Gave me a headache. Pass the tablets

Rating: 4/10 (11 December 2017)

Jared Leto plays Harry, a junkie who, along with pal Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), hopes to make a killing buying drugs and reselling it on the streets; meanwhile, Harry's mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn) becomes dependent on uppers in a bid to lose weight ready for an appearance on a TV game show. As time passes, Harry winds up with an infected arm, his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) resorts to prostituting herself for her next fix, his mum goes completely loopy, and Tyrone ends up in prison.
I understand that, having graduated from film school, a young director will be keen to show off some of what they have learnt. In Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky goes all out, chucking in everything including the kitchen sink. Not one second goes by without a 'cool' film-making technique being thrust in the viewers face, whether it be split screen, time lapse, rapid repetitive editing, or Snorricam. It's all there, to such an extent that it pulls the viewer out of the film, as opposed to immersing them (which I believe was the intention).
Aronofsky is so enamoured with his clever visual trickery that he neglects to develop his characters beyond the basics or tell a decent story beyond the bleeding obvious: that drugs are bad.