Jennifer Garner, Maika Monroe, and Tye Sheridan lead 'The Tribes of Palos Verdes'

 Joy Nicholson's 1988 coming-of-age novel The Tribes of Palos Verdes is headed to the big screen, and it has just landed a great trio of leads. Jennifer Garner, Maika Monroe (At Any Price), and Tye Sheridan (Mud) will star in the film set in the affluent beach community of Palos Verdes.

DJ Caruso, who has been MIA from major studio films for awhile now, is set to direct the story which centers on teenagers Medina (Monroe) and Jim (Sheridan) who move to the beachside town in California from Michigan, where their mother (Garner) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Their father becomes a surgeon to the stars, while Medina takes up surfing to escape the troubled household.

Garner has had a busy year with three movies, but only Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day performing all that well. Monroe will be seen soon in the buzzed-about horror, It Follows (trailer here), while Sheridan starred in Joe opposite Nicolas Cage. Penned by Karen Croner (Admission), The Tribes of Palos Verdes begins filming next year.

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John Lennon Inspires Al Pacino in First Trailer for 'Danny Collins'

Unlike some actors who steadfastly refuse to act their age as they get older, Al Pacino has embraced it. Most recently he played an aging actor who falls in love with a younger woman in The Humbling, and now in the rock drama Danny Collins he stars as a former rocker inspired by the late John Lennon.

Formerly titled Imagine, the film has Pacino as an aging rock star big in the 1970s but still living the hard-partying lifestyle. When his manager turns up a 40-year-old letter written to him by John Lennon, it spurs him to try and reconnect with the family he's long neglected. Bobby Cannavale stars as his son, in a role that Steve Carell and Jeremy Renner were both attached to at different times. Annette Bening, Jennifer Garner, Christopher Plummer and Melissa Benoist make up a pretty impressive cast for Dan Fogelman (Crazy Stupid Love screenwriter) in his directorial debut.

Overall, this trailer is mostly forgettable and cheesy, but maybe Danny Collins will continue Pacino's solid streak w hen it opens March 20th 2015.

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Review: 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day', Starring Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner

A lot of family-friendly movies struggle with being entertaining for both the kids and the adults. Disney has usually gotten it right in the past, and does so now with the youth book-to-film adaptation Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day, a sweet family comedy anchored by Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner, and is funny, cute, and entertaining in all the right ways. 

Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould) has a bad day every day. He's always down on his luck, the girl he likes doesn't give him a lot of attention, and his 12th birthday party is coming up but is going to be overshadowed by another classmate's fog-machine, energy drink bar, and

trampoline party. And out of everything, Alexander gets the most annoyed with his family, who don't seem to understand the extent of his bad days since they're apparently, according to his brother, "#blessed". 

So the night before Alexander's 12th birthday, and on a day that's supposed to bring big things for his family, he makes a wish that just once, his family would know what it's like to have a bad day like him. The next day, everything imaginable goes wrong for his family (who include Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Dylan Minnette, Kerris Dorsey). There is a lot of running around, fire, a driving test gone completely wrong, a book reading disaster, and a high on cold medicine rendition of Peter Pan. Somehow, the Coopers have to pull it all together in time for Alexander's birthday. 

While the title is a bit of a mouthful, the film is family-friendly fun at its best. It's even sure to please those without families, because the movie at its most basic is genuinely funny and cute. With a run time of only 81 minutes, the film gets straight to the point, but never feels rushed. The plot is simple and there's enough craziness going on, which is thankfully not at all forced or contrived just for laughs. 

Ed Oxenbould is cute as Alexander. The way he talks and acts makes you understand his frustration with his everlasting string of bad luck. Steve Carell is the silly funnyman whose streak of positivism holds up the family, and Jennifer Garner's got the "mom smile" but really shines when she's aggravated and gets frustratingly aggressive, which is hilarious. Dylan Minnette and Kerris Dorsey are great supports and flaunt a personality of their own without slinking quietly into the background. Dick van Dyke and Jennifer Coolidge make fantastic cameos and really make the movie more fun. 

