Rating: 
Summary: Great movie!!
Review: I am a big fan of this particular director. I enjoyed his last film PI immensly and I was pumped up to see this one. This movie ventures into the world of drugs as well as other addictions. It focuses on what happens when you lose control which is what drives the film. Marlon Wayans, Jennifer Connely, Jared Leto, and Ellen Burstyn are all great. If you are looking for an educational but enjoyable film, I reccomend this one. Even though it is nc-17, parents should deffinately think about watching it with kids, so that they can give proper motivation to avoid drugs!
Rating:
Summary: Riveting Masterpiece
Review: Sara Goldfarb could be anyone's widowed mother. Harry Goldfarb and Tyrone could be anyone's sons. Marion could be the gorgeous girlfriend any mother would be thrilled to have her son bring home for dinner. Sara doesn't feel needed by anyone anymore. She's got her seating position among the women of her building who like to take in the sun in the afternoon, and she's got her television programs to which she is addicted. Her one goal is to appear on television in her red dress to make her friends and her family proud. Her son, Harry, just wants to make some money so he can live the life to which he has yet to become accustomed but knows he wants. If he and Tyrone can score that one big buy of drugs and sell them, they can be rich and live easy lives. Marion depends on the kindness of men to ease her way through life. In Harry she believes she's found her source of love, livelihood, and drugs. All four of these people want what everyone wants - to be loved, to be needed, and to be successful. Only for these four it all goes horribly wrong because, in their need, they accept addiction as part of the dream.This movie is difficult to watch, but not because it isn't well done. I can't think of a movie that's done better than this one. It's just so horribly painful to watch people who have all the best intentions sink deeper and deeper into self-destruction. Louise Lasser plays Sara Goldfarb's best friend. She is the embodiment of the fact that people only see what they want to see, even when a friend, a close friend like Sara, become hopelessly troubled and essentially become someone else completely. Requiem For A Dream is about drug addiction, but it is also about people leading quiet lives of desperation and the lengths to which they will go to try to grab the gold ring and realize their dreams. All of the actors in this movie are superb, and Ellen Burstyn should have won an Academy Award for the work she did in this movie. She is nothing less than outstanding. But credit should also be given to the way in which the movie was filmed. When Sara becomes paranoid, the camera helps you to feel the paranoid feelings she's experiencing. When Tyrone runs away from a shooting, the camera makes you feel his fear and his pounding heart as he flees. When Marion shows up at the door of a man who will give her drugs in return for whatever favors he requires, your skin crawls along with hers as she does whatever it takes to get her fix. And there's another element to this film that affected me as I watched it. The music. It is an excellent addition to every scene with it's accompanying emotion. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes not only a good story well told, but also enjoys the separate elements that make a movie take hold of you and, in spite of difficult material, won't let you go until it's finished with you.
Rating:
Summary: Hallucinating as a drug.
Review: If this movie lacked of a social message, it would still be great. It has hallucinating visual effects, the music fits very well, a touch of absurd that makes it funny for moments, and it also has a moral: get away from drugs or see what will happen to you. The topic of drugs is not new but the way this movie talks about them is very innovative. There are two parallel stories, the story of this young guy, his friend and his girlfriend; and, on the other hand, the story of his mother. The first story shows what addict people are willing to do in order to get what they need. And the second story shows how an obsessive desire for getting something else, can make us fall down into the addictions world. Anything I can say wouldn't be enough to describe this film and the feeling you get when you are watching it. Just stop reading this, buy it, and enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Obskene Means "Off The Stage"
Review: What was the point of this movie? I think I know: Anyone but a film student knows that addiction and compulsive behavior are abnormal and lead to misery, and thus doesn't need to explore it in typically sensational detail. Keep the exaggerated obskene off the skene, Mr. Aronofsky. Take it for what it's worth. Addendum added 9-16-02: I could care less about the "technique" and filmmaking procedures involved in the production of this movie. Those things are really not relevant to what one actually sees on a screen. I'm not a film student or filmmaker. What matters to me in a film is the finished product. The finished product in the case of this movie is not good in a many ways, most of which are not relevant in an Amazon.com review and would require a great deal more space(and time)to develop. Perhaps the worst part, thought, about this flick thought is that it inspires legions of pretensious "bohemian/artistic/literary" types that are oddly dressed to ponder it ad infinitum. Tuck me in already. . .G'night.
Rating:
Summary: incredibly artistic, very moving...
