Synopsis
The hopes and dreams of four ambitious people are shattered when their drug addictions begin spiraling out of control. A look into addiction and how it overcomes the mind and body.
Requiem for a Dream
2000 Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Cast
Ellen Burstyn Jared Leto Jennifer Connelly Marlon Wayans Christopher McDonald Louise Lasser Marcia Jean Kurtz Janet Sarno Suzanne Shepherd Mark Margolis Joanne Gordon Charlotte Aronofsky Peter Maloney Denise Dowse Olga Merediz Ben Shenkman Keith David Dylan Baker Bill Buell Darren Aronofsky Lianna Pai Stanley B. Herman Nina Zavarin Heather Litteer Gregg Bello Shaun O'Hagan Jimmie Ray Weeks
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Darren Aronofsky's breakthrough feature after his strong debut with the 1998 indie, Pi, is actually an intensely grim, depressing, hard-hitting & emotionally devastating tale of drug addiction leading to delusions of a dream world which is then ultimately overtaken & destroyed by reality. Easily one of the most powerful, shocking & extremely moving films you're ever going to come across, Requiem for a Dream remains Aronofsky's finest work to date & is a difficult film to sit through for even the most hardened souls out there.
Divided into three segments, namely Summer, Fall & Winter, with each season showing the progression of their drug addiction, Requiem for a Dream tells the story of four people; Harry, his mother Sara, his girlfriend Marion & his friend Tyrone.…
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There is something uniquely invigorating when a film can stomp on your soul so hard it makes you re-evaluate where you stand in the world and find new appreciation for your own life. That is what Aronofsky's film did to me.
At its centre lie cancerous thoughts that will gnaw at you for a long time if you allow them. What are your dreams worth? Why do you have them? What is the point of having them? Aren't you better off without them?
Aronofsky asks you these questions by overwhelming you with a perfect harmony of audio and visuals. It is rare when a film can give you so much sensory input without overloading you and ripping you away from…
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“Ass to ass”
The guy saying that line in this movie is the best ‘villain’ with less than three seconds of screen time in cinematic history. His fantasy is kind of hot though, although certainly not as it plays out in that particular scene - it gives me the shivers. Jennifer Connelly. Holy fucking shit. She’s absolutely, utterly, insanely gorgeous (and that whilst playing a junkie). Jared Leto doesn’t even have to show any acting skills to convince the viewer he loves her, because who the fuck wouldn’t? Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream is one to split audience opinions, but I firmly belong on the most positive end of the spectrum, judging it to be the ultimate anti-drugs movie.…
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It doesn’t happen often. I’ll sit through a film in a movie theater that will make me forget about everything going on in my life. Not once will I check my watch or be distracted by audience members or take a bathroom trip.
"Requiem for a Dream" took me in for 100 minutes, deep into its psyche, and spit me out very shaken and very disturbed.
It’s a harrowing experience, an absorbing trip into four minds spiralling out of control. Ellen Burstyn truly gets into her character, and creates a realistic, sympathetic addict. It’s an amazing performance. The rest of the cast more than hold their own in lesser developed stories, but combined, as a whole, this group of lost souls captures the true essence of helplessness.
This movie achieves so much, but it's really a masterpiece in sound, cinematography and editing.
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"This...drives...most...people...crazy." - Tappy Tibbons
This is probably the most emotionally devastating film I've ever seen. And I saw Irreversible the other week. Requiem for a Dream is a steady descent into madness for both the characters and the viewer. It's jaded, it's disturbing, it's brain-melting and it's utterly brilliant. In the worst possible way.
Requiem's style is staggering. Using hugely innovative and quick editing to create a sense of disillusionment and fantasy, this film's repeated imagery is something that nightmares are made of, and by the final scenes, you feel sick to the pit of your stomach. The incessant use of this editing is stunning, and helps to create an alternative sense of disgust instead of showing us the reality…
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"Drugs are bad mkay" - Mr. Mackey.
I watched this once on a first date. There was no second.
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"Such a son. Your mother needs you like a moose needs a hat rack."
got another recommendation for this so I went and did as was bid. can you believe Jennifer Connelly is that great of an actress. Leto and Burstyn are very good too. I loved the montage, split screens, hyper cuts, fast motion, everything is in there. a feast for the eyes. not for the soul tho. this is as painful and depressing a story as you'd expect it to be. addictions spiraling out of control and while the mother wasn't intitally drawn into it like her son, her fate is all the more sorrowful. the score has found its way into all those epic music playlists on youtube over the years. it kind of took me a while in the beginning to get into it because I felt a bit thrown off by the imagery and how the visual storytelling was handled.
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Brilhante !
Perturbador, incômodo, pesado e medonho, isso é Requiem for a Dream, me fez perder o sono e sentir depressivo quando assisti, todos esses elementos funcionam muito bem, mas o filme não é raso, ele tem algo relevante a dizer e faz de maneira excelente ao falar dos problemas da indústria farmacêutica, mostrar como é a vida de um viciado e como isso afeta elas e as pessoas ao redor, a trilha sonora é uma das melhores da história, ela dá medo e vai perturbando no desenrolar da trama, todo elenco é muito bom, mas preciso ressaltar a Ellen Burstyn, tremenda injustiça ela ter perdido o Oscar, a transformação de uma mãe comum a uma viciada extremamente louca é sensacional, uma das melhores performances femininas que já vi, a meia hora final é o ponto mais alto de todo o filme, chocante e sensacional. -
This fucked me up. Requiem for a Dream hauntingly extinguished any fun left in my spirit tonight. And it may have crushed a handful of happiness in my whole being. PERMANENTLY. Just... Holy shit this is one heavy impactful motherfuckin' masterpiece.
The ideas, musical score, camera work, Sara Goldfarb, and the refrigerator among all others are hauntingly haunting. Yeah you read that right, fucking hauntingly haunting.
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One of the best films of 21st century.
Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece that tackles about drug addiction to the extreme level and what consiquences it can bring to our life.... but told on a very creative way that Aronofsky had masterfully done.
The direction is top tier, especially towards the latter end where the emotional and physical stress is starting to build up to our four characters. It perfectly shown the madness our MCs are feeling through insane camerawork combined with daunting soundtrack making each scene really intense to the point that it feels you're just right behind on our protagonists.
It never tries to get cheesy and corny on the end of the movie (as some dramas do), and I… -
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