The brutal depiction of a modern dance of escapism, tempoed like a 'thriller', heavy on the experimental filmmaking.

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2001)

Easy interpretations of this film will grasp for an anti-drug message, or the exploration of a cycle of addiction. However, a more fundamental theme is conveyed concerning the behavior of bodies from whom the soul escapes, or had escaped. Drug abuse does permeate the film, but to my sensibility it somehow feels tangental to the themes of age and death.
The work is peopled with characters who behave not unlike a living dead. None of the characters in the entire movie elicits much sympathy, including the secondary and even peripheral roles. The primary characters (4) all live in different forms of dreamworlds, which prove much more rewarding and secure than their messed up realities. Escapism in all of its varied forms and mental suggestions is the dream to which the title refers. This escapism takes shape in the form of reflections upon youth, hope for the future, a hallucinatory present, psychological malady, drug abuse, and last but not least -- television.
Tempo and style are essential to the filmic experience presented by this work. The suspense quickly delivers you to the edge of your seat and from there continues to build to an almost deafening creshendo. The tempo seems very much styled upon that of a thriller or suspense film. The refrigerator, and a few other 'gruesome' scenes exemplify the filmmakers' ability to even incorporate elements of the horror genre.
This film is also a platform for experimental cinematography and editing, which at points are overdone. A testament to the filmmaker is that much of the experimentation does work so well. There is some wonderful stedicam work at the beginning, and the repeated sensoral metaphors for the various forms of drug intake convey extremely well. The music is rather subtly delivered, but serves to moderate the tempo quite well. However, the requiem of the title seems to be as much visual as aural.