It's very hard not to like this film. It's energetic, filled with silly, genuine fun, and has humorous beats that will make you smile and possibly laugh out loud. Its long title gets a shout out not once, but twice in the film, which is a major accomplishment given the fact that it's easy  to jumble up the words. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is sincerely funny and manages to have a moral to its story, while being entertaining fun for the whole family. 

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Review: Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women & Children' starring Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner, and Ansel Elgort

At one point do we admit that Jason Reitman peaked with Up in the Airand now he's basically finished? Okay, one could make a case for Young Adult based solely on Charlize Theron's performance, but it seems Reitman is more intent on delivering messages than telling stories. His latest film, the blandly-titled Men, Women & Children is like a relic from 1999 when fear of the Internet was at its peak and every episode of 60 Minutes had some new horror story to peddle. 

A desperate grab to seem relevant and profound, the film actually begins with a few from a satellite hovering deep in space, analyzing and collecting data about all of the people down on Earth below. Emma Thompson's super-serious narration leads us into the lives of the people below, who have all had their lives changed by the Internet and technology. Like the similarly-themed Disconnect from last year, a series of connected stories show us the absolute worst of what the social networking age has to offer, boiled down into Afterschool Special simplicity. Adam Sandler, taking a break from vacationing with his pals in terrible comedies, goes dramatic as Don, whose marriage to Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) has gone stale. We know he's sad because even his beard is tragic. He masturbates to porn so much the spyware has killed his computer, forcing him to use the one belonging to his teenaged son, Chris. Chris has watched so much Internet smut he can no longer get it up with real girls. Damn libido-killing Internet.

So what else is happening in this "Pale Blue Dot" of ours? Yes, the film quotes Carl Sagan in a lazy attempt at profundity. Body image issues crop up with a pair of high school cheerleaders: Hannah (Olivia Crocicchia), who has a modeling website of questionable legality run by her celebrity-seeking mother (Judy Greer). Hannah's pencil-thin friend Allison (Elena Kampouris) has basically quit eating because she frequents chat rooms with others obsessed with being thin. They tell her to sniff her dinner but eat celery, instead. The girl needs a visit to the Golden Corral buffet, STAT. But not nearly as badly as hyper-protective Patricia Beltmeyer (Jennifer Garner) needs to get herself a life. You think wireless wire-tapping is bad? Patricia tracks her daughter Brandy's (Kaitlyn Dever) every move, every keystroke, every phone conversation and text message, leaving the quiet and sensitive girl afraid to even have friends. When she makes one anyway in MMORPG-obsessed Tim (Ansel Elgort), it's the kind of freeing experience we know is doomed from the start.

This is not a happy movie, or even really a hopeful one. We get the message within the first 30 seconds: the proliferation of social networking and online communication has made us less capable of forming new relationships, of experiencing the real world around us. The rest of the film is a sledge hammer exercise, with Reitman and co-writer Erin Cressida Wilson adding nothing new to the discussion.

This is too talented of a cast for it to be a total buzzkill, though. Individual scenes and certain relationships work better than others, and perhaps this film would have been served by pairing down the number of stories it's trying to tell. Dever and Elgort, standouts from Short Term 12 and The Fault In Our Stars most recently, have genuine chemistry in the film's most complicated romance. His character Tim is struggling with abandonment issues and found a sense of camaraderie in online gaming that he couldn't find playing football. Brandy is as much a lifeline for him as he is for her, and their relationship feels more genuine than any of the film's many overdone dissections of the digital experience. When Don and Rachel's marital malaise leads to Internet dating sites, hook-ups with paid escorts, and her begging a creepy Dennis Haysbert to give her a good f**k, things have gotten so ludicrous it's impossible not to laugh.

Seriously, though, it does seem as if Reitman is sinking right before our eyes. The guy who gave us perfectly contemporary films Juno and Up in the Air is now trying too hard to be relevant. Men, Women & Children wants desperately to make an impact on your life, but chances are you wouldn't even "Like" it on Facebook.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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New Trailer for Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women and Children'

In case you haven't figured it out, social networking isn't always so social. For all the ways the Internet has connected us to the world at large it has also disconnected us personally. This is nothing new, and Hollywood has already told that story umpteen times. So what makes Jason Reitman's Men, Women and Children different from the rest? The phenomenal cast he's put together with Adam Sandler, Ansel Elgort, Kaitlyn Dever, Emma Thompson, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Rosemarie DeWitt, J.K. Simmons, and Dennis Haysbert,

The latest trailer introduces us to a number of characters whose lives have been affected, generally for the worse, by the Internet. This trailer seems to be dealing mostly with the search for love and companionship, which technology has made easier and complicated at the same time. While incredibly somber, this looks like a step up from Reitman's last film, Labor Day. Then again that one looked good in trailers, too, and Reitman has since written it off as a mistake. The reviews out of the festival circuit have been mixed, and their doesn't seem to be much buzz for a film opening in just a couple of weeks on October 1st.

