Directed by:
Darren AronofskyCinematography:
Matthew LibatiqueComposer:
Clint MansellCast:
Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Suzanne Shepherd, Mark Margolis (more)Plots(1)
Twin stories about different kinds of addiction: A young man (Jared Leto) who along with his best friend (Marlon Wayans) and girlfriend is addicted to heroin, dreams of transcending his life of hustling and owning a store in New York City, while his mother (Ellen Burstyn), depressed and obsessed by television and diet pills envisions her chance to shine again on a game show. (Lionsgate Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (13)
Darren Aronofsky’s directorial inventiveness is incredible. Can anyone else ever reflect human feelings so brilliantly using only camerawork, editing and music? The acting is also excellent – Ellen Burstyn’s performance ranks among the best that I have every seen. But still that’s not enough for me. Requiem for a Dream is a devastating mosaic of somewhat gratuitous misery. It is not the deep, existential and timeless philosophical reflection that it could have been. Which, given its extraordinary formalistic qualities, is a shame.
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Straightforward - transparent - destructive. Although one swears that Aronofsky is working with his triad of destinies so ostentatiously that the viewer cannot be caught with his pants down, it happens nonetheless. Thanks to famous editing, fantastic music and a gourmet tempo, and the atmosphere of the shots, Requiem for a Dream escalates into unbearably creaking tones of frustration and humiliation. Mansell's central melody makes one feel cold, but the visual poem Darren composed for it tears the skin. Although the film typically does not have a particularly deep interior, its surface is so perfect and so well targeted that it cannot be resisted.
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Requiem for a Dream confirmed that I really don't like movies about drug addicts. If it weren't for the story of Harry's mother, I'd probably give it a single star for the direction and the music and that would be it. My problem is that I wanted the worst possible ending for virtually all the characters (except for the aforementioned Sara Goldfarb) from the very beginning. And that is why the ending, praised by many, full of emotions and evoking depression, didn't touch me particularly. All in all, I think the only thing that really impressed me was the (brief, because I always closed my eyes) sight of that inflamed hand. Two and a half stars.
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Aronofsky’s audio-visual approach makes use of absolutely all of his medium’s means of expression in order to totally and mercilessly overwhelm the audience. One of the many fitting aspects of this film consists in how long everything is seemingly fine in the lives of the characters and then the sudden realisation that they’ve been treading water in an ocean of hopelessness. We are all dependent on something and we create delusions to justify and even feed our dependencies without having to see the reality around us. It’s easy to find everyone or at least a reflection of someone close to you in the four lives depicted in Requiem for a Dream. During the closing credits, there is nothing left to do but curl up in a ball and keep dreaming your dream. Though first contact with this film is unrivalled in terms of the intensity of its impact, seeing it again after roughly two decades is no easier or more merciful, because then you know what awaits the characters.
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When I saw the British cult film Trainspotting in the mid-90s, I was literally overwhelmed by its overview and deep exploration of the world of junkies and their survival in this world. And above all, I had a sense of authenticity throughout the film, given that the author of the book, Irvine Welsh, had firsthand knowledge of the scene, being intimately familiar with the life of the junkie community and the drug culture, and having tried drugs more than once. When I watched Requiem for a Dream, my initial impression was complete annoyance at the fact that the screenwriter was openly making a fool out of me, because only someone who may occasionally snort a line of cocaine at a glamorous celebrity party, not someone who knows the phenomenon of the drug world and junkies from personal experience, could come up with such nonsense and detachment from the subject matter. I was not familiar with Darren Aronofsky's work and did not know what to expect from him. But from the first moment, I got the feeling that his directorial style was overly exaggerated, with an obvious attempt to shock and emotionally manipulate the viewer. His music video-like style with fast cuts, slow motion, and most notably, the speeding up of the camera and overall excessive stylization reminded me of the film Spun, but that film primarily aimed to entertain and did not pretend to convey any grand message. Aronofsky's characters are only loosely sketched and, above all, they do nonsensical things. Building the main storyline on the absolute lack of heroin in the middle of New York City, which is the most lucrative drug market in the world and daily supplies a huge number of drug trafficking networks, is simply ridiculous. If the story took place in a sleepy town somewhere in the Midwest, I could easily identify with it, where one broken gang can truly drive many addicts to despair. Then there are plenty of logical errors, like the arrest of the junkie duo - since they weren't carrying drugs, they probably got busted for parking violations. :-) The main character gets sepsis from an infected and swollen vein, which is another absurdity because a junkie like him knows perfectly well where to inject the drug, and it's usually not even the arm because it's too visible - I could go on and on. When I read the reviews from film fans, I felt like I was sitting on a bus while others claimed that I was in psychiatric care. Well, maybe they are right... Overall impression: 35%. For me, this is one of the most overrated films on FilmBooster.
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