Review of Requiem for a Dream (2000) by Grant S — 06 Oct 2016

Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a retired widow, living in a small apartment. She spends most of her time watching TV, especially a particular self-help show. She has delusions of rising above her current dull existence by being a guest on that show. Her son, Harry (Jared Leto) is a junkie but along with his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) has visions of making it big by becoming a drug dealer. Harry's girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) could be fashion designer or artist but is swept along in Harry's drug-centric world. Meanwhile Sara has developed an addiction of her own. She desperately wants to lose weight and so goes on a crash course involving popping pills, pills which turn out to be very addictive and harmful to her mental state.

Brilliant. The best movie you'll ever see on drug addiction, its causes, its effects and how difficult it is to break out of. Incredibly intense - director Darren Aronovsky weaves a wonderful web of drawing the characters into a desperate situation and then slowly tightening the noose. The last few scenes of the movie are among the most harrowing, horrific-yet-compelling scenes ever committed to film. The intensity is off the chart.

Aronovsky's brilliance doesn't end there. The editing is sublime - the short, sharp, image-by-image montages are incredibly effective and give a feel for the mania that is a junkie's life. Superb visual artistry.

Excellent performance by Ellen Burstyn, for which she received a Best Leading Actress Oscar nomination (sadly, this was the movie's only Oscar nomination). Good work too by Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and Marlon Wayans.