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First Trailer and Images from Jason Reitman's 'Men, Women, & Children'

What amounts to a slump for someone like Jason Reitman are the solid reviews and underwhelming performance by his dark comedy Young Adult, and the overall disastrous response to Labor Day. That last film in particular didn't truly feel like Reitman at the height of his powers, which is finding humor and truth in uncomfortable relationships. His first three films; Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air hit on that difficult tone perfectly. And now with his latest film Men, Women, & Children on the way it seems Reitman is doing something new by exploring the dark side of technology.

Gathering a large and varied ensemble that includes Adam Sandler in a rare dramatic role, Jennifer Garner, The Fault In Our Stars' Ansel Elgort, Short Term 12's Kaitlyn Dever, Emma Thompson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Judy Greer, J.K. Simmons, and Dennis Haysbert, the new trailer suggests an interconnected story about relationships ripped apart in the Internet Age. Is it possible to find a human connection in a world dominated by social networking? It's a pretty gloomy piece of footage and is totally free of Reitman's usual brand of humor, but with Eric Cressida Wilson (Secretary) co-writing the screenplay there's bound to be some offbeat laughs in there somewhere.

Men, Women, & Children will hit the Toronto International Film Festival before opening this October.

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First 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day' Trailer with Steve Carell

Obnoxiously long title aside, Judith Viorst's children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is considered a classic, which is why 20th Century Fox and Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) were anxious to bring it to the screen. Cholodenko ultimately dropped out as director, staying on as co-writer, but Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl) picked up the reins and judging by the first trailer he's lived up to the novel's chaotic spirit.

Starring Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, and Ed Oxenbould in the title role, the film covers one truly awful day in the life of the Brand family. Young Alexander has always had it tough while everyone else seems to get what they want, until the tables are suddenly turned and they get a taste of what he goes through. Coming off his darker-than-expected turn in The Way Way Back it's good to see Carell doing something wholesome that families will likely flock to.

Also starring Dylan Minnette, Jennifer Coolidge, Bella Thorne, Kerris Dorsey, and Megan Mullally, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day opens October 10th.

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Review: 'Draft Day' Starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner

If there's one actor most closely associated with the sports movie genre, it's Kevin Costner. If there's a guy who has exemplified the middle-aged, lousy in life but king on the field archetype it's him, and he's done it unabashed classics like Bull Durham and Field of Dreams. But even in the underrated golf comedy, Tin Cup, Costner has excelled at this very specific sort of character, which is why it's been so strange to see him away from it for so long. For me at least, it's a role I've sorely missed seeing, but never would I have thought to see it re-emerge in a football dramedy/thriller like Draft Day.

In a sense, all of those earlier Costner films are a form of wish fulfillment. Wish fulfillment for guys, anyway, where the breaks go exactly right on the green or the home run sails over the fence with glorious perfection, all while some gorgeous woman cheers on from the stands. Draft Day kind of follows that same pattern, except replace the stands with an office and the home runs with draft picks. Think the behind-the-scenes insider jargon of Moneyball mixed with the Cleveland woe of Major League, all wrapped in the effortless branding and gigantic egos of the NFL.

Costner proves he's a natural of the gridiron as much as the baseball diamond, playing Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver, Jr. Sonny's life is in disarray, and it couldn't happen at a worse time. His father, the team's legendary head coach he was forced to fire a couple of seasons ago, has recently passed away. The tension this decision has created with his mother (Ellen Burstyn) is thicker than an offensive tackle; he's been having a secret romance with the team's salary cap analyst, Ali (Jennifer Garner), who has just revealed she's pregnant; and all of this occurs just as the NFL Draft is mere hours away. Coming off a mediocre year plagued by injury, Sonny is basically given an ultimatum by the team owner (Frank Langella) to "make a splash" at the Draft or risk getting canned.

