Rating: 
Summary: the american dream
Review: This movie about drugs? SO sad to see that viewers dont know how to read a metaphor, it is as much about drugs as it is about prostitution, criminality, exploitation of labour, commerciality, etc., they're all in the movie and yet they do not define it. The ample reference movie makes to drug abuse is a metaphor for the hallucinatory "systematic destruction of hope". Capitalism is a system of ghosts: the more it destroys the inner human the more it displays a mirrage of dreams of happiness. Every dream has its dark side, folks, and every nightmare has its dreamlike nature. Dont forget that for all the happy faces you see on television, lottery winners etc. there are those who decay in utter despair, and for all the dregs of the underworld, there are those who live on top of empire buildings. If "Leaving Las vegas" portrays the suicide on the individual level, "Requiem for a dream" is the suicide on the collective one. And this is not about just a bunch of drug addicts, our whole society is rushing blindfolded to a horrifying end.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T DO DRUGS!!!!!!
Review: A STORY ABOUT 4 DRUG ADDICTS AND THE PRICE EACH OF THEM PAY FOR THEIR ADDICTION. DISTURBING BUT VERY EYE-OPENING. IT'S WORTH A WATCH.
Rating: 
Summary: At times, admirable; at others, contemptible.
Review: There are certain things to admire about REQUIEM FOR A DREAM: 1.) The concluding montage sequence is brilliantly arranged and APPROACHES (it does NOT equal) similar sequences in Resnais' MURIEL and Eisenstein's THE BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. 2.) The concluding sequence "fleshes out" some of the scenes from Selby's unforgettable and yet disappointingly coy novel. 3.) It is clear that Aronofsky has actually read Selby's novel---and reinterpreted it. There are also serious problems: 1.) The film's bullish reinterpretation of the novel is not the "authoritative" reading, although it tries to eclipse/supersede the book rather than illuminate it. The novel is infinitely more powerful and significant, and the film should be read as an advertisement for, and a complement to, the novel. But most people I've spoken to about REQUIEM FOR A DREAM have absolutely no desire to read the book. This is an external concern, perhaps, but I insist upon this point: The film is nowhere near as significant as the novel. 2.) Jennifer Connelly (sp.?) refused to appear nude in the climactic scene, which bespeaks a disappointing lack of guts on her part. She should have not been hired. This leads me to point #3... 3.) The entire film has a flashy, shiny, streamlined, mainstream, MTV feel to it---which ultimately deprives the film of any real power. 4.) THIS IS---with the exception of "The Rules of Attraction"---THE SINGLE MOST PRETENTIOUS FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. 5.) The film tries VERY, VERY HARD to horrify its audience. It failed to horrify me, but I was irritated by the film's transparent and desperate attempt to disturb. The film is a good example of UNEARNED sadism.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Flawed Movie
Review: This film belongs in the category of great-cinema-experiments. Darren Aronofsky's main work here is about cinematography and emotional tone and the powerful haunting soundtrack. All these factors were just brilliantly done and very moving as were many scenes which portray mental and emotional collapse. These people are down to their last mental threads - their desolation is total and very compelling. Unfortunately the plot and character development here are just too flat to really allow this film to be truly great. Instead it becomes just stark, powerful art-house verite' - not quite a full entertainment. The chief flaw is that we just don't really know the characters very well, so that when they slip into self-destruction and despair it doesn't have the impact that it should. We can imagine their suffering - they're all terrific actors..but I didn't really feel them - they weren't full, real people to me. Maybe it's that Jared and Marlon were just unrepentant junkies. Could they maybe have aspired to become real people? They were flat, empty shells for years before the movie started, so we never see their decline - they were always worthless, and cruel to say, they got what was coming to them. I don't mean that I enjoyed their demise, but I found it hard to care about them - they were long gone before the story started and were actively digging their own graves. Jennifer Connelly, however, was really heartbreaking. She's just luminous - I have a thing for her - . Her acting is completely transparent to me such that I feel I'm looking right through her body and witnessing her hurting spirit. Watching her repeatedly trade sex for drugs was very ugly and disturbing - like a voluntary rape. It hurt to watch. So few can tug the hard wiring in the back of the mind that way...she is truly gifted..at least with me. Darren Arranofsky really needs a collaborator to meet his full potential. I hope he finds him. Otherwise he'll continue to be an art-house ingenue - and that would be a real shame.
