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Bob And Linda Read Internet Movie Reviews, Part Seven: Dallas Buyers Club

This year, we wanted to look back at the nine best picture nominees and remind ourselves — and you — that reactions to film are complicated, hilariously varied and wonderfully individual. So we looked over every comment for every nominee at RottenTomatoes.com, and we brought you some of our favorites. We'll be rolling these out between now and the Oscars, and today, we look at Dallas Buyers Club. (Many thanks to my dear pal Bob Mondello and rad NPR Multimedia whizzes Claire O'Neill and Kainaz Amaria. As you will see as these unfold, we had a lot of fun.) Check out our previous looks at American Hustle, Her, Gravity, Philomena, Nebraska and Wolf of Wall Street.

Bob's sincere Internet movie review: An AIDS story that isn't filled with false uplift but that still leaves audiences feeling uplifted. Jared Leto is a quiet revelation in drag, while Matthew McConaughey's flirty drawl and rowdy energy have never been put to better dramatic use.

Linda's sincere Internet movie review: I'm not sure I love the Jared Leto performance as much as a lot of people do, but the McConaughey performance is really fantastic. I'm not sure it's a very faithful depiction of the underlying true story, but as a story taken on its own, it's really engrossing.

Know your stuff before Oscars day!

  • A Fresh Air interview with Jared Leto
  • Matthew McConaughey, also on Fresh Air
  • The making of the film, from Morning Edition
  • Bob's full review of the film
  • A look at the real Ron Woodroof
  • Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.