Requiem For A Dream

View Date: December 17th, 2000

Cast :

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Writer: Hubert Selby Jr (original story) Hubert Selby Jr and Darren Aronofsky (screenplay)

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming let me out!
Pray tomorrow takes me higher 

Pressure.  The world is full of it, pressure to succeed, to be something, to achieve your full potential, and most of all, to fit in and find your place in the world.  Life becomes how we deal with and either accomplish, or die trying.  The means to which we try to fit can either be our trophy, or albatross, depending upon how successful and determined we are.  Our dreams and goals, where we see ourselves ending up, are what drive us to continue on, even in the face of adverse circumstances that life throws in front of us.  Requiem for A Dream is a personification of the darker side of this search, the desperation that can ultimately result in the downward spiral of our lives, while we continue on in the oblivious fog of dream chasing.  It is painful to watch, but that works in its favor, because the sympathy and pain that we feel, helps us to associate with each character.  Sophomore director Darren Aronofsky (Pi) uses his creative style of film making, combined with his fearless style of societal macabre storytelling to weave a tale of the wanton desire to be somebody, the discovery of the vehicle to take us on that journey, and the ultimate car wreck that life can become in the pursuit of happiness. 

Requiem tells the story of five people, in a New York suburb, over the seasons of a year.  As the season progress from warm, to cold, so do the character’s lives in parallel.  Ellen Burstyn is a game show addicted woman, living alone, but with a group of friends whose daily highlight is sitting in the sunlight, and recounting the twilight of their lives while partaking in those little things which give them pleasure.  Burstyn’s is a game show hosted by a motivational speaker (the wonderfully slimy Christopher McDonald).  So when she receives a phone call that she’s going to be on a game show, her fuse is lit, and her dream is finally set into motion.  Her son is an entrepreneurial drug dealer, with dreams of the one big score, while his girlfriend is a spoiled rich girl, with dreams of achieving something without her parents help.  Finally, is Wayans, Leto’s partner who dreams of just living up to his mothers childhood expectations.  Their fuses are lit with one event, and as the time bomb ticks closer, each burrows deeper into involvement oblivious to the impending explosion.  Leto’s arm wound, Connolly’s association with a kinky drug dealer (a very creepy Keith David), Burstyn’s emotional deterioration (and a haunted refrigerator) while her dream of fame and fortune grows.  Their desires are building in their minds, yet crumbling before their eyes and they cant even see it.

Requiem is not as much a movie, as a cinematic depiction of the darker side of the human psyche.  It examines, in depth, the lengths that people will go to in order be somebody.  Aronofsky, going off of the novel by Hubert Selby Jr. (Last Exit to Brooklyn) takes this story of drug use in 4 individuals pursuit for what they believe makes them happy, and turns it into a near virtual reality ride through these peoples lives.  Not only do we see what they see, but thanks to the quick cutting film style and close ups, we feel it as well.  The scenes of the drug use, fast, blurred, then dilated and calm, the anxiety of awaiting a package, and watching a favorite show when it is the only pleasure you get every day, the way memories of the past come back at the oddest times, and flash so quickly in your brain that you’re afraid you’ll forget them so you continue to replay them, so effectively portrayed that no other director could have captured it in the style that he does.  Along with Atom Egoyan, he is one of the visionaries who give hope for Hollywood into this new century. The film begins slow, building the story, but Aronofsky maintains the attention span with his quick editing style to hold together the early development sequences, then those who are patient enough to make it through, will be rewarded with an emotionally powerful and hard to watch, but necessary conclusion

Burstyn’s performance is definitely worthy of acclaim and notice, which the films subject matter may prevent.  She drops her guard and inhibitions and truly shows all aspects of the paranoia yet jubilation bred by loneliness and a life spent trying to fit in.  I am hoping that the Academy not only takes notice, but also rewards her for taking this role and running with it.  Leto and Connolly are two stars who have relied mainly on their looks in the past, but here, they use the external beauty to contrast what they ultimately become, and both do it fairly impressively.  They are each what they have to be, nothing more, nothing less.  Wayans shows that, like fellow In Living Color alum Jamie Foxx, he indeed has some versatile acting ability.  Showing toughness, yet vulnerability required here, Wayans should take more chances like this and let his ability come out and play more often.  Finally, Aronofsky does bring back his hero and maiden from Pi, in Sean Gullette (still under appreciated for Pi), as a smarmy therapist, Samia Shoaib as Sara’s nurse and Mark Margolis as Mr. Rabinowitz.  This, thankfully, is the only real similarity between the two films.  Aronofsky keeps his style, but doesn’t Xerox his film like others feel the need to do.

 Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with love, but it's so slashed and torn
And love dares you to care
For people on the edge of the night
And love dares you to change our way
Of caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is ourselves, under pressure

Ultimately, Requiem for a Dream is a painful look into a subject that anyone, who ever even briefly considered drug usage, should be forced to watch.  Like its predecessor, Leaving Las Vegas, this movie is a no holds barred look at the dangers and blindness created by addiction.  The dangers of the after effects and the oblivious blindness that it leads you into.  As I’ve stated, this is not an easy movie to watch, movies that tell painful truths rarely are, so there are some who will have problems with it.  But those who make it will be satisfied, haunted and maybe even scared into Pavlovian style responses upon the mere mention of these substances.  This movie is your brain on drugs, times 1000 and hardwired right into your soul.  This is your life under a magnifying glass, which shows how existence can indeed implode upon closer examination of how things really are. You cannot deny it, or hide from it, so just watch it, deal with it, learn from it, and pass the lesson along.  Dreams can come true, if you follow your heart, and not your desires, let the energy that drives you, steer you down the lighted path instead of the quick darker one.  It may take longer, but at least you can see where you’re going and you’ll be alive when you get there. This is not a film that everyone will be able to watch, but its one that everyone should. ($$$ out of $$$$)

 Lyrics from Under Pressure, written by David Bowie and Queen (1981) 

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