The Hit

Rating: 6/10 (6 November 2016)

Requiem for a Dream is a grim, intense, choppy, trippy film about drug abuse. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a frumpy retiree who watches television all day, she wants to fit into her red dress as she believes she will appear in her favourite show and is on diet pills to lose weight. The pills are actually amphetamines and they make her hallucinate.
Her son Harry (Jared Leto) is a drug addict, he steals from her, he is gaunt from the drugs, his arm ruined by the injections. His girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) is on a downward spiral, to score, to survive she will have to take part in sex parties, humiliating herself. Their best pal Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) realise that the their drug addiction has overtaken their lives and they are heading for the bottom of the barrel.
Director Darren Aronofsky is fascinated by the use of the camera and sound. He uses split screens, fast cuts, speeded up editing, flashbacks to show the characters wanting their drugs, then the effect of the hit and later the withdrawal.
It is an assault on the senses, it is also a provocative film but I felt that the visual tricks were disguising a thin story.