captivating cinematography, boring motif

Rating: 7/10 (8 June 2001)

applause...

The most outstanding thing about Requiem for a Dream is not the plot or characters. What is exceptional is the cinematography. Aronofsky does an excellent job of producing the feeling of simulacrum. You almost feel as though you as a viewer are doing the drugs and living the dream.The sheer intensity of this film caused myself and coharts to spiral into heart palpatations. I found myself so unsettled that I could hardly sit still.
Ellen Burstyn phenomenal acting left me with a lasting impression of true feministic crisis of Talmudic proportion (i.e. Eve and the cynic apple).
disappointment...
Though I understand stories and movies alike only have so many motifs in which to work with, I am truly bored with movies diverging into the drug world.
Four dreams seem to be highlighted to me...television star/the beauty incarnate of the American woman(i.e. low fat)...the marriage crisis of nuclear families...the need for sedation to be a coplacent citizen...and the necessity of wealth. All of these dreams seem to be bent on stereotypical necessities. These necessities of course being strictly or seemingly created by American ideology.
So I am fascinated that the idea that narcotics are a key (although obviously presented as the wrong key) to the satiation of the American dream. Rather droll to me...I wonder did Aronofsky work with DEA on the production of this film. Some balance would be encouraging to me (although one could argue that the girlfriend who was satiated at the sacrifice of her body could be interpreted as positive...perhaps a pan sexual entity such as Walt Whitman might view it as so romantic).
conclusion...
All in all I though this movie was a masterpiece. I simply have questions about the validity of the overall impression that the movie leaves you with. I am not blind however and understand that this opinion is subjective.