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Requiem For A Dream (2000)

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Overall Rating 83%
Overall Rating
Ranked #114
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Connections: Requiem For A Dream

Sara Goldfarb is a retired widow, living in a small apartment. She spends most of her time watching TV, especially a particular self-help show. She has delusions of rising above her current dull existence by being a guest on that show. Her son, Harry is a junkie but along with his friend Tyrone has visions of making it big by becoming a drug dealer. Harry's girlfriend Marion could be fashion designer or artist but is swept along in Harry's drug-centric world. Meanwhile Sara has developed an addiction of her own. She desperately wants to lose weight and so goes on a crash course involving popping pills, pills which turn out to be very addictive and harmful to her mental state. --IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: May 30, 2004
Harry and Tyrone are heroin addicts, who come up with a plan to get a pound of heroin in order to chop it up and sell it for double what they paid for it. Marion, Harry's girlfriend, also wants in on the action because she herself is a drug addict. Everything is actually going nicely with their plan for a while, until the drug supply starts to dry up around town, and everyone starts fiending for a fix. Meanwhile, Harry's mother Sara receives a phone call telling her that she's been chosen to appear on a game show, so she tries to lose some weight so that she can fit into her red dress when she appears on the show. She doesn't have the willpower for normal diets, so she goes to a doctor in order to get weight loss medication, which she slowly becomes addicted to. The movie follows the addictions of all four of these people, and what it leads them to do in order to get just one more fix.

Excellent movie right here that really captures the feeling of addiction. It follows the split scene format that is seeming to become more and more popular these days, where it jumps from one storyline to the next, with each storyline being connected to the other in some way. There's Harry and Tyrone's storyline, which shows the business side of selling drugs, Harry's addiction to the drug they're selling, and Tyrone's wanting to make his mother proud. Then there's Marion's storyline, which shows her selling her body out to various people in order to get the drug she's so addicted to, and how she loses all the things she's worked for due to the drug. Finally, there's Sara's storyline, where she becomes so obsessed with appearing on this television show, and in turn becomes so addicted to the diet pills that her life just becomes that of a junkie. Each storyline meets up with the other here and there, but for the most part, they're almost completely separate from one another except for the obvious connections of boyfriend / girlfriend and son / mother.

My only real gripe about this movie was the amount of street drug terminology that was used throughout. Granted, it made the movie seem more realistic, but there were more than a few scenes where I was clueless as to what was going on due to my lack of knowledge on what the hell they were talking about. Maybe if I was a bit of a junkie myself, I would have gotten it a bit more... but in the end, things reveal themselves enough so that you know what's going on despite these scenes, so it works out in the end.

On the acting side of things, everyone plays their parts perfectly, with Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) being the biggest surprise. I expected Marlon to either be a comic relief role, or to suck horribly in the serious role, but he really put out an excellent performance. Jared Leto (Harry) isn't really up around the top of my favorite actors list, but he really pulled off an incredible performance as the heroin-addicted kid who just wants to succeed at something, all while slowly killing himself. Sara (Ellen Burstyn) also does an excellent job with the lonely mother role, and doesn't miss a beat when going into the withdrawal-suffering crazy lady role. And finally, Marion (Jennifer Connelly). Her performance really didn't match up to the rest of the cast; that's not to say she wasn't good, but when compared to the incredible performances given by everyone else, she just seemed a bit out of her league.

Overall, this movie is well worth the viewing. 9/10.
StandinOnAnOverpass #1: StandinOnAnOverpass - added August 15, 2004 at 8:23pm
This movie is magnificent.
Schillinger #2: Schillinger - added August 22, 2004 at 3:24am
Ass to Ass!! Haha...
HeatoN #3: HeatoN - added November 27, 2004 at 5:58pm
great movie. a must see!!
Bluesummers #4: Bluesummers - added December 26, 2004 at 7:38am
Have you ever wanted to feel what it's like to lose four of your best friends? Probably not. But you'll feel it. Through the direction, nearly schizophrenic in its execution, you'll feel the disorientation, the rush, the adrenaline of emotions conflicting. You want to hate these people, you want to sob for them. Which means they're human, like you and me. But the best part of this movie is one thing, besides the acting, script, and everything else. The music. This is possibly the best score for a film I've ever heard and owned. Heartwrenching, terrifying, stupefying. I've heard from a friend of mine that this flick hits "too close to home." Well...that's the point. This is a horror movie in the most literal sense of the word. No stupid teens getting axed, just people falling to desire for something wrong. If you don't cry, wince, feel the need to expel bile...I highly doubt you have emotions.
KaOTiK #5: KaOTiK - added February 8, 2005 at 8:36am
Amazing movie, honestly my favorite movie ever, though it's difficult to watch at times if you can relate.
danimigra #6: danimigra - added March 15, 2008 at 5:14pm
One of my top 20 for sure...! really raw... 10/10 for me.!
Shakes #7: Shakes - added January 22, 2009 at 11:07am
Yes it's a great movie, excellent soundtrack too.... I've seen it several times (even in rehab once - go figure right?)...I will never see it again though. I'm depressed enough as it is. 10/10
Shakes #8: Shakes - added January 23, 2009 at 7:05am
By the way, everyone...stop fantasizing about jared leto's skinny faggot ass/sad puppyface, and read the book. It's by Hubert Selby Jr. And of course you didnt know that...
johannesfaust #9: johannesfaust - added January 28, 2009 at 8:02pm
Aronosfky is sickly great...excellent as a matter of fact...
Rest Easy Soul #10: Rest Easy Soul - added January 24, 2010 at 9:01pm
Excellent. Just excellent.
Lucid Dreams #11: Lucid Dreams - added May 26, 2010 at 10:51pm
They should show this in schools during their don't do drugs events that they have. Jennifer Connolly was my least favorite in the acting on here, but I would tear her apart. 9/10
Doug #12: Doug - added March 22, 2011 at 3:17pm
I use to think this movie was great, but now I hate it more then almost any other movie I've ever seen. The damn thing is just a bad omen. Almost every single person I've ever watched it with who started doing heroin was like 'That shit will never happen to me....'

But guess what? Now they're all dead, in jail, or robbing people or sucking dick just for money that they're basically just injecting into their veins. I don't have a problem at all with people using drugs (fuck, I use em myself), nor is this technically a 'bad' movie. But like I said, this movie just carries a bad connotation in my head.
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