Life Is Strange

Film night, and I've tackled the Oscar-magnet which is The Dallas Buyers Club. Always a pleasure to find a film which lives up to the hype, as the performances of Matthew McConaughey (who I'd previously regarded as your average rom-com plodder) and Jared Leto are every bit as good as their respective awards suggested.

It's far from easy to excel in a film like this, as the subject matter alone is a minefield strewn with the risks of emotional manipulation, preachy morals and excessively sentimental melodrama; one false step can easily leave the audience feeling cynical rather than uplifted. However, the true story of Ron Woodroof's struggle with AIDS, and the change in his previously bigoted attitudes after co-operating with the gay community - a genuine transformation which is symbolised in the film by his relationship with the fictional Rayon - is riveting specifically because of the understated performances of the two leads. Their friendship isn't an outrageous, taboo-busting ride which magically causes Woodroof to reassess his values; it's the relationship of two people forced together by circumstance, marked by frequent annoyance and frustration with each other, but increasingly and incrementally underpinned by mutual respect and dependence as individuals. A pleasure to watch.