Everyone will have to watch Requiem for a Dream, not because its a great movie, which it is, but because if everyone watched it drug abuse would drop by 75%. In the realm of movies that are painful to watch because they're scary by being just too damned real Requiem for a Dream rules the roost. This is a movie that pulls no punches, yes there's the mild comedy of some of the mother's fantasy sequences but this movie will kick you in the balls, hard.
Darren Aronofsky takes Herbert Selby's novel, which is equally painful to read, and builds for the viewer a horror show of addiction, not just of illegal drugs but prescription drugs as well.
This movie is one of my favorites despite being very hard to watch. I've long thought it was the best movie of 2000 and not only should have at least been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar but that one of the true crimes in Academy Awards' history was Ellen Burstyn not winning the Oscar for best supporting actress, she is simply amazing as a widowed mother who battles addiction to diet pills while her son and his friends battle their own drug abuse.
Unlike other movies like Trainspotting which depict, accurately or inaccurately, drug subcultures and addiction there is no upbeat "it feels so good, everyone should try it" undertones, Requiem simply rips and claws at you and once you think it can't get any harder to view it rips your heart out, yes Trainspotting has the "dead baby" scenes but imagine an entire movie like that and you get Requiem for a Dream.
When I take over the world it WILL be required viewing for high school seniors.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment