Darren's got juice

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2005)

In the corner of the cozy living room, a seventeen-year-old boy buries his face in his jacket rather than look at the screen. "Oh my God," a sixteen-year-old girl whimpers. Another stares at the screen, paralyzed, unable even to blink. And a fifteen-year-old girl weeps openly, but only some of it is the horror she feels right now. She's just had an epiphany. "I want to be a filmmaker," she thinks.
This is what happened when a group of friends and I watched Darren Aronofsky's film "Requiem for a Dream" - fifteen minutes after the film had ended.
I've seen a lot of movies, ranging from incredible to despicable. I've laughed, I've cried, and I've raised my eyebrows. I've come very close to tossing my cookies, mostly at blood-and-guts fests like "The Passion of the Christ." This was the first time I ever came out of a movie just wishing I was dead, and, at the same time, thanking my lucky stars that I was alive. There has never been and I don't think there ever will be a movie as shocking, terrifying, and inspiring as this one.
Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a lonely old widow who desperately wants and needs something or someone to care about. Her son, Harry (Jared Leto) is a lost, confused kid - a bit of a sleazebag, but he seems to have a good heart. His girlfriend, Marion (Jennifer Connolly) is a bright, ambitious young woman who is experiencing real love for the first time. And their best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans - speaking of shocks) is a street-wise tough guy who misses his mother and wants to be loved. In spite of this, they are all happy - or rather, they think they are. Sara's just gotten a call informing her that she's going to be on television, and in a desperate effort to lose weight for the event she begins taking powerful prescription pills. And she's not lying to you - this is the best she has felt in years. Harry, Marion, and Tyrone are running a successful heroin-and-cocaine traffic, and in between all of the sex, shoots, and buying Harry's mom a new TV set, life is pretty darn good. You and I could live happily in a world like that if we were made to.
Except that, of course, it can't stay like that. The chills begin to travel with greater and greater frequency down the spine as the lives of each of these four individuals are shattered. Each of them is reduced to a mindless void of addiction. That's what this film is about - addiction. Addiction does terrible, terrible things to good people, and Darren Aronofsky and Hubert Selby Jr. know it.
The film is a must-see for any actor. The performances of Leto, Connolly, and (in a pleasant surprise) Wayans dovetail perfectly with each other, and viewers will be drawn to the humanity and honesty that each of them throws into their character. But - it's already been sung, and it can't be said enough - Ellen Burstyn stole the show and has no plans to return it any time soon. The sight of Sara running wildly down the street, emaciated and babbling, will tear your heart from her chest. Combine that with her wrenching depictions of what it is like to be old and alone, and the dream sequences in which she is a lovable aging beauty queen, and you will be building your Ellen Burstyn shrine tomorrow.
One fellow whose performance is not given nearly the mention it deserves is Christopher McDonald, who plays Tappy Tibbons, America's favorite television personality. We've all seen Tappy. We can all name dozens of different Tappys. And McDonald's perfect mix of dazzling smiles, charisma, and an undercurrent of evil ("Juice by Tappy! Juice by Tappy!") is more haunting than any supernatural thriller.
Darren Aronofsky is a brilliant director. There aren't words to describe the way this film was put together. He dealt with a low budget and over 2,000 cuts, and a brilliant novel/script by Hubert Selby Jr. to produce a truly original piece of film-making. Where was the Academy when this film came out? Possibly the most heartbreaking thing about the plot of this movie is that it's not quite as bleak as we feel like it should be. Yes, you heard me right. We expect that every character will be reduced to a lame creature devoid of hope and dreams. It might even be a comfort to us if they were. And yet, in the final sequence, we see a glimpse of what is left of Sara Goldfarb's dream. "Requiem" has its title for a reason - she knows that her dream of being on television with her beautiful little boy for the whole world to see is dead, and that's why tears leak from her eyes in the final sequence. They don't damage her glorious smile, but they leave a lasting impression on our hearts. After seeing this disturbing, intense, depressing, horrifying film, we want to ease our own pain, by telling her and the world that it's no good. But we can't bring ourselves to do it.
And of course, we have nothing to say.