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Summary: This movie is dark, depressing, and a masterpiece!
Review: I suppose I'll start by addressing comments made by CJG. Yes, the ending is much more unsettling then most anything the Hollywood hit machines can crank out, but that's what makes the film so powerful. The movie is about addiction, plain and simple. The characters in this movie are so deeply seeded in their addiction that there is no possible way they can come out unscathed (Ellen Burstyn's character may have a chance).Let me reiterate what everyone else is saying about Marlon Wayons performance by saying that he is fantastic in this movie. I sincerely hope, after seeing this movie, that he never appears in another comedy/spoof film again. He is that good in this movie. Jared Leto is the guy who appeared on "My So Called Life" (with Claire Danes), and if you remember him from that role alone, you never will again after this movie. He is almost too good an actor for someone who appeared on that show. Jennifer Connelly continues to take the risks as an actress that made me love her so much in "Dark City". Yes, she is good looking, but you won't see that at all here, just a great performance. Another actor that few people give mention at all is Christopher McDonald (the ringleader of the info-mercial Sarah watches on T.V.). This guy has gone from his previous best known role as Shooter McGavin (the great "Happy Gilmore") to this role, and it really shows his chops as an actor. The bottom line is that you have to watch this movie. Not only is the cinematography amazing, but after watching it, I promise you will not even think about using drugs for the rest of your natural life. Yes, it is THAT disturbing. Let's see what Aronofsky can do with the next Batman movie (a crap franchise, indeed).
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Summary: WOW BURSTYN IS A TRUE ACTRESS
Review: SEE THIS MOVIE.... SEE THE BEST ACTING IS YEARS AND SEE THE GUT WRECHING STORY THAT WILL BRING TEARS TO YOUR EYES AND A NEW SENSE OF LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING TO PEOPLE WHO ARE IN THIS SITUATION..; A MUST SEE BY EVERYONE
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Summary: A Rollercoaster Through Hell
Review: The visual images although very creative, will literally make your skin crawl. If you can't handle the grim reality of addiction, this movie is not for you. Set near the Coney Island boardwalk of NY with the backdrop of the world famous Cyclone Rollercoaster, this movie takes your senses along for a thrill ride on an emotional Cyclone as you watch it. This coaster ride of addiction is a one way ride to hell and you have a front row seat. Although the outcomes o f the addictions are the same, I like the general contrast between the young people using the street drugs and the older Ellen Burstyn hooked on her more "socially acceptable" diet pills (which are portrayed as nothing more than a legal form of speed because "the Docta prescribed them!"). Kronos Quartet with their hypnotic fusionof classical, jazz tinged compositions add immensly to the sensory experience of this movie. In addition, excellent acting, especially by Ellen Burstyn, and the creative but graphic & disturbing visual images make this an intense cinematic experience.
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Summary: Welcome to reality...
Review: It seems that as human beings, we are concerned with an image that we try to uphold and/or a lifestyle that we wish to live out. However, by some philosophical measures, happiness is an acrasia that is never truly obtainable. After all, death is the only guarantee from life. So what is this movie about? To numerous people in the world who find themselves easily entertained by shallow and face value explanations, it's simply about drugs, addiction and the pain the characters go through. But to those so very few fortunate movie viewers like myself (and I hope you are one as well) you will understand the movie at so many levels that you can sympathize with the characters for what they have been cursed with: being human. But this is reality folks. And the performances by Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Marlon Waynes and Jennifer Connelly make it that much more realistic. The direction and choice in cinemetography of Darren Aronofsky is undoubtbly higher than the accepted, cliche norm, allowing one to connect and view the movie as an individual; something that is increasingly becoming more and more difficult these days to be. And if you don't see this movie, at least do yourself the favor and read the book that it's based off of by Hubert Selby Jr.
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Summary: An incredibly powerful movie
Review: Requiem for a Dream is and incredibly powerful movie about drug addicition. It is excellently filmed, acted, and is combined with a very moving score to make it an incredible sensory experience.
