Dallas Buyers Club
Focus Features | Release Date: November 1, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
45
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 7, 2013
Dallas Buyers Club is one of the best pictures of the year. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 7, 2013
Vallée, working with a lean, lively script by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, neatly avoids excess, letting Woodroof’s terrific yarn stand on its own and getting out of the way of his extraordinary actors, who channel the story without condescension or manipulative cheats. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedOct 29, 2013
Dallas Buyers Club represents the best of what independent film on a limited budget can achieve — powerful, enlightening and not to be missed. Read full review
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekOct 29, 2013
What's remarkable about Dallas Buyers Club is its lack of sentimentality. The movie, like its star, is all angles and elbows, earning its emotion through sheer pragmatism. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 6, 2013
It wouldn’t be surprising to hear about moviegoers demanding their money back after seeing The Dallas Buyers Club, but not because the film isn’t good. It’s actually very nearly great. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 8, 2013
Jean-Marc Vallee’s film is anything but standard, thanks to an astonishing performance by Matthew McConaughey. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 31, 2013
This classic tale of a little guy taking on giants benefits from being essentially true, and from accomplished filmmaking, but most of all from the beautiful vitality of Mr. McConaughey's performance. Read full review
90
TimeRichard CorlissSep 14, 2013
This is a bold, drastic and utterly persuasive inhabiting of a doomed fighter by a performer who has graduated from the shirtless rom-com Romeo of the last decade to indie-film actor du jour. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 14, 2013
What distinguishes Borten and Wallack’s screenplay is its refusal to sentimentalize by providing humbling epiphanies to set Ron on the right path and endow him with empathy. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 15, 2013
McConaughey's performance isn't just about the weight loss. It's about gaining compassion, even wisdom, and it's awesome. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonNov 14, 2013
At once a fascinating character study and a scathing indictment of the role of the medical-pharmaceutical complex in exacerbating the AIDS crisis, the fact-based Dallas Buyers Club is one of the best films of the year. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 8, 2013
Thanks to the superb screenplay by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack and the brilliant, brave performances by the cast, Dallas Buyers Club gets just about everything right, save for a few over-the-top scenes that hammer home points that have already been made. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickOct 31, 2013
It’s a remarkable story, vividly and urgently told by French-Canadian director Vallée (“The Young Victoria”) from a pointed, schmaltz-free script by Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 31, 2013
McConaughey makes sure we feel his tenacity and triumphs in the treatment of AIDS. His explosive, unerring portrayal defines what makes an actor great, blazing commitment to a character and the range to make every nuance felt. Read full review
85
NPRBob MondelloNov 1, 2013
McConaughey's flirty drawl and rowdy energy have never been put to better dramatic use than they are in Dallas Buyers Club. Read full review
85
Film.comJordan HoffmanSep 14, 2013
It’s all about the performances. McConaughey and Leto don’t just give voice to the disenfranchised of the 1980s, but all people suddenly faced with impossible challenges. Read full review
83
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanNov 21, 2013
If we admire anything about him, it’s entrepreneurship; there’s something uniquely American about a guy outrunning his own death by turning suffering into profit. And as a judge asks, why shouldn’t a dying man be allowed to try any remedy for his disease? Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 20, 2013
Director Jean-Marc Vallee dutifully progresses from one obvious scene to the next. Solid work but unspectacular, perhaps figuring the boldness of his characters' words and actions can be artistic enough. And it is, in the hands of a temporarily reformed sex symbol and his unexpected leading lady. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 1, 2013
The real halo here belongs to McConaughey. He does justice to Ron’s story and to his own quicksilver talent. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbyFeb 10, 2014
If not wholly convincing as an ‘issues’ movie, this memoir is a triumph as an actors’ showcase; with McConaughey and Leto giving the performances of their careers. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanFeb 3, 2014
Get this — Matthew McConaughey is currently the most exciting acting talent at work in movies. Next up, the simple business of a Christopher Nolan. Read full review
80
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 22, 2013
McConaughey and Leto's performances are also the saviors of Vallee's film, which has a way of belaboring certain points and, in the process, robbing his film of no small amount of momentum. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensNov 1, 2013
This is a movie that traffics in deep hindbrain emotions: fear and rage and lust and, above all, the pure animal drive to go on living. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 31, 2013
If Woodroof is the movie’s guts, Rayon is its heart, and Leto (TV’s “My So-Called Life,” “Alexander”) is stunningly perfect, even when the story veers ever so slightly into expected territory. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 31, 2013
