Requiem for a Dream

You figure I would have seen Requiem for a Dream before today, I am a huge fan of Darren Aronofsky's earlier movie Pi, and his later Black Swan and The Wrestler.  Requiem for a Dream is no exception to the brilliant work and does not tarnish Aronofsky's great directorial name.  I have not had the chance to read the novel that the movie is adapted from so my critique is entirely based off the film.

The story is simple: the lives of four individuals are destroyed by drugs.  You see their addictions slowly take over their lives and see their downfalls.  The moral that "drugs are bad" are thrown in your face, it's a moral you've heard multiple times and yet seeing it puts the idea into perspective.

The movie is interesting both in its visual aspects and the story itself.  By the end you come to associate the classical music with suspense and horror, the montages of eyes dilating, heroin cooking, and refrigerators coming to kill people (proving that diets are pure evil). After watching this movie, the romanticized idea of appearing on television no longer appeals to me, then again who spends their day watching nothing but infomercials?

The use of dream sequences and montages is especially interesting in this movie as they are not just visually stunning but also used to get an idea across.  The camera techniques are also quite interesting.  During one dream sequence in which Jared Leto is falling, the camera is tied to a bungee cord and dropped (Imdb  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0180093/trivia?item=tr0777079).

The movie has a bunch of dream sequences, split screen frames, moral questions, and mind bending moments.  Most importantly it will leave you with questions and a pit in your stomach.  Whether or not you use/advocate drugs or oppose them, the movie is interesting and worth a watch.

Starring: Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Ellen Burstyn, and Christopher McDonald

OVERALL REVIEW: Watch.