Beautiful but Ham-Fisted

Rating: Null/10 (29 August 2001)

This movie suffers from overwhelming obviousness. "Drugs are bad" seems to be the great enticing message of Requiem for a Dream. I walked out of the theater feeling greatly disappointed and almost chanting its Nancy Regan mantra. Anybody that has even once ridden a bus in a city bigger than Topeka knows how drugs can ruin a person's life, but Aronofsky insists on directing a film that is little more than "reefer madness" with better cinematography.
Granted this film is visually stunning, even groundbreaking at points. And the cast does a stupendous job of giving the script's transparent and two dimensional characters a chunk of humanity, but in the end this movie is nothing more that thinly veiled propaganda picture. If Aronofsky wanted to make a film that spoke honestly about drug culture he should have looked at some of Gus Van Sant's or Harmony Korine's work. A film with a message has a lot more power if it does not try to be a cold halibut smacking you across the face. Pi made me weep, Requiem for a dream just made me cry.

6/10