Rating: 
Summary: Makes Trainspotting and Traffic look like Disney movies
Review: This was the most powerful film I've ever seen about drug addiction. If you look at films like Trainspotting (which had somewhat of a dark comic edge) and Traffic, the films at least gave the characters some sort of redemption. Well, there are too many drug addicts in this world who never get redemption; they just fall further and further into addiction and never get out. The world is filled with people who've killed themselves because they couldn't stop their addiction (Kurt Cobain for one and many others), or ended up in jail, or ended up in prostitution, or homeless, or murdered. Some people have the strength to recover, but a great many don't. The entire social and health structure of the US is not set up to help addicts recover, but to only arrest them and throw them in jail. What was amazing about this film was that not one of the characters was saved. There was no growth, no awareness, and no way out. The film was only 90 minutes long, and couldn't have been any longer (it just would have been too painful). This film is a great and brutal work of art, with impressive film techniques. Like all great works of art it deeply impacted me and I'm amazed that the filmakers didn't cop out to the normal Hollywood nonsense and wrap everything up with a happy ending. The fact that Ellen Burstyn didn't win an Oscar for this film is truly digusting. I guess the people in Hollywood felt that the movie violated too many commercial rules and passed on it (or else they didn't have the balls to even attempt to watch it because they heard it was depressing). Instead, they focused on the bland Traffic, which tells us nothing that we already know about drugs (but it had redemption).
Rating:
Summary: Beauty
Review: This is not a tale of chemical addiction. To not feel that you have been destroyed and resurrected after it is finished is to deny tragedy. The lives of these characters are absurd, but so was the mother's life before her drug addiction and therefore so is any life. Their destruction is our destruction by the woe of this world. This is not a warning against drug use, but a cry from within the abyss that we can only, like Hamlet, remain stoic in the face of creation's grand atrocity.Its public face will remain, despite arnofsky's brilliance, a sad tale of addiction, but its truth is art, a shadowed doubt over whatever hope any life may contain and an acknowledgement that few if any can deal with life's menace with open eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty
Review: It is absurd yet comforting to, as the amazon reviewer has, relegate this film to the destruction of hope when it is sought through back-alley dreams. The character played by Ellen Burstyn is as absurd as that of her drug addled son and as absurd as reality however you choose to experience it. One should be left hopeless after this film and to transpose this ennui onto mere drug addiction is to deny the truth and beauty of this film and to create one's own illusory sense of life. We are all lost in the same mist, heroin, television, whatever and this film is universal, not a condemnation of particular lives, but of all life. This is, however, why this film will never gross 100 million in the box office, it is not a film the populous could or should comprehend. It is a film for the existentialist.
Rating:
Summary: Reqless
Review: From the opening of the film, you recognize the subject matter. Aronofsky paints a vivid picture of addiction, decay, demoralization and debauchery. Although the subject matter is foreign to some, one can identify with Sara's thirst for company and longing for a past long forgotten. If you can sit through the whole film, you will have experienced a horrific account of the addict and their fall from grace.
Rating: 
Summary: Shock Theater
Review: There is no question that Aronofsky is a brilliant filmmaker-- this film is hypnotic and utterly gripping in every sense. The actors, particularly Ellen Burstyn (who deserved an Oscar), are brilliant. If you ever need reasons NOT to do drugs of any kind, see this movie. It certainly raises new possibilities for the medium of film, because I've seen a lot of them and there aren't many that leave you feeling the way you do after seeing this one. How do you feel? Numb, depressed, hopeless-- in short, the film makes you feel like a junkie. The experience of seeing dilating pupils, shooting needles and Jared Leto's festering arm (nothing in film has ever made me cringe like that) is not unlike Burstyn's grotesque shock therapy. The movie is like being bludgeoned-- in a good, cathartic way, if that makes any sense. See it for the experience and see Aronofsky's brilliance firsthand, but I'll only see it again if I feel like punishing my mind.
Rating:
Summary: Make ya glad you don't have their problems
Review: I watched Requiem for a Dream, stone cold sober, alone in my dark basement in the middle of the afternoon. Once I finished, I walked around feeling strange for the rest of the day. I dig movies that mess me up. Requiem for a Dream did just that, and I have to say, I didn't think it was going to. It is the story of a group of drug addicts and one of their mother's addiction to diet pills. The story is wacky and the editing is perfect. Watch Requiem for a Dream only if you enjoy movies that leave you feeling disturbed for a few hours.
Rating:
Summary: requiem for a dream
Review: Its not for kids. This film was one of the best film of the 2000 year for movies. I felt it should have recived more recognition then it did. If you're the kind of person that likes only movies like, "The Sound of Muisc." My best advice is, DO NOT SEE THIS FLIM. But, if you are open-minded enough, you will enjoy this film to the fullest.
Rating:
Summary: Very well done
Review: This movie was a story showing pictures of the haunting stories of drug addiction. It looks so real, and the characters were played by great actors. The story is based upon four people, who have their hope and all and all their life thrown down the toilet by drugs. A mother whose son is frequently shooting heroin with friend and girlfriend, while she is sitting at home popping diet pills one after another. The mother lives a life where she sits home lonely, and watches a game show, which quickly takes over her life. The son and his friend start selling heroin, only to make a lot of money, then throw it away on drugs again. His girlfriend after finding out that he can't get coc anymore, starts going to a dealer and using her body to get what she wants. This is a story of destruction of dreams and hope, losing everything, and unalble to regain what they have lost. Haunting images are shown, and anyone who watches this movie frequently is very sick, however it is worthseeing once, shows you a very true story about drug addictions.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but...
Review: What attracted me to this movie was the soundtrack, which was probably the single most incredible soundtrack I'd ever heard. I have heard good soundtracks - but those are usually a random collection of songs by various artists which compliment a movie well, but this is a proper score.
It's a score unlike anything else I've ever heard, and it was enough to keep me enthralled when I finally got around to watching the movie it belonged to.
However, the movie itself isn't so great. The theme is somewhat interesting - that what seems like the catalyst to make all your dreams come true is in actually the thing that will ruin your life, but there is very little in the plot that hasn't been seen before. In short, this is a drug movie. You can expect junkies making bad decisions, acting stupidly and generally ruining their lives when it seems obvious to the audience what the right choices would be.
What saves the movie is the downward spiral of Sarah Goldfarb, and old woman who becomes addicted to speed. It is a strange situation, since durgs and geriatrics aren't often aligned in such a way, and also very disturbing, as the world around her becomes increasingly skewed as the movie winds on. This footage alone is enough to scare anyone away from hallucinogens for at least a week. Overall, the movie is worth watching once, and the soundtrack worth listening to numerous times. Worth buying, in fact.
Rating:
Summary: Best Film of 2000-2001
Review: Disturbing. Amazing. Stunning. Horrific. Depressing. Funny. Sad. All of these words describe Requiem for a Dream, but only one more nees to be said. Important. The acting is great, the script is brilliant and the direction is undescrible. Unlike anything I have ever seen, directing takes a new turn in general. I love this film. Simply amazing. Especially fun to see Wayans in something beside a spoof or D&D. 5/5
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