the most American sport of baseball. B+