Review of Requiem for a Dream (2000) by Aaron N — 16 Feb 2014

Darren Aronofsky is known for his disturbing imagery and dark reality in his films. Requiem For A Dream is basically him not holding back... at all. It is extremely intense, disturbing, cruel, and overall hard to watch in some scenes. It also is very emotional and vivid in it's use of surreal sequences.

The film starts off with a difficult tone, and then slowly spirals into a bleak nightmare of addiction, abuse, despair, and consequences. The utter stark reality of this film is what made it so unsettling, and like real life addiction, it seemed to just get worse and worse.

The plot is simply the lives of four characters with addiction issues, and how they are all connected and related to each other. This was my first time seeing Jared Leto's acting and I have to admit that he really did a great job. Maybe not as good as Burstyn's performance (which I found pretty damn amazing, and all the more terrifying), but still believable.

This is a movie that will stick with you for a while with it's imagery and realism. It proves that some of the biggest horrors aren't found in killer tales, but in analyzing of people facing actual disasters.