Rating: 
Summary: Disagreeably self-indulgent [stuff]
Review: Straight off: Ellen Burstyn puts in a wonderful performance. No one could say otherwise. And none of the actors let the side down. (Although I have reservations about the casting.)Requiem is about drugs and how we all take them and how they mess us up and specifically it is about one family, a mother and a son, both addicted to their own drugs and the preservation of their own too glamorous world visions. Darren A swallows Aristotle's line about tragedy hook line and sinker. Small flaw, BIG fall (well, ...how many kids do [drugs]? how many moms pop valium? and survive without ruin, disaster, shame). Loss of limb, loss of sanity, loss of life are all in the goody bag here and no one goes home without picking one out. Now drugs CAN do horrible things to people. Obviously. And movies like "Drug Store Cowboy", or even "Trainspotting", which on the face of it are far more fantastic (ie unreal) handle their subject with a greater realism and they treat their audience like grown ups who can take a little smooth with their rough without getting the wrong idea. But Requiem is just a fable at heart; it's about Beautiful people (leto and his girlfriend) destroying themselves. It puts the audience through [agony], close up scenes of injections, of diseased wounds, of mad, distressed, old women, and for what? To tell us that drugs kill pretty people too? Yes, not only that, but just because you're a pensioner your not off the hook because if you start a habit then you've got it coming too. Come on. It's not enough. And it's absurd that we should go to a movie theatre and be emotionally beaten up and made to feel reverential as if we were watching eye witness testimony of the horrors of the Trenches, D-Day, or Vietnam and leave with a little nifty camera work and an oh-so-subliminal message: "Kids! Don't do drugs." But it's worse than that. Because at the same time that Darren A. forces us to take his sordid little world seriously he doesn't. he uses these pretty boy and pretty girl actors and he uses techno camera work and all manner of slick fancy stuff. And he uses it all very obviously. And that's dealing in double standards. And if it is trivial, and I maintain it is, then scenes like the disgusting sexual self-abasement of Leto's girlfriend by a pimp-dealer and his party guests are actually offensive. I don't know why more people don't think so.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh Please
Review: Like the director's first film, Pi, this film is a lesson in heavy handedness. Just like Pi, Requiem is tremendously overrated. Also, it is a great example of how to let an annoyingly hip soundtrack destroy a movie. Basically, we learn that drugs are bad. So bad in fact, that you will turn into a whore, your arm will fall off and appliances will attack you if you do them. Also, if you take what otherwise looks just like a Gap ad and do lots of close ups and quick cuts, the general movie going public will consider you "deep". Pass.
Rating: 
Summary: True to the Book and More
Review: Everyone comments on the excellent acting / storyline / filming of this film. I agree with everyone on this score and for this reason alone I would recommend everyone seeing the film. What amazed me is how true the picture was to the orginal story. It is very difficult to make a film from a great story and keep true to the orginal book. This film, however, does this and more. It doesn't make it darker than the book, nor does it try to whitewash the harrowing parts of the book. Great job.
Rating:
Summary: A lot of dazzle with a little effect
Review: Unfortunately, I think this film fails to successfully meld style with substance. I recently watched Godard’s Band of Outsiders in its current theatrical re-release, and when I finished that refreshing experience, I realized what it was that irked me so much about Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem. Godard’s film is specifically about an addiction to media causing a disassociation with reality. Requiem for a Dream is about drugs fueling that addiction to a vision of the “better life” that the media uses to tantalize us. Both films are stylistically bold, but since Godard’s is foremost about an addiction specifically to media (i.e. the characters believe real life should live up to the standard of films), and he’s able to imbue his characters with a youthful gusto, his stylistic choices seem integrated into his narrative. Aronofsky’s excess of style seems intrusive by comparison. He never really is able to make us examine these characters as real people (e.g. he has Ellen Burstyn DEVOUR the scenery). They remain stereotypes (i.e. specters that don’t really exist EXCEPT in the media), and therefore feel that they contribute to the problem of false media expectations more than they help expose it. They are very fictional characters complaining that their lives aren’t fictional enough. The drug sequences seem to be just more of the media telling us how life is. We’re supposed to get the impression that, due to Aronofsky’s technical brilliance, we’ve seen how it is to be addicted to drugs after this film, but that dishonesty bothers me here… We’ve simply watched a murky, dreadful movie.
