Rating: 
Summary: We have a winner! We have a winner!
Review: To read a review for Requiem, will do you no good, as it is nearly impossible to capture the visualizations, and raw emotions depicted in this film. Those who saw it will tell you they left the theatre in a unison of feelings, and psychological disturbance. I too, experienced Requiem, a dark world, where four characters, four rays of light, slowly fade before you. It is perhaps the most intense film I have ever seen. I sat there gripping my seat, my breath barely there. You can read the great reviews from critics of this film (see rotten tomatoes site)... but I can only give you the humanistic reaction to a purely human film. Locate a showing of Requiem...experience it, then you will know exactely what you, me, and all those who experienced Requiem, know.
Rating:
Summary: Best Movie Of 2000
Review: In a year of mega hyped flicks, and mega bombs, it was very refreshing to stumble upon a wonderful peice of filmaking. "Requiem For A Dream" has tight direction, a great story, and the best acting. Can a film about drug abuse really affect the new cynical seen-it-all audiences of today? Well let me tell you this, the film made me and my date actually cry a couple of times. The Ellen Burstyn monologue in the middle of the movie, about being alone, wins the Oscar for her. Julia Roberts? Whatever. It would be a shame if the academy mistaked her clevage baring and mega watt smile for acting in "Erin Brockovich", and ignored Ellen. Another flick garnering raves is "Traffic", a longer, all star flick, that after watching "Requiem" bored me. It paled in comparrison to "Requiem". Jared Leto, looking very emaciated also plays his part very well. He shows how desperate a drug addled person can be. I don't like revealing too much in my reviews, but those who saw it, the scene in the car when Jared revealed his arm to Marlon Wayans was disgusting, but I could not keep my eyes away from the screen. Jennifer Connely also turns a shockingly great performance. The film I really remember her from is "Labyrinth". With this movie she proves she does indeed have acting chops, The scene where she goes to her therapists apartment made me feel for her. Marlon Wayans, after a horrifically awful performance in "Scary Movie" rebounds with a steady performance here. The scene about him not letting his mom down was sweet and sad. This performance should help him shed his goofball image. But with "Scary Movie 2" comming out he is just moving backward again. Now all my praises to Darren Aronofsky. A man who should win Best Director. His subject matter was harsh, he picked under the radar stars, he adapted the story from a book, and did it all very well. This guy knows what he is doing. The movie is very vivid and to me looked real. I live in NYC and I have seen people affected by drug use. And I know that rarely there is a happy ending. Like "Traffic" with it's stupid Michael Douglas ending about his daughter, who was a super addict having ... for ...., who then turns out to be chipper and happy in the end. Yeah right, only @ the movies. The ending in "Requiem" was far more realistic, and it haunted me for days. The Best Movie Of 2000! I highly recommend it. And fans who have already seen it, check out the website @ ... .
Rating: 
Summary: As bad as it gets
Review: I can not imagine it being any more obvious and two dimensional. The end was a surprise, but only because nobody in their right mind would have written that ending. As I had not seen the characters as anything other than poor actors, I really did not have much of a reaction to the ending, other than the erie realization that the director could indeed sink lower.
Rating:
Summary: requiem for a dream
Review: This is the best movie I have ever seen, that I'm not sure I ever want to see again. During the climax of the film a woman was sick to her stomach, my boyfriends hair on his arms stood on end, and I cried out loud and out of control. It was the most moving intense film ever made. The director is absolute genious. Everyone should see this movie. I vow to never touch drugs again.
Rating:
Summary: Good Lord!
