You've just been punched in the back of the head.

Rating: Null/10 (21 November 2001)

It hurts, no? Thump. It happens again. Two hours later, you've been punched in the back of the head thirty two times. Doesn't hurt so much anymore, does it? This is the failing of Requiem For A Dream.
It's an interesting concept, but looks far too clean and stylized to be taken seriously. There could've been many more ways to approach this. And personally, I feel Aronofsky should have chosen a less gimmicky one. By constantly attacking the viewer with ferocious images, Aronofsky defeats his own point. He wants to show you that what's going on is real, but the way he shows you seriously detaches you from the film after a while. He takes several camera and editing techniques that were great in Pi and runs them into the ground. This movie tries to be gritty, but the fancy camera tricks ultimately just propels the cinematic quality way over the point. Give it a try, you might like it, but I personally felt it simply tries too hard to be real and ultimately comes off as fake.