A film masterpiece...

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2002)

The very first time I heard or experienced this film, was one night on the movie channel. I had missed most of it and got to see the final 15-20 mins of it, but was intrigued by the unique filmimg style (mainly burstyn walking down the street, which I thought was VERY neatly filmed). I had only watched a little bit of the movie, and it had me thinking and I was impressed...
Skip ahead about 2 months, and one day shopping for dvd's I stumbled upon it. It triggered something in my head and I remembered being impressed with what I saw, so for $17 I picked it up...Till this day I still think about it sometimes and can say that it has been one of the more notable masterpieces made...
The film is almost a documentary, a look at addiction and drugs, in the same sense you become attached to the characters that it's almost a biographical story of their lives. The characters almost become a part of you, in so many ways you feel for them, and realize that in each of their own there just trying to find success and their own definition of happiness.
The movie starts off maybe a bit slow, but once it engages, it changes from a movie to almost an experience. For the record the first time I actually watched the WHOLE film, I almost just sat there, staring at my TV screen, both thinking and shocked of what I had witnessed.
Aronofsky, who first made this major debut with Pi, does just about everything right in this film. Is there flaws? Of course, but they almost take away nothing to the film. In fact some of the flaws and mistakes are used to the films advantage at just pounding the point into your head more. The filming style, the script, cinematography, the music and sound etc... just about everything works and flows brilliantly.
From an acting standpoint, everyone excels in this film. Even Wayans who has shown very little besides comedic roles, proves himself. The characters show true emotion, feeling, and it's almost as if there not acting, but actually being themselves. Burstyn stands out just a little bit more, just because her performance was just outstanding, an academy award most definatly should have been considered, but of course was overlooked...
RFaD to sum it up, was well worth the purchase, and hell would have been worth the admission if I had have gotten the oppurtunity to see it in theatres. Filmmaking like this should be considered a privlage and respected (aimed at those who think it's dumb, and that it doesn't excel at what it tries to show), especially with all the crap being released these days. If you haven't seen this film yet, why your waiting is beyond my comprehension...