It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Don't Believe the Hype

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island people are shattered when their addictions run deep. Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream showcases once again that the director is just overrated and makes so many weird movies that is very hard to like (except The Fountain that was awesome) but the film is all about drugs and addiction and never really captures the magic and the drama that it needs to make you care and i happen to like both Leto and Connelly but their characters were just really poorly developed and the film ain't that good as it could. (0/10)

Requiem for a Dream follows the impact that drugs have on a group of four people living in Brooklyn. The characters, Mother, Sara Goldfarb(Ellen Burstyn), Son, Harry Goldfarb(Jared Leto), Girlfriend Marion Silver(Jennifer Connelly) and best friend Tyrone Love( Marlon Wayans). Sara feels trapped in her apartment with no real identity. Her son Harry takes advantage of her for his drug use, along with the help of his friend Tyrone. The girlfriend Marion of Harry, is a spoiled and detactched rich girl with a seemingly good heart. The theme of this film is one of despair and lost identity. Sara has the opportunity to be on a game show she watches daily. As she tries on her favorite dress from Harrys graduation she sees that she cannot fit. The memories of the dress remind her of a happier (and thinner) time. Her neighbors encourage the use of diet pills and thus starts her decent into mental instability, weight loss and paranoia of her refrigerator. The director makes use of loud metal grating sounds as the refrigerator taunts her. Harry and Marion are polar opposites in class and choice of drug. She is affluent and uses prescriptions to party, where as Harry is chasing low cost heroin to support his high. The lost identity of Marion as a poor little rich girl in Harry's world further highlights this despair as she attempts to fit in his world. Including varying degrees of prostitution and self degredation. Tyrone and Harry plan to buy drugs, cut them and sell so they can make it out of the despair their constant search for drugs costs them. A deal gone wrong takes the money they have been saving and forces Marion to see that her escapisim with drugs requires actual action on her part. The lighting used for interior scenes in Sara and Marion's apratments are low and stark. The colors of grey, black and white do not change even when the drugs are in their system. The jump cut of getting the drugs ready, the dialated eyes and heavy breathing share the viewer as a participant in the rush. The despair and lost identity in this film are mirrored by Valley of the Dolls. Another film where despair is supplemented by drugs and the lost identity they try to replace. The mania, outbursts and destruction have the same feel to the viewer. Requeim for a Dream is a more than appropriate title for this movie. The despair and chase of the illusive dream life are haunting to watch, yet riveting to the emotions the film brings to life

I'm glad I finally got around to watching this movie. But I wouldn't call it a 'must watch'. It's a good movie, but at the end I'd been watching at 3x because it felt needlessly long and uncomfortable.

Darren Aronofsky is a problematic director for me to categorize. I can honestly say that I've liked all the films I've seen from him, but none of them are something I'd casually recommend to a friend. Some are even such that I doubt I'll ever rewatch them.Partly that's Aronofsky's scale. His films range from a deeply symbolic examination of time, love and pattern, where a man flies in space on a literal flying tree, to a pseudo-realistic portrayal of ballerina's struggles with her life. With Requiem for a Dream landing somewhere between these two extremes.The easiest theme to find in this film is that of addiction. The film follows four Coney Island people, three of them heavily addicted to heroin. But it's the fourth, the character of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), that provides the echo wall for this obvious addiction. The word addict immediately brings to mind mind-altering substances, but is someone so bound by media that she cannot live without it truly any different. And if she isn't, what does that say about the rest of us. We all have our vices, our favourite things. And those addictions can run deep, to places we don't care talk about.It's an unpleasant film to watch. Not in a way such as Trainspotting, which is mainly just filthy and unclean, though this film has heavy shades of that as well, but because Aronofsky focuses on the weirdness side of drug use. How taking heroin or other pills shatters the dream-reality barrier and shatters it in such a way that's scary beyond belief. It's dream, but in a way that lurks just behind the corner of your eyes, waiting.The best films are those that make you think. The ones you keep returning to in your thoughts. And this clearly belongs in that elusive category.