Rating: 
Summary: The most powerful and original film I've ever seen
Review: Requiem For A Dream is not for the faint of heart. If you buy this movie thinking you're getting just some conventional, nonchalant film, you are sorely mistaken. Never before have I seen a film that displays the deterioration of people's lives as a result of substance abuse so realistically before.The story of the film follows four characters: Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto), Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), and Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans). Harry and Tyrone are heroin addicts who want to get into dealing to make some real money. The reason Harry wants to make money is to help his girlfriend, Marion, open a store where she can sell her fashion designs. Sara Goldfarb is Harry's mother. She gets a call one day to invite her to be a contestant on a TV show. She is old and out of shape and decides to go on a diet to fit in her favorite red dress to wear on her big day. The diet is futile because she can't handle not indulging herself in the foods she used to eat. So she sees a dieting specialist who gives her diet pills (methamphetamines). At first she loves them and loses a lot of weight, but as time goes on she builds a tolerance and begins taking double, and even triple doses... To be frank, Requiem For A Dream is an assault on you. After you've watched it you feel both mentally and physically drained, much like the characters in the film. Viewing the deaths of these people's dreams is a trying experience, but honestly, it teaches you the true horrors of substance addiction. To me, a powerful film is one that can alter your view on things and change the way you act. Requiem For A Dream affected me in that way and I honestly believe if more people viewed this film it would greatly decrease the likelihood for experimentation with drugs.
Rating:
Summary: "I Love You Ma!"
Review: Wow! After I saw this movie it left me kinda numb but I couldnt wait to watch it again! This is in itself a great movie! I personally think that this movie is much better than Pi although dont get me wrong Pi was a very good movie too. Darren Aronofsky is a great director. I love all of his techniques that he uses such as the shot in front of the actors face while they walk/run and the camera just moves with them. Its great. And I have always said that 30% of any movie is the soundtrack and this one had a great soundtrack. I personally think that this movie should be shown in health classess in high schools. I love the message that it sends. Overall all great movie!
Rating:
Summary: Sweet Dreams
Review: Darren Aronofsky's, Requiem for a Dream is brilliantly made. Sound is used cleverly to amplify the destruction of the main characters. Sure, we get a monster share of great dreamy visuals and some awesome special effects, but it is the sound FX that move us. I must say that Aronofsky has little faith or trust in his actors because they are always being cut up. This film is edited in a way that you get the feeling that Aronofsky had a gun to his head while working on his Steinbeck.
Rating:
Summary: A True Requiem
Review: This movie's title, based on a book with the same name, says it all. This it not a mvoie simply about drug addiction, it is a movie about people trying to get a fix in whatever way they can. The movie starts off with big dreams and ideas, and, like a true Requiem or funeral song would do, mourns the loss of these dreams.
This movie is particularly disturbing in its graphic nature, but it is necessary in order to make an impact. This is how life is. There isn't always a great solution, and sometimes everything does get messed up no matter how hard you try to make it right. It does not spare the viewer anything, and in that respect, is not for the faint of heart or those who are easily made uncomfortable.
This is an incredibly intense film with no happy ending, but says so much about addiction and life in general, it should be seen by everyone. I would highly recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Intense and visually stunning
Review: "Requiem For A Dream" is director Darren Aronofsky's second movie, based on the book by Hubert Selby, following his powerful black-and-white "Pi". Starring Ellen Burstyn (oscar-nominated for her role), Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans in the top 4 roles, plus Sean Gulette, Mark Margolis, Samia Shoaib, and Ajay Naidu from "Pi" in minor roles. The score is by Clint Mansell, who also scored "Pi". Darren Aronofsky expands his unusual visual style to include split-screens, stop motion or sped-up motion sequences, extreme close-ups and wide angles. The movie starts with the son Harry (Leto) taking mom Sara's (Burstyn) TV to pawn for drug money. Shortly after, mom gets a phone call telling her that she has been selected to appear on a TV show in the near future. She anticipates her appearance on the TV and finds she can't fit into her old red dress. She tries some diets, such as a hard-boiled egg and grapefruit, then goes to a quack doctor for diet pills - purple in the morning, blue in the afternoon, orange in the evening, green at night. She eventually loses it and ultimately lands up in the hospital. Jennifer Connelly is Harry's girlfriend Marion, a fashion designer. As a result of Harry and Marion's heroin addiction, Marion performs more and more sex with other people for drugs or drug money. Harry and his friend, Tyrone (Wayans) spend most of the movie buying or trying to buy drugs, and getting high. They eventually plan to buy a large quantity to re-sell it to get a share for free. Ultimately, after driving toward Florida for a drug buy, Harry ends up in the hospital with an infected arm, and Tyrone gets put in jail. In a fantasy, mom and son finally appear on the "Tappy Timmons" self-help show. The reasonably-priced DVD has a commentary by director Aronofsky, a commentary by the cinematographer, a behind-the-scenes documentary, and some other goodies. Unrated director's cut, which is currently #51 on the IMDB top-movie list, has scenes of constant drug use, strong language, and explicit sex. Many people find the movie too intense to watch twice.
