MAN! I needed a great movie I have been on such a bad run. SO what do you do when in a movie rut? Find Matthew Mac. To be fair, I have seen this multiple times and new it would score great but we needed it. Can always count on Matty Mac. It is movies like these why I think he is WILDLY underestimated as an actor. And why he is in my top 3. His range is unmatched only to Bale. It is just an INCREDIBLE performance. Also I am not sure but this might be the first actor to crack to 9’s? Maybe Bale did. Gosling maybe. Ok maybe the 3rd. But either way. This movie is fucking OUTSTANDING MASTERPIECE.
Matthew plays a rodeo cowboy in a small town. Very small town. And he has sex with just about anything in town. Mini little rockstar in his town. Lots of unprotected sex leads to him getting AIDS. Which in this town, only means one thing, you are gay. The whole town finds out and outcasts him as a homo. Which in small rural Texas, just uh isn’t gonna keep friends. He refuses treatment from doctors when he finds out about a drug that has not cleared FDA but has shown signs of helping greatly down in Mexico. The rest of the movie is Matthew, extremely sick and deteriorating from the AIDS, going back and forth to Mexico getting this drug and even bring it back to give to other patients he meets.
He forms some unlikely relationships, like with Jared Leto who plays a trans person with AIDS in another remarkable role. Just absolutely remarkable role and I tend to not like Leto. Another great role from Jennifer Garner as a concerned local nurse trying to get Matthew to do the traditional treatment.
This movie is a zillion out of 10 acting, extremely though provoking, full of feels, as you feel for Matthew Macs character as he navigates the loneliness the fear the pain of finding out you have this virus. If you have seen it, watch it again. If you haven’t go do it now. That is a review.