Rating:
Summary: I have seen no shortage of disturbing films..but this...
Review: This film is certainly not one to show your children to discourage drug use. Undoubtedly, it discourages drug use, but it is perhaps the most graphic film I have ever witnessed; certainly in the leagues of 'A Clockwork Orange' etc. I wouldn't hestiate to say that this is perhaps more graphic that the former, and again, I believe it to be more disturbing. It truly will make you think twice about touching substances, with its bleak take on the world of junkies, from 'diet pills' to hard hitting heroin. There is absolutely nothing positive about this film, and that is perhaps its most effective feature.
It is drug abuse at its worst; desperation to the highest degree, and it is both marvellously acted and written, with hugely innovative and clever cinematophy. Certainly, one of the best films of 2000, and one that I personally won't be forgetting too soon. It has certainly altered the seeming innocence of diet pills for me!
Rating:
Summary: Ellen Burstyn was robbed
Review: If Aronofsky's *PI* was the appetizer, then this is the main course and dessert. Describing this movie to others usually results in confusion or disgust, so I won't even try. I can only say that this is the most honest, unflinching, and compassionate examination of addiction ever committed to film.
Rating:
Summary: Requiem for a Dream
Review: To put it simply: Requiem for a dream is a masterful and creative piece of cinematic brilliance. Jared Leto plays plays a young man living in New York City who is plagued with a hungry and relentless Heroin addiction, which demands to be fed. His mother (Ellen Burstyn) is addicted to diet pills. This powerful and creative movie shows the decent of these two central characters until they hit bottom. Amazing screen and camera work make this an extremely interesting film, which at no time becomes boring. I highly recommend this film and personally believe that every parent should allow their children to view this film in the hopes of installing some kind of fear of drugs in them.
Rating:
Summary: Requiem Recommended!
Review: Requiem for a Dream is one of the most POWERFUL films. I have ever seen. I am surprised that this film came out of hollywood. The whole cast proved to me their addiction and their pain. Recommended to ANYONE who wants to see a great movie, or if someone is battling an addiction themselves. You will not be dissapointed.
Rating:
Summary: Put yourself on suicide watch before viewing.
Review: An ultra-depressing, ultra-dark, and ultra-overrated form-over-substance exercise in frenetic camera work. And even if you're one of the those clamoring over each other on the worship bandwagon, can you honestly say this is something you like owning and watching more than once? Even in its best lights, this film is very draining to watch and doesn't count anywhere near repeated entertainment value in my book. As for its vaunted theme, is it really "drugs are bad"? I'm not convinced, but since that seems to be the concensus, my two cents on that note: duh. Ignore the hype and try to see a clip of this nightmare-on-a-disc before you shell out the bucks. Chances are that'll give you a good feel for whether it really will be a keeper for you (though my money's on not). This is a good film to help push you over the edge in your darker moments, or as a shining example of why Aronofsky's work is so overrated. Otherwise, it's one to avoid, for your own peace of mind if nothing else (and there's plenty else).
Rating:
Summary: One everyone needs to see.
Review: Wow. That is pretty much the only word that can summarize this amazing movie. If you have read the preceding reviews, you may already know the summary to this movie. It is about the absolute extreme horrors of drug addiction on the seedy streets of Coney Island. First of all, I would like to say that Ellen Burstyn's stellar performance should have destroyed Julia Roberts' in that other movie. She absolutely steals the entire movie.
There also is a bit of humor thrown into the movie in various parts to take away from the super-depressive nature of this film. The score is amazing and fits in perfectly with the movie. If you haven't seen this amazing movie, I would suggest going out and renting it tonight. But, if you are planning to do anything afterwards, you may want to cancel. This movie will completely drain you. Go rent it tonight!
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