A true branding of both soul and brain

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2016)

When it comes to good movies that stick with you for one reason or another, Requiem for a Dream is one of those good movies that sticks with you for a bad, dreadful reason: how addiction destroys your life.
From the very beginning a bad feeling wells up in you as the already bad life of all these people turns into a roller-coaster: first bad, then OK, then bad again, then worse, then destroyed. It pulls absolutely no punches when it comes to the message it wants to portray to the viewer and the message is loud and clear: stay away from drugs.
The story follows four people, Harry Goldfarb, his mother Sara, his best friend Tyrone and his girlfriend Marion. The three young people are trying to make a living out of selling heroin, a plan that grossly falls short of accomplishment as they themselves consume the product becoming more and more dependent on it while Harry's mother, a lonely widow who rarely interacts with her son and is herself a television addict, dreaming of a better life through one appearance on a show, tries to lose weight through illicit means, namely taking "speed" pills.
As the story progresses, you experience the same range of emotions the characters feel and the intense climax and conclusion to which the movie arrives at leaves the most lasting impact on your very soul.
It's certainly not a movie for the faint of heart, but it's a movie everybody should see.