# Requiem for a Dream (2000)

### reviewed by
Jon Popick

    PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
    "We Put the SIN in Cinema"

In 1998, first-time filmmaker Darren Aronofsky set the entertainment industry on its ear when his $60,000 ? took the Director's Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The grainy 8mm black-and-white film, which was about a super-genius mathematician who found a 216-digit pattern in the world that could both predict the stock market and reveal the true name of God, jettisoned Aronofsky into the upper echelon of young, hip and talented directors ready to be seduced and corrupted by the Hollywood system (he's supposed to be making the next Batman installment).

The temptation to make a bigger and better film must have been incredible. Imagine having a budget nearly 100 times larger, as well as the ability to cast well-known acting talent as opposed to friends and family. The result is Requiem For a Dream, a frighteningly dark look at addictions in modern society. It's a good film, and it's certainly bigger than ?, but unfortunately, it's just not better.

The film is set in present-day New York City near Coney Island, where a middle-aged mother and her junkie son regularly square off over the television set. Harry (Jared Leto, American Psycho) keeps taking the appliance to a pawnshop to support his heroin addiction. Sara (Ellen Burstyn, Playing by Heart) is tired of buying her set back from the same pawnbroker.

Harry's friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans, Scary Movie) and girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly, television's The $treet) are hopheads as well. They figure out a way to make a bunch of money from a really big drug score, but their plan goes awry. Like big drug scores ever go down correctly in the movies.

In the meantime, Sara is just as addicted to television as her son is to smack. Sara particularly loves this one game show, and her life is thrown into disarray when she receives a phone call telling her that she's been chosen to be a contestant. She dyes her hair and digs out a flashy red dress that can no longer be completely zipped. Long story short, Sara ends up strung out on prescription diet pills, thanks to an unscrupulous doctor.

So you've got four characters hopped up on various chemicals. Can the gifted Aronofsky capably handle hallucination scenes? Oh, Lord, yes. They're the slickest since Trainspotting (although they aren't set to Lou Reed and Iggy Pop songs). Aronofsky uses so many different filming techniques (split-screen, fish-eye lenses, altered playback speeds, scene repetition and even cameras strapped to his actors) that Requiem often feels like an all-out assault on the senses (but in a much better way than, say, Armageddon). Don't attempt to adjust the picture. Turning around and heaving popcorn at the projection booth won't stop Requiem from damaging your tender eyes.

Actingwise, Requiem is a one-man show. Burstyn is incredible as the tormented Sara. If she fails to get an Oscar nomination, there should be rioting in the streets. She should get the award for one scene alone, where she's simultaneously being hypnotized by the television and chased by the refrigerator. Interestingly enough, October is a banner month for the 67-year-old actress. In addition to knocking them dead in Requiem, she's lighting up the box office with the re-release of The Exorcist, and stars in That's Life, one of the better-reviewed television shows debuting this fall.

On the other side of the acting coin are Leto and Connelly. Although they're both pretty easy on the eyes, their talent remains very much in question. Connelly's greatest asset is widely believed to be her chest, which is usually more prominently displayed than her acting chops. Leto tries out a New York accent here, but mainly just offers more of the same blank stares that made him so popular as the dim-witted Jordan Catalano on My So-Called Life. Guess what, kids? He wasn't acting. How does a guy with talent this marginal keep getting cast in cool, edgy films, like American Psycho, Fight Club and The Thin Red Line? Wayans is nearly unrecognizable as Tyrone, but that's probably because it's his first role where he isn't acting like a retard.

The plot isn't much to write home about. Most people already know that a drug addiction can do a pretty good job of messing up your life without having cinema cramming a similar message down their throats. Requiem is based on a novel written by Hubert Selby, Jr. (he also wrote the book that became Last Exit to Brooklyn) and adapted for the screen by Aronofsky and Selby. The story follows four characters to ? ‘s one, and Aronofsky seems to have a bit of trouble with the pacing of the film because of it. But just when it seems like Requiem is about to derail, the director tosses in an unexplainably cool, repetitive clip of the three kids cooking up their stuff and getting bent.

Requiem was photographed by Matthew Libatique (Pi) and edited by Jay Rabinowitz (Ghost Dog), the latter of whom is probably deserving of some year-end accolades, as well. The film contains one of the more sexually explicit scenes you'll see in a mainstream film (featuring – surprise! – Ms. Connelly). This one is definitely not for the kids, the faint of heart, or people who suffer from epilepsy.

1:42 – Not rated, but contains nudity, strong sexual content, adult language and violence

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