While the life decisions Sonny is forced to make, like choosing whether he even wants to be a father, are familiar and play out with few surprises, it's the wheeling 'n dealing of big time professional football that really moves the chains. It's new ground for Ivan Reitman, the legendary director of many comedy staples in the 1980s, and he overcompensates when trying to capture the frenetic pace and anxiety of NFL war rooms where every decision literally means millions of dollars. Through a combination of 24-style ticking clocks and split screens that would make Jack Bauer throw up his arms in protest, Reitman zips us through the many internal and external factors intruding in on Sonny's decisions. Taking the ultimate gamble, he decides to mortgage the team's future, trading away three future #1 draft picks to secure the top spot right now. Not only does it send ripples through the league, but what should have made his choice easier only gets tougher.

The consensus #1 choice, and would fit the owner's splash-making criteria, is blue chip quarterback Bo Callahan (Josh Pence), a pretty boy with a hot shot agent (P. Diddy, appropriately) and possible character issues. On the other end of the spectrum is the guy Sonny wants, linebacker and tackling machine Vontae Mack (Chadwick Boseman), a natural team leader and a genuinely good guy. There's also the hometown boy, running back Ray Jennings (played by Houston Oilers RB Arian Foster), whose father (Terry Crews) played for the Browns. Choosing Callahan would make the franchise happy, including their arrogant Super Bowl-winning coach (Denis Leary), but is it necessarily the right thing to do?

So yeah, this is one of those alternate realities where things like morals and personal codes of honor intrude in the high-stakes world of NFL decision making. Like that exists! It's often hokey and preachy, frequently serving as a self-aggrandizing advertisement for the NFL and the purity of its wealthy players. When one player, who is destined to make millions even if he drops a few spots, laments how badly his family needs him to be the #1 pick so he can make more, it's a little tough to sympathize with his "plight". But Sonny is a guy you genuinely want to see succeed, and Costner gives him all of the rough edges we've seen in most of his other genre characters. His chemistry with Garner, at her feistiest for the first time in way too long, is playful and a lot of fun until it comes time to make some tough choices. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones might see a little of himself (okay, a lot) in the performance given by Langella.

But at the same time, Draft Day is an authentic window into the NFL like we've never seen before on the silver screen. There's a certain thrill in actually seeing your team represented as part of the story; their actual team uniforms, logos, stadiums, and players are all there. Even league commissioner Roger Goodell shows up, only to get booed by the Draft's typically rowdy fans. It really does feel like you're being let in on a secret peek behind the curtain, or sitting right there at Radio City Music Hall. While Draft Dayis hardly a Super Bowl champ, NFL fans aching for some football will want to run and check it out.

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First Image from 'Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day'

2013 turned out to be something of a mixed bag for Steve Carell. It began with the miserable magician comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, but picked up considerably in The Way Way Back, which saw him go down a darker path than we're accustomed to. He scored big on two sequels, Despicable Me 2 and Anchorman: The Legend Continues, but also saw his Oscar hopes dashed when Foxcatcher got moved to 2014. That's also when he'll appear in Disney's adaptation of Judith Viorst's Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

The first image from the family comedy has been released, and it shows that it won't just be Alexander having a really awful day, but everybody is going to have something to scream about. Directed by Miguel Arteta and starring Carell, Jennifer Garner, and Ed Oxenbould, the official synopsis explains a little about why everyone is so upset...

Disney’s “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” follows the exploits of 11-year-old Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) as he experiences the most terrible and horrible day of his young life — a day that begins with gum stuck in his hair, followed by one calamity after another. But when Alexander tells his upbeat family about the misadventures of his disastrous day, he finds little sympathy and begins to wonder if bad things only happen to him. He soon learns that he’s not alone when his mom (Jennifer Garner), dad (Steve Carell), brother (Dylan Minnette) and sister (Kerris Dorsey) all find themselves living through their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Anyone who says there is no such thing as a bad day just hasn’t had one. “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” directed by Independent Spirit Award winner Miguel Arteta (“The Good Girl,” “Cedar Rapids,” “Youth in Revolt”) from a screenplay by Rob Lieber, is a 21 Laps Entertainment/Jim Henson Company production. The film hits theaters nationwide Oct. 10, 2014.

