Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) gets the wake-up call of his life when he is told by doctors that he is HIV-positive and has roughly 30 days to live. Considering he’s a hard-living rodeo cowboy who ekes out a living as an electrician and who never used intravenous drugs, he begins by denying he has the virus. But soon he’s scrambling to find a way to live beyond the month he was given. This is the true story at the root of the new film Dallas Buyers Club.
Just to clear things up for some of the people who were sitting near me when I watched Nebraska, the terrific new film from director Alexander Payne (Election, Sideways, About Schmidt, The Descendants), it has no connection to the album of the same name by Bruce Springsteen. Bob Nelson based his screenplay on his own experiences visiting a small town in Nebraska and from news stories about people showing up at the offices of Publisher’s Clearing House, believing they’d won the big sweepstakes prize.
“Woody Grant” (Bruce Dern) thinks he has won that big prize. He and his wife “Kate” (June Squibb) met, married and lived a good chunk of their adult lives in Hawthorne, Nebraska before relocating to Billings, Montana. It is in Billings that the film opens with Woody’s son “David” (Will Forte) having to go to pick up his father at the police station. Woody was planning to walk the 800 or so miles to Lincoln, NE to claim the million he’s convinced he won. After all, he got a letter saying he’d won, somehow ignoring the conditional “if” portion that made winning contingent on his number having been selected.
Read moreAlexander Payne’s ‘Nebraska’ is well-worth the journey
[rating=4]Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Richard Cordery, Joshua McGuire, Tom Hollander and Margot Robbie
Writer(s): Richard Curtis
Director(s): Richard Curtis
“Our lives are the sum total of the choices we have made” – Dr. Wayne Dyer
When a movie sits on the shelf for more than seven years you have to wonder why. In the case of All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, the reasons are complex. Suffice it to say there was a sale followed by a company’s collapse. Now it is finally on the big screen and it was worth waiting for.
“Don Martello” (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a chip off of the old block in a number of ways. He is grounded. He cares about his family, his car, his apartment, his male friends, his church, the women he sleeps with and most importantly, his internet porn. This is a story of a man obsessed and how he chooses to deal with that obsession will shape his future.