Superb

Rating: 10/10 (13 October 2014)

Darren aronofsky directs Jared Leto, Ellen burstyn, Jennifer Connelly and marlon wayans in this disturbing spiral of a film.
The story centerers around four "drug addicts" the characters played by Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly and marlon wayans are all teenagers who start off dabbling in heroin, until it stars to dominate their life and starts to get out of control, the two boys start to get into very dangerous situations and Jennifer Connelly starts to get into prostitution. The key character however is Ellen burstyn, mother of Jared Leto who lives by herself sat in her armchair all day watching a day time television show. She receives a letter one day claiming that she has won a competition to be on television, of course she is over the moon but unfortunately she can't fit in to her old red dress. she comes to the conclusion that diet pills are the way forward but to her peril, she soon finds out that the pills are addictive and unhealthy. Her life starts to go the same way as her sons life.
This film is one of the best examples if not the best of modern society and culture. Aronofsky will get a Lot of stick from some people about this film but he doesn't pull any punches and why should he? There is such a deep meaning here, even if it isn't finding nemo (great film) but aronofsky is saying that don't have a go at kids for drugs, because it is ingrained in our society he shows this by using Ellen burstyn, she is an innocent old lady and she becomes a drug addict, burstyn portrays her sweet innocence well but also the characters deranged side. What is very clever is for most of the film we know that the younger three are on heroin but we don't see them use it exactly until Jared Leto uses it in his infected arm. Perhaps the most chilling scene is where Jennifer Connelly "performs" in front of a crowd, just for some drugs, Jared Leto her boyfriend encourages her to do this but she doesn't seem to even hesitate with it.
I'm not surprised that this film didn't win any Oscars etc this isn't a film that the "higher powers" would vote for but that doesn't take anything away from it.This film is a huge statement about our culture and one that some people won't like but as a teenager myself I would find requiem for a dream as a greater warning, as opposed to the kind of films they show you at school about drugs, this is nowhere near government propaganda as some of the others are but a realism story about how harmful drugs really are.