Visceral Anti-Drug Experience

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2005)

"Requiem for a Dream" is a wallop of a follow-up to "Pi" for director Darren Aronofsky.
The casting of Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly as junkie Brooklyn Jews is a bit far-fetched, but they turn out to be excellent, completely involved actors and quite passable with the accent.
The editing takes a "3 Kings" approach to drugs, going inside the head and body of abusers, but paced and accompanied by an increasingly mad soundtrack played by the Kronos Quartet.
Ironically for the no one under 17 rating I would be like the mother in "Almost Famous" and push my kids to go see it while screaming "Don't Do Drugs!" at them. It did feel like an updated, brutal "Reefer Madness," like "Cold and Sober" and other addiction movies like "Drugstore Cowboy" but without any of the upside or hope, and this is way more visceral and visual.
(originally written 10/15/2000)