I need to get me a doctor like that

Rating: 7/10 (9 May 2012)

Say what you will about Requiem for a Dream, but it goes right for the jugular with no pretensions or ironic detachment. There's a kind of emotional honesty and directness you don't often see in film. The smörgåsbord of crazy cuts, special effects, and other directorial techniques just help to make the film more of a bodily experience, an unending feeling of grimy degradation that ends up sticking with you long after the movie's over. Aronofsky would go on to learn some restraint and direct better movies after this, but there's something to say for the balls-to-the-walls visual insanity of Requiem.
The story follows the parallel tracks of four drug users, all in a downward spiral. Ellen Burstyn, as a body-obsessed older woman who becomes addicted to mysterious pharmaceuticals has the most interesting storyline. It's a story we don't see too often, and it makes you pause and wonder how easy it would be to slip into this kind of life. The other characters are more familiar types, verging on stereotypes. Marlon Wayans probably gets the most superficial role, but Jared Leto and Jennifer Connolly as tortured lovers are never really convincing either. (Of course, the movie relying on Wayans and Leto as its leading men is probably its most egregious flaw).
In the end, however, the film's power is enough to mostly muscle through the ordinariness of its story. There are times when Requiem for a Dream can seem like an after-school special about the evils of drugs, but if it is, it's the best after-school special ever.