GREAT Horror Movie !!

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2013)

Requiem For A Dream is one of most powerful movies I've seen. Watching it scared me. It's listed as drama, but when fear is the overwhelming emotion it arouses, it is to me a horror movie, as was "The Hotel Rwanda," another movie that frightened me....that one based on a real life event, RFAD based on the fictional novel of the same name by Hubert Selby, Jr.
Not for the faint of heart....extremely challenging to watch-----many times I wanted to look away, to have the movie stop, but could not pull myself away from watching.... high drama.
Here once again in cinematic history we have one of THE most amazing acting roles by male or female -- Ellen Burstyn's character of Sara Goldfarb--not given the public accreditation it deserved. That year,2001, the Oscar went to Julia Roberts for her title role in the movieErin Brockovich--- which is akin to having given the Indy 500 trophy to the car that came in 5 laps after the lead car crossed the finish. The two acting performances are so far apart---Burstyn's simply incredibly excellent, Robert's merely so-so------that they aren't comparable. Why Burstyn did not get the Academy award for this performance is...disheartening. It's almost as if Hollywood is shallow, and money-driven...?....you think?
Burstyn's performance blew me away. Every now and then we have an actor rise in a role to a level beyond what most actors are capable: such a performance was given by Kevin Bacon in Rocco's 1995 film "Murder In The First." I usually am not that enthused by Bacon's acting (sorry, Kevin) who can't seem to get out of his own way, but in this role he was spectacularly beyond himself. His character took on a persona all to itself. Similarly, Burstyn's Sara Goldfarb has a lifeforce rarely seen on screen. She went through such astounding shifts to create all of that urban mother's angst...!! I could not take my eyes away from her expressive, pain-riddled face: one scene, a hospital scene which focuses on her face, is as hallucinogenic as any I've ever seen heightened by altered lighting, color, and accelerated timing. Truly disturbing.... truly GREAT cinema.
The other actors are fantastic. Not a bad dramatic scene to be had. Leto, Wayans, and Connelly wear their hearts on their sleeves, and Aronofsky's direction is superb at allowing them to display that rawness. This is a movie about destruction, about loss of the self, about delusion, and failed hopes, coupled to the damaging effects of chemicals/drugs. For very good reason Burstyn's character reminds me of that amazing scene in "Ironweed" where Streep's Helen Archer drunkenly takes a stage to sing and imagines herself acclaimed successful...juxtaposed against the reality of no one caring.
Failed visions, delusional thinking, brain-damaged perceptions---all brought to the screen extremely well in this powerful film by Aronofsky.
Burstyn should have received that Oscar, hands down. As good a performance as any you'll see.
I give this movie a 9+.