Review: Hubert Selby, Jr.'s novel is all about humanizing what we view as something inhuman. When people think of heroin addicts, or old ladies addicted to diet pills, they rarely attach any emotion to it. It's something that's done in the most ghetto of ghettos, far away from our safe homes. This movie very artistically portrays the users as humans, feeling the same things that everyone else does, and the effect is wrenching. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and I also highly recommend the book and the soundtrack - both are equally incredible.
Rating:
Summary: What does it mean to be happy
Review: one of the most stylisticly interesting films i've ever seen. It explores the illusion of happiness, and hope in a hopless world. the imagry will be shocking to alot of viewers. but it is still a very well done movie. dont watch it alone, or you might get nightmares.
Rating:
Summary: A punishing and compelling work of visual art.
Review: There are two kinds of drug movies: movies that depict drug abuse as a trandy undertaking, and movies that show it as a descructive force in every life it becomes part of. Darren Aronofsky's "Requeim for a Dream" takes the later option, pointing to the clear lesson that drugs are a dead end, with a benefit that is only in the short term. At the center of the movie is Sara (Ellen Burstyn, is a knockout role), as a lonley widow who, following the path of her heroin-addicted son (Jared Leto), becomes addicted to drugs in order to loose weight for her appearence on a tv talk show. Her slow descent into madness and drug addiction is the most disturbing aspect of this film. Leto's character has his own problems, with his years of addiction and selling only reap minimal results, and he and his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) must survive and feed their addiction, which ultimately ruins them. The movie is filled with symbolic nuances, like the drug taking montage and the surreal editing which drives the viewer into the same depth of madness as the characters. This is further tempered with spurts of graphic violence. "Requiem for a Dream" succeeds as a character study, and pushes the bar further in terms of depicting the horror of drug abuse. Unlike Trainspotting, which is trendy and upbeat, "Requiem for a Dream" is a depressing, often upsetting experience for some viewers. Personally, I think it is a pure work of art. With so many druggie movies, it is nice to see that Darren Aronofsky cares as much about building characters rather than making a music video, as was Trainspotting (mind you, I loved Trainspotting too). For this movie, the DVD Director's Cut is the only format to go with. It has a nice documentary on the making of the film, insight from the makes on how they made those amazing montage scenes, and the best picture quality. Sadly, do to the film's limited release (it was unrateable by the MPAA), not many people had the opportunity to see this movie. I highly recommend everyone who loves movies see this at least one in their lives.
Rating: 
Summary: wallows in the abject
Review: The film is a stew of stylistic cliches, unimaginatively employed melodramatic devices (ex: the heroine must sacrifice her virtue for the hero - to an enormous grinning black man, no less - this situation is both racist and tired), and just plain nastiness. Under the guise of realist high drama, the film wallows in the abject in a way that is at once pompous and sophmoric.
Rating: 
Summary: yes, it's worth seeing again!
Review: It's true that this movie is brutal and harrowing by the end, (one friend's review of the movie was "It's great, but when the title 'Winter' comes up, I recommend just running out of the theater screaming then. It'll save time."), leading many to say one would never want to see it a second time. Perhaps, but the movie is made so well, that it really does reward multiple viewings. Also, the commentary tracks provided by the director and cinematographer are interesting and do a good job of pointing out subtleties of craft that you may not have consciously picked up on when viewing on your own. I have my quibbles with the film, and suspect the ending is a little too Grand Guignol-ish for its own good, but the all-around solid-to-amazing acting, the musical approach to editing and composition, and the creativity and innovation of the director make this one a keeper for me.
Rating:
Summary: The road to hell...
Review: It's often said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In the case of this film, "good intentions" is analogous with "undying dreams." I remember seeing this film in the theater and being emotionally battered and bruised for the following two days. "Over a drug film?" I thought? I examined it and myself further and found it not to be a film about drugs, but about simple addictions and the horror of seeing a dream come close to realization and start to fall apart. The story of junkies and dreamers who refuse to let go of either intoxicating aspect of their character is dangerously effective. Despite having vastly different lifestyles than most of the populace, Aronofsky deftly makes each character idetifyable: Mother, sister, brother, friend, self... The story then leads the characters through their dreams and their addictions (sometimes being the same thing) an leads them unflinchingly to their conclusions. Thankfully, the DVD is ripe with all sorts of delicious extras. Commentaries, behind the scenes, outtakes: it's all in there. And it's all informative and genuine, making it evident that this film was definitely a labor of love. Too bad it was so horribly robbed of award show attention. The effect is that "Requiem" is a powerful uppercut of a film that requires the viewer to have a sense of humanity to take something away from it.
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