Review: Man, what a sad, scary, excellent, grim, disturbing, well-made movie. The more I read about this movie and learned about it, the more fascinating it seemed. I also am one of those people who, when they hear a movie is extremely shocking and disturbing, get a burning urge to see it as fast as I can to see if it shocks me (especially if it's unrated or NC-17), since I am pretty jaded. So, I eagerly anticipated seeing it. The plot concerns four addicts. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly play a young loving couple, Harry and Marion, who dabble in heroin and plan to make a big sale along with their friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) so they can be set for life and Marion can open up her own (legal) business. Unfortunately, their recreational drug use turns into day-to-day addiction, and things start to get ugly. REAL ugly. (Watching someone shoot up directly into a gangrene-infected, pus-filled crater in his arm kind of gave me a whole new definition of the word ugly.) Ellen Burstyn plays Harry's mother Sarah, a lonely widow who wants to lose weight to fit into a red dress so she can appear on her favorite TV show. She starts out by being addicted to TV and candy, but has the bad luck to go to a doctor who-in what I thought was the only unrealistic part of the film- gives her an RX for 'diet pills', that turn out to actually be speed. I say unrealistic because, as anyone who has ever worked in the medical profession knows, very few doctors will NOT just write someone who goes to them for the first time to see them for weight loss a huge prescription for extremely powerful and addictive controlled substances without so much as an examination. If the movie took place any time before the early 80's, this would have been a little easier to swallow. Anyway, I found her story thread the most memorable and heartbreaking. Sarah takes pills and starts losing weight, as well as suddenly becoming very energetic and chatty. Like any addictive drug, her happy blue pills stop working after prolonged use so she ups her dose more...and more...and things slowly start getting very weird and scary. In one of the best scenes midway through the film (one of the few that had a tiny bit of comic relief) Harry visits her --the only visit he makes during the movie where he doesn't openly steal her TV to pawn for dope money. He is briefly riding high (in more ways than one) and tells her he bought her a big screen TV-he wanted to do something nice for her and figured out that "TV is her fix". He looks like he's getting a bad feeling when she's babbling happily about how she has a reason to get up in the morning, and then he hears her grinding her teeth, and figures it out. This is the first time in the movie you see real fear in his eyes. Sarah soon starts having very scary strung-out hallucinations-starting out with subtle things like time woozily slowing down and speeding back up, and when her refrigerator suddenly starts moving on its own, the real nightmare begins. An agressive fridge with a mind of its own sounds Monty Python-esque when you first hear about it, but trust me, you won't be laughing by the end of the movie. One review I read said that the movie not only pulls the rug out from under you, it drags you and the rug down a long flight of stairs into a very dark basement. Another reviewer compared the experience of watching the film to a drug, and that's not too far off the mark either. Whenever a character gets high, there's a slam-bang fast cut montage of the same images over and over; a sigh, a pupil dilating, cells changing color. The scenes where Sarah hallucinates are pretty close to the real thing. The description I probably agree with most came from Darren Aronofsky himself-he compared the film to a jump from a plane without a parachute, and the movie ends three minutes after you hit the ground. The last few minutes that show the gruesome, depressing, worst-case-scenario fates of all 4 characters are just as intense, hard to watch, and nightmarish as I heard they were. I don't think I will ever forget Harry's mother's transformation from a harmless, plump, friendly older woman to someone so frightening looking that people cringe away in fear and revulsion at the sight of her. My only complaints would be that I wish it were longer, with more time for character development. I would have liked more scenes of what these people and their lives were like before they were addicts, as well as their relationships with each other. The cast is great- Wayans shows that he has the most range and talent of the Wayans bros- I laughed so hard at him in Don't Be A Menace that I ended up buying it, but here...wow. I would have liked to see more of his character. I never liked Leto much before, but he is excellent and also almost unrecognizable (he said he dropped 1/5 of his weight for the role and boy does it show). Connelly I disliked so much before that I would actively avoid seeing movies she was in, but I was very impressed and convinced that she can act. Burstyn gives the performance of a lifetime- not only convincing, but she was dedicated enough to let the filmmakers make her look like absolute and total hell, which many actresses over 50 would probably not be brave enough to do. Not recommended if you're easily shocked, squeamish, or upset. If you only like movies that take you to a happy place, stay away. Everyone who left the movie theater looked like they had just been hit over the head with a very large board. And we were all people who knew what we were getting into. Recommended for those who want to see a movie that will completely overtake you and involve you emotionally. In addition, this film should be required viewing for everyone in the fashion industry that supported and glorified that whole 'heroin chic' crap. Also a good movie if you are having some problems in your life and want to put them in perspective VERY fast.