Rating:
Summary: everyone i show this to goes speachless
Review: i can't define the feeling you get after this movie ends. i would almost go as far as to say...it hurts. things to know about this movie: 1. the characters you THINK you'll be most interested in are not going to be the ones you are interested in. you'll find that the part of the mother is the most interested, and most disturbing. and the woman who played her deserves more respect than anyone in acting. 2. the music is 50% of why this movie is so emotional. that one song it play multiple times kills me, almost to the point of crying, and i wouldn't say i'm the emotional type. 3. the way it's filmed is GREAT. i love when the camera goes in front of the person as the walk (this is also the case in Pi). the scene where the girl walks away from here first prostitution experience with the big black dude was WICKED. the split screens were used well, also. 4. if you're a guy, as i am, don't watch it with anyone you don't want to see you shed a tear. and if you haven't seen this film, be warned. it's not for everyone. it really does hurt to watch. if your on a date, and you expect sex afterwards, don't watch this movie first. honestly, i find it hard to even recomend it. even being one of my favorite films, it's hard to ask someone to watch it and feel good about what you've done. if that doesn't make you want to see it, don't. but if it does, BY ALL MEANS, at least rent it.
Rating:
Summary: You may try to forget this film. "Try" is the key word here.
Review: I was tempted to title my summary "Drugs are bad, mm'kay?" because this movie was so sad I was desperate to inject a little humor. Man, what a sad, scary, excellent, grim, disturbing, well-made movie. The more I read about this movie and learned about it, the more fascinating it seemed. I also am one of those people who, when they hear a movie is extremely shocking and disturbing, get a burning urge to see it as fast as I can to see if it shocks me (especially if it's unrated or NC-17), since I am pretty jaded. So, I eagerly anticipated seeing it. The plot concerns four addicts. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly play a young loving couple, Harry and Marion, who dabble in heroin and plan to make a big sale along with their friend Tyrone (Shawn Wayans) so they can be set for life and Marion can open up her own (legal) business. Unfortunately, their recreational drug use turns into day-to-day addiction, and things start to get ugly. REAL ugly. A couple shots even kind of give a whole new definition of the word 'ugly'. Ellen Burstyn plays Harry's mother Sarah, a lonely widow who wants to lose weight to fit into a red dress so she can appear on her favorite TV show. She starts out by being addicted to TV and candy, but has the bad luck to go to a doctor who gives her an RX for 'diet pills', that turn out to actually be the old-fashioned kind they gave to women in the 50s- speed. I found her story thread the most memorable and heartbreaking. Sarah takes pills and starts losing weight, as well as suddenly becoming very energetic and chatty. Like any addictive drug, her happy blue pills stop working after prolonged use so she ups her dose more...and more...and things slowly start getting very weird and scary. In one of the best scenes midway through the film (one of the few that had a tiny bit of comic relief) Harry visits her --the only visit he makes during the movie where he doesn't openly steal her TV to pawn for dope money. He is briefly riding high (in more ways than one) and tells her he bought her a big screen TV-he wanted to do something nice for her and figured out that "TV is her fix". He looks like he's getting a bad feeling when she's babbling happily about how she has a reason to get up in the morning, and then he hears her grinding her teeth, and figures it out. This is the first time in the movie you see real fear in his eyes. Sarah soon starts having very scary strung-out hallucinations-starting out with subtle things like time woozily slowing down and speeding back up, and when her refrigerator suddenly starts moving on its own, the real nightmare begins. An aggressive fridge with a mind of its own sounds Monty Python-esque when you first hear about it, but trust me, you won't be laughing by the end of the movie. One review I read said that the movie not only pulls the rug out from under you, it drags you and the rug down a long flight of stairs into a very dark basement. Another reviewer compared the experience of watching the film to a drug, and that's not too far off the mark either. Whenever a character gets high, there's a slam-bang fast cut montage of the same