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Kevin Costner Makes the Top Pick in First 'Draft Day' Trailer

For fans of the NFL, the day of the college draft is full of promise. It's the time when Hall of Fame careers begin and championship franchises are built. It can be pretty intense, and director Ivan Reitman hopes to capture that energy in the sports drama Draft Day, and judging by the first trailer he may have it nailed.

Kevin Costner stars as the general manager of the Cleveland Browns who finds himself under the gun when his team trades for the #1 draft pick. Set over the course of a single day, he must try and save football in Cleveland while balancing his personal and professional life, which includes flirting over football with Jennifer Garner. Obviously the comparisons to Moneyball are there as the film goes into the internal mechanics of a pro ball club, and if this proves half as successful as that was Draft Day won't have to worry about being labeled "Mr. Irrelevant".

Directed by Ivan Reitman and co-starring Frank Langella, Joe Manganiello, Chadwick Boseman, Denis Leary, Terry Crews, Sam Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Tom Welling, Sean Combs, and Rosanna Arquette, Draft Day gets selected on April 11th 2014.

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Review: 'Dallas Buyers Club' Starring Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto

It wasn't too long ago that a "brave" performance by Matthew McConaughey meant not taking his shirt off and flashing his abs for a swooning audience of female fans. Now as his career transitions into one of utmost legitimacy, he does what no major Hollywood star has done since Tom Hanks won the Oscar for Philadelphia more than a decade ago, and that's play an AIDS victim. And much like Hanks, McConaughey gives a transformative, confident performance that could send him to the Academy Awards stage.

As scrawny, shady Texas cowpoke Ron Woodruff it's McConaughey's swagger and southern charm that shines through more than his good looks in Dallas Buyers Club, a film about the early days of the AIDS epidemic that (thankfully) isn't like all of those other films about the AIDS epidemic. The true story of Woodruff is a fascinating one that sees him go from a homophobic, coke-snorting, hard-drinking lowlife into a figure of hope to many who were suffering from the disease. But there are no grand epiphanies to be found; no heartfelt soul-bearing speeches that paint Woodruff as an easily likable champion for the afflicted.

It's a title that wouldn't have suited Woodruff anyway. Based on his true story, the film begins with Woodruff engaged in sweaty anonymous sex, a time-filler between drinks at the bar, scoring some drugs, or his latest hustle. He sees himself as the ultimate man's man, ten-gallon hat permanently atop his head and a cigarette always at the ready. It's 1986 and Rock Hudson has just died of AIDS, but the real tragedy is all the women the actor could have nailed. Such a shame. But there's a problem that Woodruff doesn't want to acknowledge; he's been getting sick. He looks like a bag of bones and is coughing up blood when he isn't fainting altogether. A random work accident sends him to the hospital where he gets a life-changing diagnosis: HIV. And he's only given a few weeks to live.

"There ain't nothing out there that can kill Ron Woodruff in 30 days," he says defiantly to his doctors, including the concerned Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) who takes to the gruff cowboy despite his dismissal of her diagnosis. The film begins counting the days, not just to Woodruff's death but until he finally comes to accept the situation he's in. After failing to get in on the AZT medical trials, and not having the money to buy the expensive drug cocktail himself, Woodruff does the unexpected and starts hitting the books. What he discovers is a big ol' roadblock of FDA bureaucracy and dirty deals to make legal AIDS drugs practically unobtainable to those who need them most. As one would expect from a dying con man, Woodruff does whatever it takes to profit from a bad situation. Of course a guy like him would end up in Mexico buying illegal AZT from an unlicensed doctor. Of course a guy like him would smuggle it back across the border and set up the "Dallas Buyers Club", earning a profit by selling access to the drugs outside of FDA regulations. What's surprising is where this scheme takes him, both literally and figuratively.

