Review of Requiem for a Dream (2000) by Brigette Y — 23 Jul 2012

This movie is original! it's literally unimaginable.

So you've got this woman, Sara Goldfarb her son Harry. She spends her time watching infomercials. At one point, she gets a call from the tv station telling her that she's invited to be a participant on a game show. She'll become obsessed with being pretty and looking youthful. In order to fit into her old red dress, she gets a prescription of pills she needs to take at night. Her son will try in vain to warn her about amphetamine addiction. She says that the chance to be on television has given her a reason to live. Therefore, she will do what it takes. But her invitation never arrives so she increases her consumption and starts the downward spiral to psychosis.

Harry is an addict. An heroin addict. So is his girlfriend Marion. With his best buddy Tyrone, he'll enter the market of illegal drugs to make their business dreams come true. Harry hopes he'll eventually be able to open a fashion shop with his girl. Tyrone will be stuck in a drug gang shooting and they will have to spend most of their money on the bail. From this point on, everything will seam harder. The violence and arrests becoming more and more actual will throw the three youngsters into deep trouble. Harry will convince Marion to have sex for money with her psychiatrist. Harry's arm, meanwhile, is starting an infection.

Sara is invited to visit the television studios in Manhattan. When she gets there, she is dragged in an hospital and is involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward. She will undergo unsuccessful medical treatments before being put electroconvulsive therapy. She lost her sanity. Harry and Tyrone try to go to Florida for drugs, but Harry's infection due to unsanitary injection techniques forces him to the hospital. They will be arrested. Tyrone will live hell in prison and Harry will need to amputate his arm. Marion will start being part of sex shows in exchange of drugs.

The very end of the movies shows each character in a fetal position.

And here you go. Decadence.

This is a ticket to a first class ride to hell. Aronofsky in is very best work uses montages of a lot of short shots to give this claustrophobic panic effect. Along with that, the whole form of the film is a big crescendo to the final outcome. A lot of extreme closeups and extreme distance alternate all along to shift points of view. The flim is divided in three seasons; spring, summer and fall. About half way through summer, the subtitle The Fall appears, and it's no joke. You're in for one wild time. The score is none the less than sublime and is what put Clint Mansell on the map. It increases in intensity and stops, installing a mood of serenity. Those notes really illustrate the downfall.

This, although quite a young film, is a turning point in the history of american cinema. One of the most achieved drug movies, its form couldn't have responded better to the idea it carries and it raised new standards.