Rating: 
Summary: A BRILLIANT WORK OF ART
Review: This is the most powerful condemnation of substance abuse ever put on film. Darren Aronofsky has used his artistic vision first to suck you into the world of the four main characters, then to take you on their slow, inexorable plunge into the hell of addiction. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a lonely widow living in a small, modest apartment near the abandoned beaches of Coney Island. She naively views her son Harry (Jared Leto) as a "good boy", even though he keeps pawning her TV to buy heroin. Harry has a best friend, Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and a girlfriend, Marion (Jennifer Connelly) who are also into drugs. Sara's dream is to appear on television; she is obsessed with the idea and virtually addicted to a show by a self-help guru. Harry and Tyrone dream of one day making a big score, raking in a fortune and putting their financial worries behind them. Marion's dream is to design clothes and run her own business. But mind-altering chemicals cloud their judgment and dissolve all of their hopes.The screenplay was co-written by Hubert Selby, Jr. and Aronofsky, adapted from Selby's novel. Aronofsky's use of unconventional film techniques, sound and music is nothing short of brilliant. He is unflinching in his portrayal of the depravity to which addicts are driven. Harry and Tyrone, though drug users and dealers, are not thugs; they are sympathetically portrayed as misguided misfits, as is Marion. When Harry and Tyrone are unexpectedly exposed to the violence inherent in the drug trade, it leads to their introduction to the criminal justice system. Marion is finally reduced to selling her body for a fix. Meanwhile, Sara's dream to be on TV is about to come true. Her mistake is in trusting a quack doctor who prescibes amphetimines to help her lose weight fast so that she can fit into her favorite dress for the big event. She starts to over-medicate which causes irrational mood swings and eventually, hallucinations. Ellen Burstyn's performance earned her an Oscar nomination (she should have won). By the end of the film, she is almost unrecognizable; a burned out, babbling speed freak. All four characters are reduced to self-loathing, pitiful shells of themselves, curled up in a fetal position. Their nightmarish, gut-wrenching journey is mesmerizing and disturbing. If a positive movie experience for you is a sugar-coated adventure to the land of happy endings, avoid this one. The DVD is available in an R-rated and Unrated version; the unrated version has slightly more explicit sex, but nothing that impacts on the plot or the overall effect of the film.
Rating:
Summary: A true classic
Review: The original novel by Hubert Selby Jr. was saved from cliche by the immediacy of Selby's writing and Selby's own style. It also touched on the fact that everyone is addicted to something, that nobody lacks a jones for something, be it heroin, alcohol, television, friendship or simple hope. The movie isn't cliche thanks to a stunning ensemble of performances and Darren Aronofsky's direction. On the surface, it sounds like every "my drug hell" movie ever made, insofar as Harry Goldfarb, his girl Marion, and his buddy Tyrone are concerned. What makes it work is that the script (by Selby and Aronofsky) introduces us to the characters, lets us get to know them, actually get to like them. As their lives decline, you're THERE. You see it, you feel it all. But the plotline of Harry's mother, Sara, is in a class by itself. Done by Ellen Burstyn, it's a truly astounding piece of work. Sara starts on a downward spiral when she's given a simple piece of hope. It's truly horrible to watch. All of this is helped along by a truly stunning score by Clint Mansell, who scored Aronofsky's first film (also an excellent work) "Pi." Mansell, with the help of the Kronos Quartet, proves he's going to be a powerful force in film scoring. Don't be turned off by the NC-17 rating, or think this is inappropriate for teenagers because of it, this, along with "Trainspotting", is the best filmed argument not to use drugs ever made. Everyone should see this. At least rent it, it is brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: Could it happen to someone you know? To you?
Review: This film is a harrowing experience. The principle cast of four all spiral to their respective dooms, all fueled by the use of "recreational pharmaceuticals". Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans are believable as buds who see the drug game as a way to escape their lower socio-economic lives, even as they do not see the way that their own abuse of these drugs makes such an escape impossible. But it is the overpowering performances of Ellen Burstyn and Jennifer Connelly that burned a raw place into my psyche. Ellen Burstyn's Sara is not a junkie. She is just a lonely, overweight middle-aged woman who dreams about being younger, thinner, and not nearly as alone. Jennifer Connelly's character comes along for the ride with her boyfriend, but by degrees she descends lower and lower. You have to watch it to see how low these characters fall. This is not a happy-go-lucky movie. But if you are interested in a well-made, well-acted cautionary tale about the dangers of addictions, you'd have difficulty finding one superior to "Requiem".
Rating: 
Summary: Great for a rental, but not for a buy
Review: Requiem for a dream is the greatest movie about drug addiction I have ever seen. It depicts the life of four individuals as they spiral further and further down from their addiction. It is so detailed and graphic in its depiction that it is truly frightening. Although it is utterly brilliant, buying this DVD for repeated viewing is overkill. If you watch it more than once, it is useless. Everyone, go out and rent this movie, watch it to get the experience, but don't buy it. You won't want to see it more than once. It gets four stars for being a brilliant film, but the purpose of buying the DVD is so you can watch it over and over again, which with this movie, you don't want to do.
