I looked around and didn't see a review for this, plus it's one of my favorite all time movies so I decided to write a review.
Every once in a while, someone makes a movie that kicks you in the stomach and leaves you breathless and thinking. 'Requiem For A Dream' is one of those. It's a sad, scary, excellent, grim, disturbing, well-made movie. I'm one of those people, who hear that a movie is disturbing and shocking, want to see it even faster. For the aesthetic of it.
This movie is one of the most amazing creations I have ever seen. In the beggining of the movie, everything is so vibrant, full of life. As the story progresses, in the end, all that is left is despair. This is not your usual 'drugs are bad, never do them' movie. It's so much more. Darren requested both Jared and Marlon to give up sugar and sex for thirty days, just so they could understand the overwhelming craving. This obviously makes their performances even more amazing, it gives a more realistic edge and makes it painfully real.
"Requiem For A Dream" concerns the lives of Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver and Harry’s friend Tyrone C. Love. Each character is ultimately destroyed by addiction and self-delusion. Even though the characters lived their life differently and far from what you'd call a normal lifestyle, they still shared something with us; hopes, dreams and aspiriations. Sara Goldfrab dreams of being on a TV show, and one day, she get's her chance. She fantasizes about how she could wear her favorite red dress, the one she wore to Harry's graduation and which was her husbands favorite, on TV. But when she tries the dress on, she realizes that over the years she has put on some weight. She resorts to medication, taking weight-loss pills and becomes addicted. Her son Harry is a heroine addict. Harry, Marion and Tyrone get caught in the world of drug dealing, hoping to make money to make their dream's real. Harry and Marion dream of opening a fashion shop where Marion could sell her designs. Tyrone dreams of escaping the streets and making his mother proud.
Aronofsky uses surreal imagery as a vehicle for realism, something that really works when done well - and well done it was. By using slow and fast motion shots, extreme close-up's, Aronofsky succesfully brings the viewer into the mind of someone with a drug problem. The audience experiences everything the characters go through, what it's like to be scared or high; all this in third person, all this in your comfortable seat, still shocking you.
All this effort and dedication put into the movie, it would mean nothing, if the movie ended up with meaning nothing and just being another movie about how bad drugs are. But like I said before, this is the last movie you could ever call meaningless. As the ending comes closer, the editing is speeding up, until the 'grand finale'. The effect was amazing, the movie is something I had never experienced before.
This movie is not a happy or optimistic movie. You can already tell by the title. The movie, it has a painfully real ending. Sara is put into a mental insitution,Harry is arrested and his arm is amputated, Marion works as a prostitute so she could keep on taking drugs and Tyrone has to deal with racist prison guards, hard labor, and drug withdrawal all alone, since him and Harry were seperated [Harry was put into a hospital prison because of his arm]. It doesn't have your typical happy ending, or is anything like the usual 'Little Becky's Seaside Picnic'-rubbish that Hollywood throws at us. Those few last minutes, they're nothing like you would ever imagine.
Every once in a while, someone makes a movie that kicks you in the stomach and leaves you breathless and thinking. 'Requiem For A Dream' is one of those. It's a sad, scary, excellent, grim, disturbing, well-made movie. I'm one of those people, who hear that a movie is disturbing and shocking, want to see it even faster. For the aesthetic of it.
This movie is one of the most amazing creations I have ever seen. In the beggining of the movie, everything is so vibrant, full of life. As the story progresses, in the end, all that is left is despair. This is not your usual 'drugs are bad, never do them' movie. It's so much more. Darren requested both Jared and Marlon to give up sugar and sex for thirty days, just so they could understand the overwhelming craving. This obviously makes their performances even more amazing, it gives a more realistic edge and makes it painfully real.
"Requiem For A Dream" concerns the lives of Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver and Harry’s friend Tyrone C. Love. Each character is ultimately destroyed by addiction and self-delusion. Even though the characters lived their life differently and far from what you'd call a normal lifestyle, they still shared something with us; hopes, dreams and aspiriations. Sara Goldfrab dreams of being on a TV show, and one day, she get's her chance. She fantasizes about how she could wear her favorite red dress, the one she wore to Harry's graduation and which was her husbands favorite, on TV. But when she tries the dress on, she realizes that over the years she has put on some weight. She resorts to medication, taking weight-loss pills and becomes addicted. Her son Harry is a heroine addict. Harry, Marion and Tyrone get caught in the world of drug dealing, hoping to make money to make their dream's real. Harry and Marion dream of opening a fashion shop where Marion could sell her designs. Tyrone dreams of escaping the streets and making his mother proud.
Aronofsky uses surreal imagery as a vehicle for realism, something that really works when done well - and well done it was. By using slow and fast motion shots, extreme close-up's, Aronofsky succesfully brings the viewer into the mind of someone with a drug problem. The audience experiences everything the characters go through, what it's like to be scared or high; all this in third person, all this in your comfortable seat, still shocking you.
All this effort and dedication put into the movie, it would mean nothing, if the movie ended up with meaning nothing and just being another movie about how bad drugs are. But like I said before, this is the last movie you could ever call meaningless. As the ending comes closer, the editing is speeding up, until the 'grand finale'. The effect was amazing, the movie is something I had never experienced before.
This movie is not a happy or optimistic movie. You can already tell by the title. The movie, it has a painfully real ending. Sara is put into a mental insitution,Harry is arrested and his arm is amputated, Marion works as a prostitute so she could keep on taking drugs and Tyrone has to deal with racist prison guards, hard labor, and drug withdrawal all alone, since him and Harry were seperated [Harry was put into a hospital prison because of his arm]. It doesn't have your typical happy ending, or is anything like the usual 'Little Becky's Seaside Picnic'-rubbish that Hollywood throws at us. Those few last minutes, they're nothing like you would ever imagine.
