Dark, Frightening and Incredible

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2011)

First off, let me say this movie is one of the most motivational films I have ever seen, and I say "motivational" using the darkest and most depressing sense of the word. This piece of art shows anything and everything that can go wrong when involved with drugs of such a caliber as cocaine and the like.
A stunning performance of Ellen Burstyn, accompanied by the helpless role of Jared Leto, the desperation of Jennifer Connelly, and the emotional trouble of Marlon Wayans leads me to believe that this movie can, and will, impact any person of any age or upbringing.
I have recommended this to a few of my friends, and one of them thought about their older brother throughout the whole movie because he saw so much in the characters that was in his brother, as well. The other thought of someone, whom she considered her older brother, because he had a drug problem and later passed away due to unrelated events.
I give this movie 10 stars out of 10 because of how much it influenced me, despite the fact that I have had a very limited past with drugs. I haven't known anyone that has done drugs of this magnitude, but seeing this film could prevent any young mind's ideas of how 'fun' shooting drugs into your arm looked.
Personally, I feel this movie should be featured in schools everywhere; with heavy editing and censorship, of course. I feel it would impact students much heavier than the generic movies they show about how a student was killed by sniffing Windex, or something of the sort.
This is, by far, the darkest film I've seen, yet it is one of my favorites of all time.