images over and over; a sigh, a pupil dilating, cells changing color. The scenes where Sarah hallucinates are pretty close to the real thing. The description I probably agree with most came from Darren Aronofsky himself-he compared the film to a jump from a plane without a parachute, and the movie ends three minutes after you hit the ground. The last few minutes that show the gruesome, depressing, worst-case-scenario fates of all 4 characters are just as intense, hard to watch, and nightmarish as I heard they were. My only complaints would be that I wish it were longer, with more time for character development. I would have liked more scenes of what these people and their lives were like before they were addicts, as well as their relationships with each other. The cast is great- Wayans shows that he has the most range and talent of the Wayans bros- I laughed so hard at him in Don't Be A Menace that I ended up buying it, but here...wow. I would have liked to see more of his character. I never liked Leto much before, but he is excellent and also almost unrecognizable (he said he dropped 1/5 of his weight for the role and boy does it show). Connelly I disliked so much before that I would actively avoid seeing movies she was in, but I was very impressed and convinced that she can act. Burstyn gives the performance of a lifetime- not only convincing, but she was dedicated enough to let the filmmakers make her look like absolute and total hell, which many actresses over 50 would probably not be brave enough to do. Not recommended if you're easily shocked, squeamish, or upset. If you only like movies that take you to a happy place, stay far away. Everyone who left the movie theater looked like they had just been hit over the head with a very large board. And we were all people who knew what we were getting into. Recommended for those who want to see a movie that will completely overtake you and involve you emotionally. In addition, this film should be required viewing for everyone in the fashion industry that supported and glorified that whole hideous 'heroin chic' trend. Also a good movie if you are having some problems in your life and want to put them in perspective VERY fast. And even though I keep my weight down the old-fashioned way, I'll probably never look at my fridge quite the same way again...
Rating: 
Summary: required viewing...
Review: In most movies made today, drug abuse is glamorized and treated as an acceptable and often comical part of the times. This is not one of those movies. Though making an 'anti-drug' film is nearly impossible to find these days outside a rediculous after-school special, this film dares to fly in the face of convention and portray a realistic picture of the awful effects of addiction. Every kid in America over the age of 13 should see this movie-- the director's cut, not any edited version! It is truly sad as one follows the characters' lives as they sink to one unimaginable low after another, unable to think beyond where their next fix is coming from. This overshadows even the strong sexual content, which serves only to make the characters' plight all the more pathetic. Do NOT hold out for a happy ending.
Rating: 
Summary: ehh.
Review: I don't know who this director thinks he is. He goes through this movie with an air of superiority that completely destroys any credibility with his subject matter. By the end I truly got a sense that he thought he was better than these characters. All these little people that hold on to thier pithy dreams and end up addicted to some kind of drug. By the end, things go to a ridiculous extreme for all four cast members. It's a work of schadenfreude and it needs to be called out.
Rating:
Summary: 5 star performances 1 star social value
Review: I believe it was Steinbeck who said of Pound's Cantos that "They should give him the Nobel Prize and then burn the manuscript." The cast was for the most part brilliant. Ellen Burstyn's performance was utterly breathtaking. The acting in general was great, though Marlon Wayans character is at times uneven. Beyond this, however, this film has no socially redeeming value whatsoever. It's too horrifying for educational use with children. Those who took drugs in the sixties will want to steer clear of it entirely. Younger people in between will not understand it at all. As for Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly, both give strong performances. Nevertheless, we are not convinced that what seems to drive them is enough to explain the depth of their self-destructive behavior. This is a problem with the script itself though, not the acting.
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