Requiem for a Dream (Director's Cut)

Requiem for a Dream is a hard film to watch, there is no denying it. I first saw it at a matinee show on a bright sunny day in St. Louis. As I emerged from the Tivoli theatre into the daylight, it seemed impossible that the beauty of the day around me could possibly coexist in the same world as the bleak degradation that the characters in this movie descend into. Since I bought the DVD, I have been avoiding it for weeks, unsure if it was worth facing that descent.It was. Despite being a emotion bonecrusher, the quality of this film is undeniable. Darren Aronofsky has kept his touch for depicting the extremity of human emotion that he demonstrated in Pi. In Requiem, however he makes the characters so rich and engaging that the viewer is drawn along on their voyage of self destruction. This is a big improvement. One of the biggest flaws in Pi was that we have no reason to identify with the obsessive main character. In Requiem, each of the main characters is sympathetic and three-dimensional. It's this that makes the film so traumatizing.Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a lonely widow living alone in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. She spends her days watching television, particularly the infomercial snake oil of Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald), a guru who sells a three step program to rebuild your life. One day she receives a phone call telling her that she has been chosen to appear on television. Filled with excitement, she tries to make herself over for her appearance on TV, which rapidly becomes her one reason for living. When she finds she can no longer fit into her best red dress, she starts dieting like crazy, with little success. When an unethical doctor prescribes her heavy stimulants, however, the weight starts coming off, although the side effects put Sara on the edge of madness. Watching this sweet and lonely old lady fall into drug addiction and obsession is very hard. As madness starts to creep in, Sara spends her days hallucinating in front of the television and huddling in mortal fear of the refrigerator.Harry Goldfarb(Jared Leto) is Sara's son, a heroin addict who repeatedly steals his mother's television to finance his habit. He and his partner Tyrone Love (Marlon Wayans) are scrambling to climb the ladder of the drug underworld from addict to affluent dealer. While at first glance they look like a couple of scum bags, as we get to know them, they become more sympathetic. Harry is a considerate guy who wants the best for his mother and regrets the pain he causes her. Tyrone's thoughts continuously drift back to his own mother in idyllic flashbacks of his youth.Marion Silver (Jennifer Connely) is a young girl from a rich family who wants to design clothing for a living. She and Harry are in love, and together they scheme to turn Harry's drug profits into a chance for her to open a store to sell her own designs. Marion is also entangled in an unwholesome relationship with her sleazy former therapist. Despite this and her cocaine habit, the depths of which she seems unaware of, she seems like a decent person. The scenes of her and Harry together are sweet and endearing. They make us wish the best for this young couple. The fact that they share these moments in a fog of drug-induced euphoria seems almost irrelevant, thanks to Aronofsky's skilled staging, and fine performances by the Connely and Leto.As the film progresses, the hopes and dreams of the four characters are slowly strangled by their dependence on drugs. As despair encroaches on their future plans, they scramble to hold it all together. By the final sequence, the characters' degradation accelerates out of control like a runaway train. Aided immensely by the feverish compositions of the Kronos Quartet, this is one of the most disturbing sequences I've ever seen on film.Technically, this film is very well executed. Sara's nightmarish hallucinations leave the viewer shaken. The time lapse sequences convey a very believable sense of how out of control a speed addict must feel. Aronofsky uses strange perspectives to great effect. In particular, he seemingly hangs a camera from the character's neck at times, to catch every nuance of expression at their moment of greatest shame.I have to recommend this movie, but I warn you, it will not make you feel good. It will probably make you feel like humans are weak and foul things. Choose well when to watch, or risk ruining a light-hearted evening...

This past week, I have been thinking about the American writer Hubert Selby, Jr. (1928 -- 2004). I had read Selby's novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn" years ago and reviewed it on Amazon. I had also seen the film of Selby's book when it came out in 1989. In thinking about Selby again, I watched a video documentary "It//ll Be Better Tomorrow", released in 2005, the year after his death. Then, I watched this film of Selby's other famous book, "Requiem for a Dream". Selby's novel was written in 1978, while the film version dates from 2000. The film has become famous. Selby co-wrote the screenplay with Daniel Aronofsky who also directed the film.This is a sad film set in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, that explores the impact of drug addiction on four people. There are three young people: Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto), his friend Tyrone Love (Marion Wayans), and his love, (Marion Silver). The fourth person is Harry's mother, the widowed Sara Goldfarb, in a moving performance by Ellen Burstyn, who received an Academy Award best-actress nomination. The film features an outstanding, dramatic musical score. It also features rapid-fire shifting between scenes and surrealistic interludes showing drug use and various drug-induced hallucinations. There are outstanding scenes of Brooklyn streets together with graphic depictions of drug use.Each of the four characters has a dream and each dream is dashed due to drugs. The three young people are recent high school graduates with their dreams of love and financial success struggling to make their way with drugs. The film shows their inexorable dooms from addiction. Sara Goldfarb has led a lonely life since the death of her husband and worries about her wayward son. She is a "t.v. junkie" until she receives an apparent opportunity to be on a game show. She becomes addicted to pills in an attempt to lose weight. Her story is juxtaposed with that of the three younger people."Requiem for a dream" is a raw, uncompromising film which reminded me of my much earlier reading and viewing of "Last Exit to Brooklyn." The documentary of Selby that I watched "It/ll be better tomorrow" had insights into the movie. It featured interviews with Burstyn, Aronofsky, and with Selby himself. They all stated that the film was not merely about drug addiction. Instead, the film is about human dreams and their frailty and the need for love. The characters, their backgrounds, and the materialistic, limited character of their dreams get explored in the film. The film suggests the need for meaning, love, and hope to overcome despair and loneliness.Selby is an under-appreciated American writer, and I was glad to think about him again. I hope to read the book on which this film is based. The movie is shocking with a lurid, sad beauty.Robin Friedman

This movie is a great piece of art and is really disturbing. Its depiction of society and drugs, lifehardcore and where we find meaning is really a big part of what this masterful directer did in this film. Be prepared to be disturbed and I wouldn't reccomend for someone under the age of 21 unless you want to just scare them about drug use and have them seeing a shrink due to the trauma for the rest of there life. A lot of triggers in this movie regard drug use as well as mental health, if those types of triggers are an issue for you, I would avoid as its just a really hardcore movie. Quite the piece of art though, Bravo! I still remember the first time I watched this and that was like 20 years ago. Like I will never forget my reaction and others.