Rating:
Summary: Requiem For A Dream (2000) d: Aronofsky, Darren
Review: From the maker of Pi (1997), comes a timeless tale about the human struggle with addictions, and the lengths that people will go to escape reality. The picture is based on an amazing novel by Hubert Selby Jr., and more than just another drug film, it gets deep into the heads of the multidimensional characters. Requiem For A Dream shows you the world from the bottom view, as each character is pursuing their vision of happiness amidst the backdrop of a very worn looking Coney Island setting. Much like such disturbing movies as: Kids (1995), or Gummo (1997), the film takes you on a spiral into hell, that left me depressed for many days. Not recommended for those with manic personalities, the plot links the lives of a lonely widowed mother [Ellen Burstyn / Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)], her son Harry [Jared Leto], his beautiful girlfriend Marion [Jennifer Connelly / Once Upon a Time in America (1984); Phenomena (1985)], and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Coffee; Heroin, or Television, all drugs are treated with the same intense directorial style. The love of the craft from all involved, and a great soundtrack by the experimental Kronos Quartet. A must have DVD
Rating:
Summary: A modern masterpiece of unquestionable truth and power
Review: Requiem for A dream isn't absolutely perfect.Jared Leto is miscast and not up to the emotional range needed to portray his character's downward spiral into the perils of hell.And sometimes, the visual effects get a little too crazy.But the film so stomach churningly,heart-wrenchingly, unbelievably powerful, that you really won't care. Ellen Burstyn is absolutely magnificent.No, that's not right.She's fearless,and uninhibited, and simply unbelievably powerful.I knew she was good, but not this good.Her performance deserves to be studied, and it is the most powerful female performance that I've ever seen in my entire life.Her downward sprial into addiction is the single most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen.Horrifying,but heartbreaking.Jennifer Connelly manages to remain subtly,quitely emotive, even in the role of a junkie.She's a good actress.Marlon Wayans came off as a surprisingly affecting dramatic actor.The movie creates a hypnotic and dazzlingly horrific vision of the hells of addiction through visual affect.By the end, you'll be dizzy, This film is so much more than an anti-drug movie, though.It's a bloody and intense study of the crumble of human decency.This movie will make your heart beat a thousand miles per hour, it'll make you sweat and weep and shake and swear you'll never watch it again-even though, deep down, you know you have to, because in this movie's undeniable emotional potency lies an addiction in itself.Not in the sense that you need to watch it all the time.I'd think you were absolutely nuts if you did. But in the sense that the film(along with it's stunningly pulsating soundtrack), never ever ever EVER EVER leaves your head and heart.This movie follows me daily, more so than my own shadow. Requiem is the most depressing film I've ever watched.My mother couldn't sleep for a whole night after seeing it.It is an absolute nightmare-graphic and shocking and visually uninhibited to the very extent.It's not so much the content of the film, as the entire atmosphere of it-you'll be so depressed by the end that you'll wonder whether there's a meaning to this life.I wouldn't recommend watching this movie at night-it's hard to get a good night's slep afterwards.I cannot stress this enough-it is nothing short of a living nightmare and will leave you on the verge of a suicide attempt That said, this movie can be summed up in two words-horrific and heartbraking.It is so heartbraking, that your stomach hurts and your heart aches, and all you can think of is these characters' descent into their own private hell.But that's what drugs are.I believe it impossible to make a witty, or darkly comic movie about drugs.Drugs are a nightmare-they take over your soula and mind, and destroy every shred of humanity within you-addiction in general is just that, although that all depends what you're addicted to.That is like watching a film about rape and complaining that the rape scene was "too difficult".Did it ever occur to you that maybe rape is a little difficult.By the end, Requiem no longer feels like a movie, but like a living nightmare with a very sad core.It is the most stunning,powerful, horrifying,heartbraking, unbelievably mind-numbingly,heart-achingly,stomach-chrningly unforgettable film I've ever seen,
Rating:
Summary: Brilliance that entrances the mind
Review: A work of sheer brilliance. As a lover of D.A's work in film I must say that this film is pieced together with the practicality and ethic of an epic tragedy. As I watched I found his usage of frame and camera work to be quite facinating. Being one who has worked with a steady cam, I must say he knows exactly what he is doing.
The characters are so simply drawn out and with a dark grace put together for you. I find it not just a film about narcotics but about how life takes toll on our everyday situations, as displayed with Ellen Burstyn's character of a widow drawn into the realm so similiar to her sons, yet still so blind to it.
The usage of color and light, as well as angle brings us directly into the characters lives, giving us a piece of what they hunger for, and in the end how we realize we all hunger for something so similiar. Brilliance at its best.