Rating: 
Summary: powerful anti-drug drama
Review: ***1/2 Anyone even remotely contemplating getting involved with drugs, either legal or illegal, would have second thoughts after seeing "Requiem For a Dream," a cautionary tale brilliantly directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring the magnificent Ellen Burstyn in an Oscar-nominated performance. In confronting the issue of drug addiction, Aronosky (who co-wrote the screenplay with Hubert Selby Jr.) has chosen to tell two stories that, although they run along basically parallel tracks for most of the film's duration, do occasionally intersect. That point of intersection is the mother/son relationship between Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow living in a rundown tenement in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and her son, Harry, a ne'er do well loser hooked up with a couple of junkies, one of whom is his girlfriend, Marion. Harry and his friends are well on their way to becoming addicts when the movie opens and, until the supply suddenly peters out, the three of them are having the time of their lives. Unfortunately, once they hit hard times, all hell breaks loose and their lives quickly become a downward spiral into withdrawal, crime, prostitution, illness and prison. This is the more conventional side of the screenplay. Where the film really charts new territory is in the concomitant half which is focused on Sara, a well meaning woman whose obsession to lose a few pounds results in her becoming addicted to doctor-prescribed amphetamines. For Sara, this leads to an eventual descent into disorientation, hallucinatory episodes and, eventually, madness. Some may find Aronosky's blunt directorial style to be overemphatic, hammer-like and off-putting. To approximate the feeling of dislocation caused by the various drugs, the director employs a wide variety of cinematic techniques at his disposal: sped up motion, jarring quick cuts, visual distortion etc. Though it can become a bit much at time, one has to admire the effort to bring the viewer as much into the minds of the characters as is conceivably possible using the resources of filmmaking. The film is both unsparing and unflinching in showing the physical and psychological damage drugs can cause. The last section of the film, though it could be accused of lacking subtlety, nevertheless becomes a harrowing journey into a world filled with confusion, despair and pain. Burstyn makes Sara a compelling and sympathetic figure from the very start. Alone in her drab room, she watches T.V. all day, dreaming of the time when she will matter to someone again. Burstyn does a brilliant job in showing how, thanks to her increasing addiction, Sara slowly loses her grip on reality and slips over into schizophrenia and madness. And though we are appalled by the anti-social behavior both of her son, Henry, and of his cronies, we come to see even them in three-dimensional terms, especially through Harry's obvious love of his mother and the tenderness that develops in Harry and Marian's relationship. The revelatory moment occurs when Harry realizes that his mother is also addicted to drugs, yet how hollow his words sound as he admonishes her to kick her habit. Even he can do little but break down in tears during the cab ride home and return to his own self-absorbed drug addicted life. (This is the last time we ever see them together as their lives diverge to follow their own paths towards mutual self-destruction). Special note should be taken of Clint Mansell's subtle and haunting musical score, which brings an air of melancholy uneasiness to this strange world of the drug-addicted mind. Brilliantly acted and superbly directed, "Requiem For a Dream," though not always easy to watch, reveals uncompromising truths that cannot be ignored.
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Summary: Watch Out- Feel Lousy
Review: You think life could not be any worse. Take all the bad things in this world drugs, prostitution, abuse, hate, anger, addiction, and pure fear and roll them into an "in your face reality...then call it Requiem for a Dream."
I had to put another movie on after this movie ended finally. I did not want to go to bed with this film on my mind. I truly fear what my sunconscious has done with it. It will leave you in a bad mental place. I do give him credit for his direction and editing as the ONLY good things about this film. It case you did not get it. I don't like this movie nor would I ever recommend this film to anyone unless they are meant to be tortured.
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Summary: Harrowing Magnificence
Review: I have never seen such stark reality from a motion picture. Its story is beautiful, tragic and shocking. Arnofsky is definitely a director to look for in the future. Selby has created a giant of a tale, but one that is all too familiar to America. Requiem grabs you by the neck and forces you to observe the crashing spiral of four people, all diluded by their estranged desires. All seeking a hapiness out of reach, by any means necessary. Even as their paths lead them to inevitable damnation and misery.
This film gives us an introspective to ourselves, whether or not you are involved in drugs. Are you in control of your dreams, or do they control you ?
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Summary: What can I say?
Review: I can see how some people can praise this as highly as they do. I just can't do it myself...For those who honestly loved the movie, I can understand. I just can't see so many people honestly enjoying something so disturbing.
I usually love movies where you are left feeling uneasy, left almost feeling afraid of the world. That uncomforable feeling at the end of a movie is what, in my opinion, makes some films so great. See Happiness. See In The Company of Men. See a lot of other films. Just don't see this one.
The problem with this movie wasn't the actors. The performances that were given were truely special. On that level, I did like the movie. I most especially enjoyed Ellen Burstyn, who does an amazing job with her character. She gives a character without much to say some incredible depth, and you are left feeling her pain. The direction of the film was very slick. The drug scenes were at the very least interesting. I've never shot up, and after watching this film, I can promise you I never will.
My problem with the film is that you aren't just left feeling uncomfortable at the end of the film. You are dragged through it by your hair - over hot coals, and shards of glass. It gives you that truely uncomfortable feeling throughout, and by the end you are truely happy that it is over, and left wondering why you didn't turn it off earlier. You feel, throughout the movie, as if you were doing the drugs with the characters. The story doesn't make all that much sense after a while, and the film tends to just drag on, so as to make you suffer with them.
A truely painful experience.
Rating:
Summary: DVD Director's Cut: 5 STARS
Review: Critics have come to label Requiem a MTV movie that is only targeted to youth. Other critics have dubbed Aronofsky's use of fast-paced music montages as being another association to MTV's usage of similar visualizations in commercials, videos, as well as in programming. This has led to even more criticism of the film as being just another youth-appealing drug flick. This association is incorrect and derogatory to the true nature of the film. It is unfortunate that this film has been classified in the youth drug genre with films such as Up In Smoke, Half Baked, or Go, which are truly what the genre sets out to be. Requiem was set out to be as timeless as possible, and to appeal to all generations. MTV is style over substance, while this film is substance through style. Drug culture is a part of all generations no matter how it is expressed or repressed. Aronofsky's technical creativity can be see through the use of atypical camera techniques such as split-screens, time lapses, fish eyes lenses, surrealistic dream sequences, multiple exposures, and digital effects. The uses of theses techniques are both cinematic eye candy and flaunting. Requiem For A Dream is a perfect example of how character development can be achieved throught the most intimate subjectivity. Don't rent it, just buy it.
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