By Bob Gibbons
“Sometimes it feels like I’m fighting for a life I ain’t got time to live,” says Matthew McConaughey’s character at one point in this movie. This is a based-on-a-true-story of the early dark and devastating days of AIDs, told from a homophobic hustler’s point of view. It’s an angry movie. It’s angry at the Food and Drug Administration for abdicating its responsibility to protect the quality of life; angry at the Law for disallowing sick people to legally be able to extend their lives; angry at pharmaceutical companies for selling drugs that benefit only the companies that sell them. But it’s also an award-inspiring movie. The performances of McConaughey as an AIDs-infected egomaniac driven by profit and self-preservation – and, equally, of Jared Leto as a transgender drug addict whose torn stockings mirror the tears in her heart – are transfixing. Jean-Marc Valee directs with an even hand and a gritty feeling of realism, letting humor and sadness emerge naturally from the characters and situations, rather than grafting on emotions to wring out the audience. The movie he’s created feels a bit long, sometimes meandering, with few (if any) characters fundamentally changed by their experience. There are no big moments, no grand reveals. And yet, this is a movie to see for its performances. McConaughey should be nominated for an Oscar for his role; Leto simply must be.