A unique look at addiction by Aronofsky/Selby; it's the best DARE movie never made (or would be made)

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

Mr. Aronofsky's Requiem for a dream definitely is unique- no other film I have seen on heroin and/or speed addiction has been filmed or acted like this. And it helps that I saw it again, because on a first viewing I looked more for the performances, and liked it, but didn't really regard the actual cinematic technique for it with as much un-equaled regard as many others have (at the time I considered it more of an MTV-styled take on a very powerful topic). But now watching it years later (2006 I mean, despite what the date of this comment says) I watch it, having gone through lots of other film-viewing experience, and I like it a lot more. In a way what's really mesmerizing and heartbreaking about the picture is that the contrivances are not based in the actual script or story- not that there isn't one or two that might be hard to not have in there- but rather a sort of fashioning of continuous cinematic contrivance.
In other words, Aronofsky pushes the bounds of everything that can be done with the camera and editing in terms of subjective-viewpoints, ideas through montage, and the power of abstractions in the realm of the main theme of the film- unattainable escapism. One might be tempted to compare to Eisenstein with the montage, but unlike him Arnonofsky isn't putting forward a political message, but a societal one. While the cinematography by Matthew Libatique and the editing by Jay Rambinowitz give the viewer the whole subjective, jarring view of what it feels like in the first person to do these dangerous drugs, some of the time, all this being says, it almost goes by too quickly (if you blink you'll miss the characters actually intaking the drugs, which are done in half second cuts). Not that that's a bad thing, and in fact the techniques used here, which include fast-motion, camera-strapped-on-the-front-of-a-person shots, odd high-angle placements, and wild array of things done that I still wonder how one could think them up, are quite ingenious. Only one scene on a repeat viewing- when Sarah Goldfarb (Burtyn) is going totally off the deep-end in her apartment with the TV show spiraling around her- doesn't totally work for me.
Also, it will be difficult for some people to view the characters in their dissension to demise. Bustyn, (who, if you still believe the Oscars to really be a mark of merit for true achievements, proves this to be false via her loss to the much less warranted Julia Robert) plays an old, lonely woman who dreams of getting on a game-show that she doesn't realize might not be real and decides her favorite red dress is all that matters for the show to the show. It's too small, so she goes to the doctor to get pills (uppers) and they do indeed work, but then she starts taking too, too many and ends up hallucinating that her refrigerator is moving (the first film to use a refrigerator puppeteer by the way) and then things start to spiral. This also goes for her entranged son Harry (Jared Leto) who is slipping into a descent into smack with his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) who sleeps with other men and then some in order to get stuff when Harry can, and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans in his best performance to date) who is also descending, but might seem to have it not as bad as the others by the time the film ends.
But like I said, it is hard to view these characters falling deeper and deeper into insanity and desperation and all since it is also difficult to sympathize with these people. Yet, by the end of the film I almost felt like I was going to burst into tears not because I felt sad for the characters but more because of how powerful there journey led then to their destination. Like it or not though, this film begs for multiple viewings- and some extra years of looking at other films, which was the case with me. There is almost no room for true catharsis at the end, and nothing will ever be the same for anyone, especially as they're alive and lacking redemption (though if I had to place who's story is most compelling, and performance-wise as well, it would be Burstyn's).