Rating: 
Summary: Not without it's good points
Review: I started watching this with only a really vague idea in my mind; one of a pretentious, arsey look at modern day drug problems and stupidly over-the-top camera techniques.
To a certain extent I was disappointed, but to a certain extent the film lived up to my expectations.
Truely there were some incredible performances from a highly gifted cast (special mention must be made of Ellen Burstyn, who terrified me, sickened me and made me feel so sorry for her simultaniously.
One the surface this is a no-nonsense, hard hitting film about what drugs can do to you; how they affect you and the people you love. All four characters start out bright and normal, but slowly sink into a world consumed by drugs (namely heroin).
Yet what brought this film down for me was how it lost its way towards the end. The director started off brilliantly, with pieces of film that were hard-hitting and terrible, but that people could relate to. As the film progresses, we are sent whirling through a number of unnecessary camera tecnhiques and voice techniques, not to mention graphic scenes merely for effect (the cutting off of an arm etc). Yet the ending leaves us with a sense of sadness and regret, but paints a vivid picture in our minds; one of both warning and preaching. The degredatoin the characters suffer are all a means to an end for the point the direction wishes to make: please don't use heroin! To conclude, there is no doubt in my mind that this was an interesting film to watch, with great underlying meaning, excellent acting and, at times, some highly skillful directing. However, I found it hard towards the end, to engage my interest, as it just went from strange to stranger.
If I could give half stars, this would be 3 and a half, but I think in conclusion it has a well earned 3 stars. Worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Better than it has any right to be
Review: Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is going to be on television -- so, needing to lose a little weight in order to fit into her nice red dress, she starts a regimen of diet pills. Meanwhile, her son Harry (Jared Leto) keeps hocking her TV to buy drugs for himself, his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), and his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). And from there, everything pretty much spirals downward to hell. _Requiem for a Dream_ is based on the book of the same name (which I haven't read) by Hubert Selby, Jr. (who also cowrote the screenplay and makes a brief cameo appearance as the 'Laughing Guard'). Essentially, it's a harrowing study of addiction and its effect on hope. Although the film's primary focus is on drugs, other objects of addiction (television, sex, even food) take turns in the spotlight. And it's all pretty grueling. (Parts are darkly comic at the same time, as when Sara has to sneak into the room so as not to arouse her hungry refrigerator.) With a lesser cast, or with any more self-conscious moralism in the screenplay, it would have toppled off of its highwire and turned into just another Special Episode of 'Blossom'. And with even a _little_ more of its already-overused nerve-jangling speedy-uppy-slowy-downy Technique-with-a-capital-T, it would have toppled over in the other direction and become just another pretentiously arty soap opera. And that would have been a disaster. The topic itself isn't exactly new; what else could there possibly be to show us about it that we didn't see years ago in e.g. _Lost Weekend_ and _The Man With the Golden Arm_ and _Valley of the Dolls_ (never mind _Reefer Madness_ and _The Cocaine Fiends_)? Had this devolved into just another film in an already overloaded genre, it wouldn't merely have failed; it would have crashed and burned. But it manages, somehow, to work. As I suggested above, a lot of the credit has to go to the cast; Ellen Burstyn is by God magnificent, and the three younger leads bring life to a trio that could easily have cliched itself into a sort of bizarro prequel to 'The Mod Squad'. Credit also goes to the appropriately jagged score by Clint Mansell (much of it performed by the Kronos Quartet). The lion's share, though, goes to director Darren Aronofsky (who was also the other cowriter of the screenplay). With nearly anybody else, I'd suspect a desire to impress the world by making his second movie an Idiosyncratic, Shocking, Yet Deeply Significant Work of Art. But that suspicion doesn't really make sense applied to a guy whose _first_ movie was _Pi_. (This one is actually somewhat _less_ gonzo than that one.) Appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, Aronofsky has his craft under careful control. Overall, then, this is a much, much better movie than it has any right to be. There's nothing really new in it; it's right on the edge of unbearably preachy (and on a relatively uncontroversial subject; does anybody think addiction is _good_?); it's got a strong flavor of deliberate 'art-housiness', if you know what I mean. But much to my surprise, it succeeds anyway, and somehow its characters manage to become sufficiently real for us to care about them even while they're totally screwing themselves up. It's not cheerful, it's not pretty, it's not even easy to watch. But I'm impressed enough to watch it again. I may even read the book. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go have some coffee.
Rating: 
Summary: Sick hateful gory porn disguised as an artsy fartsy film.
Review: Sure to make you want to turn the director upside down and shake him to get your money back. I honestly think this jack ass director only made this movie to degrade poor Jennifer Connelly. There is no point to this sadistic trash. Scenes of shooting up into an arm with gangrene that is eventually sawed off, Prostitution, vomiting, electro shock, stabbings, shootings and infantile over use of camera tricks insures bad times. No story or plot here. zero stars.
|