Rating:
Summary: Intense & Disturbing Tale of Human Self-Destruction
Review: Do not watch the first few minutes of "Requiem" and assume you are in for just another junkie drama - it is so much more! The characters are well developed and the ultimate disintegration of each of them is executed superbly, showing the insane depths to which the human soul can sink. From a filmmaking perspective, not only is the cinematography dazzling but the careful matching of the visual effects to the musical score intensifies the impact of every scene. The film builds in power as would a musical requiem, finally ending in a violent multimedia crescendo. The final 20 minutes of "RFAD" are as edgy as any I've seen and are simply not to be missed. Be forewarned, it is very graphic and may be too much for the faint of heart.
Rating:
Summary: Could it happen to someone you know? To you?
Review: This film is a harrowing experience. The principle cast of four all spiral to their respective dooms, all fueled by the use of "recreational pharmaceuticals". Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans are believable as buds who see the drug game as a way to escape their lower socio-economic lives, even as they do not see the way that their own abuse of these drugs makes such an escape impossible. But it is the overpowering performances of Ellen Burstyn and Jennifer Connelly that burned a raw place into my psyche. Ellen Burstyn's Sara is not a junkie. She is just a lonely, overweight middle-aged woman who dreams about being younger, thinner, and not nearly as alone. Jennifer Connelly's character comes along for the ride with her boyfriend, but by degrees she descends lower and lower. You have to watch it to see how low these characters fall. This is not a happy-go-lucky movie. But if you are interested in a well-made, well-acted cautionary tale about the dangers of addictions, you'd have difficulty finding one superior to "Requiem".
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING AND POWERFUL!
Review: This movie is like passing a horrible car accident. You don't want to look, but yu do. This film is one of the most outstandig films I have ever seen! Ellen Burnstyn shuld have won the Academy Award. And the supporting cast is just as gripping! The film centers around a group of people who's lives are literally destroyed by drugs, both illegal and precribed.Seeing ths type of life first-hand through my brother and also friends, this films nails the truth behind drug addiction and the lives it can destroy! SO much has been said in all these reviews, so all I can say is BUY THIS FILM!
Rating:
Summary: So Sad!!!
Review: This movie was so so so sad! I cried so much! everyone who has seen it cried, and they know it's true! Great movie, too.
Rating:
Summary: my favorite movie ever.....
Review: yes my favorite movie ever. why? i"ll tell you why: first ,i hate all these hollywood movies, there are all the same there's a good guy ,bad guy, hot chick....and you know what's going to happen at the end.i'm just sick of wasting my time on those BS movies. they all copycats. second of all: the way they filmed Requiem ,the effects are simply beautifull. i call him the next Kubrick (clockwork orange) enjoy the movie.
Rating:
Summary: This movie broke my heart
Review: On the surface, this is a cautionary drug tale right out of the 1930s: "Behold, ladies and gentlemen, as four ordinary citizens, not unlike yourselves, descend into the dark underworld of dangerous and evil narcotics and go mad, mad, MAD!" But no cliché could affect you this deeply, and that's because this film is less about drugs than the voids they can't fill. Unlike most films of this ilk, which end either a ridiculous orgy of Uzi fire or worse, with a group improbably beautiful junkies decked out in $17,000 of Prada hopping into their mint '63 Lincoln and driving off into a VU-soundtracked desert sunset, Requiem ends at the bottom of the spiral, empty lives fueled with prescription hope colliding head-on with cold, final reality. And that's why it breaks your heart. These aren't bad people, these aren't players, they're just souls seeking light where there is none. Our director does an amazing job of capturing their rituals of addiction, how they substitute the safety of habit for the daunting task of confronting their fears and disappointments, and how it all falls apart when that eggshell world finally shatters. The last 10 minutes of this movie may be the most gut-wrenching cinema I've ever seen; it may be fiction, but you can't leave this behind when the credits roll. Brutal, cutting, but endlessly rewarding.
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