12 Great Movies That Are Visually Flat

An excellent Oscar-Bait movie, Dallas Buyers Club tells the true story of Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey), an AIDS patient in the 1980s who started illegally distributing drugs to help himself and other sufferers of the disease.

This one is very much a message movie where the focus is on telling a very interesting true story and offering up some amazing performances in the bargain too. Due to this focus, there's a sense that the technical elements were somewhat neglected and visually, Dallas Buyers Club is a little dull.

This focus on characters and story was great but nevertheless the visuals could've been better, especially since director Jean-Marc Vallee is pretty talented overall.

If you want to see a well-written, superbly acted drama than Dallas Buyers Club is a perfect pick for that, but those who want a film that's more interesting on a cinematic level you might enjoy something else more.

For example, 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street - two of the other Best Picture nominees that year - offer character dramas with a lot more visual oomph.