Review of Requiem for a Dream (2000) by Ve B — 23 Sep 2015

Drugs. the people in this film fucking love them. drugs are as addictive as cheerios. in fact, there probably is some form of drugs in cheerios. there DEFINITELY is in those new ones that have the sugar coated clusters in, that shit is awesome.

Motion pictures that are character studies tend to be slow burners - not that this is a bad thing - but this is not the case with requiem. most films generally tend to consist of around 600 - 700 cuts throughout. requiem has around 2,000. that gives you an idea of the pace with which this film moves. the only films that have more cuts and spend more time in the editing room than on set, are the films of michael bay. this may or may not be true. regardless, aronofsky was clearly a man to be watched with the release of this film. offering a bleak landscape of forgotten dreams and hopes chundered out into the very gutter our characters are now lying in. of course, aronofsky would go on to direct the wrestler, the fountain and black swan, again all great character studies. the man has a brilliant insight into the mind and how to accurately portray this onto celluloid.

There are so many clever techniques used in requiem. the downward spiral of drugs is shown yet as far as I recall, you only ever see the characters smoking weed and popping pills. anything harder is purely shown in super fast edits, eschewing the need for 'shock' by showing needles entering bodies. although towards the end we are shown this in one grim sequence. talking of the end...

Montages were invented in the 80's purely to show how rocky becomes stronger or how a couple falls in love. never has a montage looked this grim. there is a portion of this film towards the end which is a succession of cuts that get quicker and quicker until climax is reached. the pace and tension of this sequence is incredible. piling one distorted, alarming image upon another until it's almost too much to face. this film deserved accolades purely for this portion.

If we're to talk of accolades then we have to mention ellen burstyn who was robbed by julia roberts. not literally, you understand. roberts won the oscar for erin brokovich, when burstyn put in not just the best performance of the year but certainly one of the best of the decade. it's a haunting portrayal of the inevitable onset of age and the loneliness this brings. it's played with the use of prospetics and mostly on her own through reaction and expression. to me it recalls the performance of falconetti in the passion of joan of arc, aching in melancholy and longing. if you have grandparents it will make you wish you could take away their pain. to be fair, it's a surprise ellen even got nominated since this is decidedly oscar unfriendly, it's no 'crash'. this is a searing portrayal of the depths people will go for a fix. and an indictment of addiction.

Highly recommended.