Even with some flaws and flailing, Dallas Buyers Club is a rough, raw, ragged and exhilarating ride. Read full review
80
The DissolveTasha RobinsonOct 29, 2013
It’s a formulaic story that takes full advantage of these broad, familiar formulas to win viewers, but finds enough unique detail to retain its own identity. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 29, 2013
Only 20 minutes in and you’re not going to think of another lead who could pull off this kind of reckoning — tangy, furious and about to become whip-smart. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 14, 2013
At just under two hours, it's a little long, but the blend of biting character study and campaigning pharmaceutical docudrama is zesty and memorable. Read full review
80
The GuardianPaul MacInnesSep 14, 2013
[McConaughey] delivers a twitchy, hostile performance on par with anything he's done since he escaped the rom com cul-de-sac. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenNov 13, 2013
Dallas Buyers Club is an indelible story about one man’s unwillingness to go gently into that good night, and the personal growth he experiences along the way. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 14, 2013
This is a straight-up portrait of a man who figured out a way to cling to life longer than anyone expected and, in the process, learned to let the world in. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 7, 2013
The limits of Dallas Buyers Club are the limits most true stories come up against, which are the facts. A good story lands and reverberates. In real life, stories have a way of just stopping and leaving you a bit unsatisfied. The latter is what happens in this movie, but perhaps that couldn't be avoided. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 7, 2013
Regardless of who sees or doesn't see Dallas Buyers Club, however, the movie does what it sets out to do by providing a striking portrait of a remarkable character and offering a history lesson to those too young to remember how things were for AIDS sufferers during the dark ages of the 1980s. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 7, 2013
By the end of this sincerely calculated, always watchable movie, everything has burned away but the fury, including whatever you may think or have thought about the actor you’re looking at. That’s how good the performance is. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 7, 2013
McConaughey is first-rate throughout, on top of every dramatic and blackly comic situation, even when the character isn't on top of anything. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyNov 1, 2013
If Dallas Buyers Club falls somewhat short in the categories of historical chronicle, emotional wallop, and information delivery, its conscientious attempts to portray a group of people in trouble in a troubled time delivers mini-epiphanies in a series of small doses. And that isn't nothing. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigOct 31, 2013
Through its detailed depiction of the lead character and McConaughey's outstanding portrayal, Dallas Buyers Club enlightens compellingly without sermonizing. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 30, 2013
There’s something undeniably affecting about that trajectory, which allows McConaughey to turn his character into an empathetic figure — one whose prejudice fades as his fighting spirit intensifies — without sacrificing his rapscallion spirit. He’s the same loudmouthed macho braggart at the end of the movie than he was at the beginning, but now he’s a loudmouthed macho braggart with purpose. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyOct 30, 2013
It's been 20 years since Tom Hanks put a movie star's face on the AIDS crisis in "Philadelphia." Since then, Hollywood has largely ignored one of the most tragic chapters of the 20th century. Considering that track record, even a movie as imperfect as Dallas Buyers Club is something worth celebrating. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnSep 14, 2013
The narrative only really stumbles because its tone never manages to convince on the level that McConaughey's performance eventually does. With its subdued approach, Dallas Buyers Club stops just short of an emotional payoff. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 14, 2013
Despite the fine performances from McConaughey and Leto, tightly coiled editing that keeps the story moving and a nicely measured balance between drama and comedy (McConaughey is often a hoot), Dallas Buyers Club still sometimes feels like it's missing one more grace note. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottOct 31, 2013
There is warmth and intelligence here, and undeniable sincerity, but also a determination, in the face of much painful and fascinating history, to play it safe. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid DenbyOct 31, 2013
As the real-life Ronald Woodroof, he (Mcconaughey) does work that is pretty much astounding. [4 Nov. 2013, p.116]
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 14, 2013
The film manages to educate without ever feeling didactic, and to entertain in the face of what would, to any other character, seem like a grim life sentence. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoOct 25, 2013
Conventional but never sanctimonious, it balances out its familiar recovery angle with a healthy measure of sardonic wit. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 28, 2013
Despite its downbeat context (a plague at its height), the movie is a crowd-­pleaser — graceful and funny enough to distract you from its gaps and elisions. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirOct 31, 2013
Despite its clichéd elements, Dallas Buyers Club is a fierce celebration of the unpredictable power that belongs to the outcast, the despised, the pariah. That’s not a story of the ‘80s, it’s a story of always. Read full review
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