One of the most edgy, defiant, honest movies to be released in years. ****(out of four)

Rating: 10/10 (5 December 2000)

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM / (2000) **** (out of four)
By Blake French:
Darren Aronofsky's "Requiem for a Dream" unravels like a fairy tale nightmare of sunken dreams and hopeless obsessions. In one light it is about bad role models who provide good examples for teens by showing how a life can be changed with drug addiction; in the another, it is about the desperate need of human affection, the sorrow of loneliness, and anxieties of depression. This is the most edgy, truthful, and powerful films released this year; Darren Aronofsky has proved himself to be a superior director.

In the most simplistic of story descriptions, the movie shows how the lives of four characters spiral downward after they become involved in the consumption of illegal drugs. It's summertime in Coney Island. There is a sweet, lonely widow named Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), who lives by herself, addicted to a TV game show hosted by the energetic Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald). When she receives a phony telephone call stating she is selected to be the next contestant on her favorite show, Sara decides dieting may be in order to look her best on the air. After struggling with the sight of her refrigerator and the nonstop imagery of junk food, Sara visits her local doctor, who prescribes her diet pills that work miraculously-but turn out to be amphetamines.
Sara's drug-addicted son, Harry (Jared Leto), and his similar best friend, Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans), spend the majority of their time either consuming illegal drugs, or selling them to continue their habit. When their supply is cut off, Marion Silver, (Jennifer Connelly) Harry's girlfriend, soon becomes mixed in the jumble of a loosing streak for the two small time drug-dealers. From murder to withdrawal, to sexual identity and desperation, the characters try severely to regain control of their lives.

The most absorbing factor in this film is how Darren Aronofsky so vividly captures the mental status of his characters on camera. When they use drugs, there is a short period where their lives seem fulfilled and resourceful. The graphic, often disturbing style Aronofsky uses to show the affects of drugs on his characters is hypnotic: extreme close-ups and brief, intercut images of the character thinking about the drug, then the digestion, injected, swallowed, or snorted. We then quickly see the characters' reaction of the drugs, all done in fast-motion with exaggerated sound effects to portray how quickly drugs take affect, and how quickly they wear off. He also uses a technique of a single frame containing two separate shots of characters within, a great way to show how two people alone together.
Aronofsky meshes the four characters interlocking lives together with complexity and dexterity; he uses the three friends as one story, and Sara's increasing addiction to her diet pills as another. At the end he cuts among the four major characters showing us where each is heading, all to an unpleasant destination. We really care about the characters, mainly because they are so well defined and introduced. The film provides good material for them to chew on, and we taste the vivid flavor throughout. What truthfully makes Sara so empathetic is how she is compared to the other three drug addicts, and unlike them, she did not choose to travel the road she ends up on. The story gives her several fantasy sequences where she appears as a contestant on her TV show, showing the hope she still beholds and how she believes herself to still be a good-looking lady.
A great technical crew also supports "Requiem for a Dream." The soundtrack, mostly by Clint Mansell, consists of throbbing base and pounding rhythms, is masterful and enthralling; it wonderfully contributes to the on screen occurrences. The cinematography by Matthew Libatique is gritty and the art direction by Judy Rhee is uncommonly convincing.
The film was originally given the controversial NC-17 rating by the MPAA. Artisan Entertainment portrayed guts when they choose to release it "unrated" instead of editing the graphic material relating to drugs and sex. Artisan Entertainment is asking theaters to enforce an adults-only policy, which seems kind of contradictory: why have a movie "unrated" when no children under 17 can be admitted, when the original NC-17 rating has the same jurisdictions? But this is actually a good movie for young people to see if they are considering experimenting with drugs. Through deeply moving characters, and emotionally disturbing events, "Requiem For A Dream" is the most defiant motion picture to come down the road in ages, and will make an impact on many lives.