A barely recognizable Jared Leto steals every scene as Rayon, a transvestite Woodruff meets and forms what begins as only a professional relationship. Rayon lures in more clients, and Woodruff reaps the profits. But over time we see that the kind-hearted Rayon begins to break down those walls of uber-hetero machismo Woodruff has built up, leading to a meaningful friendship that flies in the face of everything Woodruff has ever known. As his quest to beat the odds (and make some cash) takes him places he never imagined, such as Japan, Germany, and even Israel, Woodruff begins to win sympathizers to his cause. Not the least of which is Dr. Saks, who comes to challenge the red tape that is costing many AIDS patients a legitimate shot to survive.

Written without a shred of melodrama and directed with economical precision by Jean-Marc Vallee, Dallas Buyers Club gets its point across without becoming just another message film. He doesn't dwell too much on the fine details of the era, yet you recognize in the many supporting characters the fearful atmosphere permeating the country as AIDS grew into an epidemic. While there's a great deal of medical jargon to wade through, it's balanced nicely by sensitive and humorous character moments. This isn't a crowd-pleaser in the truest sense because, frankly, we know Woodruff's story won't end well. That doesn't diminish in the least the fight and courage he displays, which is nothing less than uplifting. Vallee's a solid director but in his efforts to remain minimal he occasionally underplays a scene's emotional value, such as in the final shot which comes practically out of nowhere and lacks the intended impact.

Despite the heavy subject matter, Dallas Buyers Club is an entertaining, unsentimental character study that everyone will want to take a dose of.

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Jason Reitman Eyes 'Men, Women and Children'; Adam Sandler, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jennifer Garner and Cameron Diaz May Star

Jason Reitman's Labor Day only just debuted at Telluride and already it has some talking Oscars. As the crime drama makes its way into Toronto before opening this Christmas, Reitman is already looking forward to his next project, an adaptation of Chad Kultgen's novel Men, Women, and Children, and he may have another starry line-up to work with.

Deadline reports that a deal is coming together for Reitman to direct the adaptation, which centers on "a family with junior high school students and deals with the navigation of sexual awakenings in a digital age where the Internet has made pornography, blogs and social networking just a few clicks away." So basically Disconnect meets Don Jon? Big names are already attached with Adam Sandler and Rosemarie DeWitt circling roles, along with Jennifer Garner and Charlize Theron who worked with the director on Juno and Young Adult. No word on who wrote the script, or if Reitman will take a pass at it himself, but if everything is worked out production could begin this November.

More importantly, Reitman is putting together another of his famous readings, this one of the greatest movie of all-time, Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. He's been tweeting the assembled talent for it, and it's mostly amazing. Dakota Fanning will take on the role of Roller Girl, Scott Thompson as The Colonel, Jason Sudeikis as Buck, Olivia Wilde as Amber Waves, and unfortunately Dane Cook as Reed Rothchild. Expect somebody awesome to be cast as Dirk Diggler, and they won't even have to show their junk to land the part. At least I don't think they will.

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Watch an AIDS-Stricken Matthew McConaughey in First 'Dallas Buyers Club' Trailer

Is it possible that Matthew McConaughey, that guy who gave us such "thoughtful" performances in Sahara and Failure to Launch, could be on the verge of two Best Actor nominations in the same year? The buzz has certainly been swirling over his soulful turn in Jeff Nichols' Mud, and ever since the first photos emerged of the physical lengths he went to for the AIDS drama Dallas Buyers Club, the talk for it has been just as strong. Now the first trailer has emerged to give us the best look yet at the stunning physical transformation he underwent.

Gone is the rippling physique and six pack abs and in its place is an emaciated McConaughey, playing real life figure Ron Woodruff, a man stricken with AIDS and given only a month to live. Rather than giving in and merely accepting the FDA-approved drug AZT, Woodruff began taking and selling illegal, unapproved medication acquired from all over the world. The film chronicles his fight for survival and the FDA's attempts to shut down his drug-selling operation, a battle which lasted much longer than Woodruff was ever supposed to live.

Although it's tough to tell because of the annoying ET host's voice-over, the tone appears to be walking a balance between drama and comedy, in particular with the back-and-forth between McConaughey and Jared Leto, who lost more than 30lbs to play Woodruff's transvestite partner.

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and co-starring Jennifer Garner, Dallas Buyers Club will debut as part of the TIFF line-up then hit theaters on November 1st. We'll update this trailer with a better one soon.

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