Rating:
Summary: This film will flay your soul...
Review: Aronofsky has created in Requiem for a Dream one of the most harrowing, disturbing visions I have ever seen, but how it drips beauty and mastery. It is a testament to how a harsh and distributing truth *is* beautiful, specifically because it is true. All of the acting is superb, and Aronofsky's vision as a director has only sharpened since Pi. Quick edits, cuts, perspective views combine with a soundtrack that screams and sings along with the visuals to beat your defenses down, to re-sensitive you and make you feel. It's a masterwork, and if Aronofsky makes nothing else at all his work will still be remember by those who see this film. This film is not for the weakhearted. If you cannot see a 'feel-bad movie' and believe that evil not seen, not heard, and not spoken is not there, then this film will destroy you. But if you are one who desires to try to see the whole world, shadow and light, then you must see this film. It will hurt you, and you may not even be stronger for it. But it's beautiful, and I haven't seen much beauty like this.
Rating:
Summary: Mind-Blowing!
Review: After viewing "Requiem for a Dream" I sat for about 5 minutes in the theatre, totally numb. I couldn't even move. This movie absolutely ripped me inside out. Ellen Burstyn's acting blew me away (if she doesn't get the Oscar for her performance, the Acadamy may be getting a letter from me). I barely recognized Jared Leto, and Marlon Wayans' performance really impressed me. Aronofsky's directing style is so beautiful and so gut-wrenchingly realistic that this film is far more profound than any other film I have seen. I felt so empty and so deeply saddened after this movie that I can't believe I liked it so much. The last scene just moved me to tears. I have to see it again!
Rating:
Summary: A GUT-WRENCHING, MIND-BLOWING DESCENT INTO HELL
Review: Move out of the way, Lynch. Time to retire, Cronenberg. Gilliam, take some major notes. Darren Aronofsky has proven himself as a force to be rekoned with. An amazing second effort, in so many ways: art direction, cinematography, editing, painstaking attention to detail...this man's work is perfect in each and every frame. With tremendous respect, Ellen Burstyn should simply be handed the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe right at this moment. Why wait. There isn't any other performance that has or will ever come close to hers. She is incredible. What an amazing woman. Run, don't walk to ge see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Requiem for a dream = Masterpiece
Review: I don't care what the Academy Awards people say. This is the best film for the year 2000. Darren Aronofsky's second movie is not really about drugs, but about Desperation and what people would do just to feel accepted or COMPLETE. Great camera works and angles. Ellyn Burstyn really made me cry. Character development is really good. The story attaches you to the character, so when it started showing scenes of their downfall, you are concerned on what's gonna happen to them. I really like how they laid the musical score (it plays continously while rapidly interchanging scenes of the four characters, giving the film a feeling that they suffer the same pain, DESPERATION). The last 20 minutes of the movie will keep your eyes locked on the screen. If i were to describe this film in two words, I'd say: "My Favorite".
Rating:
Summary: This is THE BEST movie I have ever seen
Review: I drove an hour to see this movie then went back to see it again two days later. If it were still playing I would pay the $6.50 to see it a third time in the theater. Requiem is probably the most disturbing movie I have ever seen. I left it feeling empty, disgusted, scared, depressed, but grateful to be clean. It is the most real film about addiction. This is the film they should show in high schools. The cinematography is awsome, the score is unreal, and the actors couldn't have done better if it were nonfiction. I can't tell you how unbelievably good this film is. The day it comes out on DVD I plan to see it again. The soundtrack is also one of the best CDs I've bought in a long time. Arinofsky shows every form of addiction food, drugs, lifestyles, sex, money, gambling and even TV. The progression of the disease is shown not only by story line but the movie's quickening pace. The score gets more and more disturbing as well. Definitly buy both the DVD and the Soundtrack/ Score.
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