Rating: 
Summary: Award winning twaddle
Review: One of the worst films of the past decade. Pauline Kael had it right. Aranofsky is the type of director who relies on visual gimmicks rather than connecting with the actors and telling a story. This film presumes to be a reflection of his own experiences. In some interviews, he claimed seeing first hand situations such as Connelly's underground strip club scene. The film has the feel of someone with limited life experience, or at least someone with no concept of storytelling. One of the longest ninety minutes I've ever spent.
Rating: 
Summary: will Ellen Burstyn ever go away?
Review: This is a very disturbing movie & not one that I'd care to see willingly ever again. When it was over I just had an empty feeling & felt as though I may have just possibly wasted a couple hours of my life. Not sure why so many people love this movie. I watched it because a friend of mine went on & on about how fantastic & shocking it was. I didn't find it shocking...just blah. I give it 2 stars because the acting was very well done & the storyline wasn't weak just not my kind of thing. Ellen Burstyn kind of got on my nerves too about 1/4 into the movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Requiem for a Dream
Review: Addiction-what it is, what is does, who it affects, how it progresses, and how it feels is very hard conceive-especially for somebody who has never suffered from an addiction or been close to someone who has. Requiem for a Dream is not a documentory or historicaly acurate depiction of drug use. What it is, is a graphic, shocking, disturbing, and most of all-VERY REAL-representation of addiction, through the eyes of an addict. I know this because I used drugs and alcohol for more than 20 years, in the end I nearly completly destroyed myself and I caused great pain and undue suffering to my family with my addiction to cocaine . I am not what the general population perceives as a drug addict. I live in a small town in the upper Midwest. I have a wife and two children and make about $30,000/yr. Few knew of my use. I was selling drugs to support my own habit, and yet ended up more than $20,000 in debt from just credit cards. I know what a "road to nowhere," irrational, out-of-control, empty and sickening feeling addiction is. Requiem for a Dream portrays this feeling in a way words could not begin to decribe. I have been clean and sober for seven years, but after I viewed Requiem, I emotionally broke down as memories came flooding back. This is not a movie for entertainment. If you want to know what an addiction is like (especially to highly addictive drugs like heroin, cocaine, or amphetamine)see this movie. If you think "that will never happen to me," watch this movie again and see how you will give up ANYTHING and EVERYTHING as your whole life revolves around ONE thing-to obtain that chemical and use it. This movie is so good, I will never watch it again.
Rating: 
Summary: Intense and thought-provoking
Review: Similar to "Spun" and "Salton Sea", this film depicts the harrowing lives of drug addicts. The plot centers around three people whose lives are slowly shattered by their addictions. The direction is moody and intense, with brilliant imagery which was copied in the more mainstream "Spun".This film has some extremely disturbing parts and should not be viewed by kids. I wholly recommend this film to anyone who enjoys intense and realistic dramas.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Classic
Review: The interview with Selby, the author, is one of the most uplifting and fascinating accounts of personal courage that I've ever seen. Selby talks about how he overcame his handicaps and how he used the tragedies in his own life to focus on producing fantastic literature. Selby also helps to explain why the movie itself is a classic. Do yourself a favor and pick up this version.
Rating:
Summary: First Rate Suspension of Disbelief with Powerhouse Acting
Review: Requiem for a Dream should be seen alone for the performance of Ellen Burstyn who shows that an actress of grandmother vintage can still can slam dunk the latest kid on the block for six and also manage to outperform everyone else even though she is part of a hip and fashionable MTV-type choppy and deranged independent film production. Requiem for a Dream is not a nice movie. It is very dark, upsetting and mean but is also more than a tad bit exploitive of a number of elements that are done more than a bit over the top here. For this reason Aronofsky does cater for the shock market at times. Certainly if you think more about what you are seeing you will realize that the suspension of disbelief is remarkable but not even remotely close to the reality of life. For example - doctors do not rat out addicts to the cops, the neighborhood junkie knows exactly who is driving his car, you don't go around with a septic arm for days without knowing it, electric shock therapy is administered with an anesthetic and heroin dealers certainly don't turn up at the local supermarket in a truck to sell dope to hundreds of people queuing up on the streets. Aronofsky suspends our disbelief. He does is this brilliantly, but folks should reexamine the material a bit more closely before realizing that they have been duped into a wonderfully fantastic reality-based fantasy. Aronofsky even hints this fantasy world to you more than once and even in the closing segments. Requiem for a dream is a DREAM full of hope, desire, anxiety and failure played out to the tune of hyper-realism. It is wonderfully executed but this is fantasy mixed with a dash of reality that unfortunately too many people literally took to heart. This film deserves its place as a cult classic and certainly the director is something of a talent to look out for. The premise revolves around a son addicted to heroin and his mother who is addicted to slimming pills so that she can fit into her nicest dress to play in a popular television game show as a contestant. All the horrors of the American Dream are played out to full effect and everything goes from bad to worse to terrible to extremely severe. When all is said and done this is just fiction with a social comment to make but it is still hard to see what you can take away from it except maybe a sense that some people do end up in a bad way using drugs. However this should be no justification for the kind of brutality that the US government conducts in its own drug wars or the multi-millions of dollars that end up in terrorist hands from the black market drug economy (this is sort of explained during the jail sequence involving a sick guard). I took this movie as a very good social satire that is meant to shock in a "this is how bad things can get for some people" sort of way. It is a tad bit exploitative like I said, but heck some people go through this so why not film it. Just don't take everything you see here to heart and enjoy this art form for what it is - a great urban nightmare drama with some fine direction and acting to boot.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: This film was one of the most disturbing films I have ever seen. I watched it over 3 days in my health class. This movie really shows how drugs affect one. The drugs that people become addicted to are not always illegeal. Each one of my classmates left the classroom being moved by this movie. We have all been told that drugs are evil, but I think this movie made a real impact on us. Hopefully its message will last longer than 10 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: sad
Review: wow what a gritty movie. clearly tells you the pitfalls of druguse. junkies, parents, every 1 should see. kids too. get the crap scared outta them. thats what drugs should do. stay away. and see this movie more than once.
Rating:
Summary: Second thoughts and jitters
Review: Depending on where you are in your life, depends in how this movie will sit inside you. This movie can be used to prevent drug abuse if you introduce the movie to a child at an appropriate age and at the parent's discresion. If you are at the "expirementing" stage of you life, you will see how "harmless" one puff, snort, etc. really isn't. It may only be pot, however it can lead into other drugs or certain types of people you may not wan to be associated with. If you do not fall under these catagories, you are probably thankfull. You do not need to be doing drugs, or have done drugs to be moved by this movie. It will leave the most ignorant person walking away with jitters, and withdrawl symptoms.
Rating:
Summary: The best movie I have ever seen
Review: Plain and simple--this movie is awesome. The characters all struggle with the pain of addiction and it all leads to destruction in their lives. The camera shots and special effects are great. The best part about this movie is the deep plot. Many people that see it for the first time don't fully absorb the profound message and plot behind the movie. Requiem goes much deeper than people abusing drugs, it shows how dependent people can become on objects that give them gratification and it shows how far people will go to accomplish their goals. It really takes you info the lives of the characters and puts you in their shoes. I would highly suggest that everyone see this movie at least once... it is truly one of a kind and powerful.
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