In the case of the mostly gripping and historically illuminating Dallas Buyers Club, McConaughey has dramatically pared his physique down to skin and bones to play Ron Woodroof, a hedonistic rodeo-riding playboy in 1980s Texas who is told to put “his affairs in order” after doctors discover he has HIV.Īfter the waves of shock and denial and raging against the gods, he takes maverick action against “the man” of the medical world, shirking the then-questionable early uses of AZT in favor of vitamins and supplements he gets from Mexico and elsewhere. Of course, part of the change of scenery and artistry has to do with the chancier and more challenging roles he’s taking on, swapping the shallow pretty-boy parts for anti-heroic and otherwise characters.
So what is up with Matthew McConaughey, who has recently and magically transformed from a glib, South-in-his-mouth Hollywood hack to an actor of uncommon voltage and depth? In Magic Mike, Killer Joe, Mud, and now the even more bedazzling real-life story of a heroic AIDS victim in Dallas Buyers Club, the actor has somehow, in midstream and middle age, channeled a thespian power and screen-seizing moxie. MAGIC MATT: Matthew McConaughey’s performance as real-life AIDS victim Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club is another one for the books.
