IT'S always a pleasure to see a well-liked actor, who has consistently delivered good work, suddenly start to put in the kind of performances that get the attention that awards are made of.

Colin Firth is a recent example – consistently strong and watchable on screen and then the double combination of A Single Man and The King’s Speech, propelling him to multiple awards, a double BAFTA and the Oscar for Best Actor.

Matthew McConaughey is an actor on a similar trajectory.

Best known in his earlier work for the handsome lead in romantic comedies, his turns in The Lincoln Lawyer, Mud, Magic Mike and now Dallas Buyers Club have propelled him to a new level.

Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) is a hard-living, no nonsense Texan who spends his time drinking, taking drugs and sleeping with a range of unsavoury women, often underneath the stands at the local rodeo.

He lands in hospital after an accident at work and is astonished to discover he is HIV positive and has about 30 days to live.

This is 1985, the AIDS epidemic is only just gathering traction and at the time incorrectly assumed to be limited to the gay community.

He manages to persuade a cleaner at the hospital to give him an experimental drug, but when it runs out he ends up in Mexico on a regimen which actually keeps him alive but which is unregulated by the Food & Drug Administration.

He starts smuggling drugs back to the US and finding a way of getting this treatment to himself and fellow sufferers while at the same time incurring the wrath of the authorities.

Dallas Buyers Club is an outstanding film, with two remarkable performances at its centre.

McConaughey is utterly compelling as the emaciated Woodroof, shedding a serious amount of bodyweight and the good looks he is known for, while maintaining a veneer of good ol’ boy charm when needed.

Jared Leto is equally brilliant as Rayon, a pre-operative transsexual who forms an awkward but endearing partnership with Ron.

It is a film which manages to be powerful and brutal, but charming and funny when it needs to be.

It has the feel of a low budget film but the two central roles are priceless and both deserve the Oscar that might well be theirs this year.

8/10

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