Requiem for a Dream (2000)
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Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans Plot: Four Brighton Beach inhabitants - a widowed mother, her twenty-something son, his girlfriend, and his cohort - all see their modest dreams shattered by a slow descent into self-destruction due to their own brand of addiction. |
Review:
Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem From a Dream from the director of the dark, paranoid indie hit
Pi, is not a feel-good film as the title might suggest, but is instead an incredibly depressing and thoroughly unsettling tale of fevered addiction.
The film continuously links two parallel stories, the first of Burstyn, alone, widowed whose aspirations to be liked on TV pushes her to become dependent on shady
prescriptions to lose weight, and the second, that of twenty-somethings trying to deal dope on the street to make enough money to follow their dreams, but who are themselves unconditional junkies.
The narrative bears witness to the disastrous effect the addiction has on the lives of these different people, how their dreams drift further away to be replaced by their single-minded, primal need for another fix and the downward spiral their lives take as a result. The smoldering intensity builds up into a horrifying, harrowing crescendo - the last 20 minutes rapidly
inter-cuts scenes of the foursome's final individual fates, a final, devastating climax.
There's a shocking brutality and bleak, unflinching "realness" to these psychologically disturbing images and a clinical honesty in the script that makes for a film experience that is painful to watch due to the devastating intimate details splashed on the screen, and yet morbidly
captivating enough to make it impossible to look away. Arranofsky demonstrates an excellent grasp of visually dramatic methods, using sharp sounds and images, with the speeding up or slowing down of time, and the static before / after shots to contrast difference between their states, to make us experience how their drug use is affecting them psychologically and
physically.
There's a raw, edgy style to the proceedings that actually borders on the surreal and that is deliberately cut and paced to disturb, providing an amazing interpretation of the dementia of their burned-out psyche. Even the choice of colors, of lighting, of camera shots are simply terrific and helps the storytelling to be that much more poignant and intense. Actual drug taking is never shown, instead making use of an excellent "hip-hop" montage to depict the various characters "shooting up", a quick montage (strap / syringe / dilating pupil / sigh) that is often repeated, combining the quick edits, sounds, and imagery to build a pattern that gives us the sensation of the character's ritualistic substance abuse.
The cast is all-around excellent in portraying naive, desperate characters and their decent into self-destruction. Wayans and Leto are surprisingly convincing in straight, dramatic roles, and
Connelly does an incredible, heart-wrenching performance going from sweet pampered rich girl to broken, raving junkie - her last scene, as she accepts to perform a humiliating sexual act in front of cheering rich men for the promise of one more fix, a scene that is shown in its entirety in brutal fashion, garnered the film an NC-17 rating and is one of the most powerful, depressing scenes of modern filmmaking. But it's
Burstyn who really stands out in a bravura role that is simply superb and downright terrifying, one and that should have easily garnered her an Oscar.
More than just a strong anti-drug movie, this is a portrait of our own self-destructive human nature, a powerful portrayal of all addictions, be it TV, drugs, or even deluded hope, that is never preaching or moralistic and all the more devastating for it. With its shocking visuals and uncompromising portrayal of physical and mental degradation,
Requiem For A Dream is just an amazing piece of work that gets under your skin and stays in your mind.
Drama: 9/10
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