Ellen Burstyn

Jared Leto

Jennifer Connelly

Marlon Wayans

Christopher McDonald

Louise Lasser

Marcia Jean Kurtz

Janet Sarno

Suzanne Shepherd

Joanne Gordon

Charlotte Aronofsky

Mark Margolis

Michael Kaycheck

Jack O'Connell

Chas Mastin

Ajay Naidu

Sean Gullette

Samia Shoaib

Peter Maloney

Abraham Abraham

Aliya Campbell

Te'ron A. O'Neal

Denise Dowse

Bryan Chattoo

Eddie De Harp

Scott Franklin

Peter Cheyenne

Brian Costello

Abraham Aronofsky

James Chinlund

Olga Merediz

Allison Furman

Robert Dylan Cohen

Ben Shenkman

Keith David

Dylan Baker

Shaun O'Hagan

Leland Gantt

Bill Buell

Jimmie Ray Weeks

Gregg Bello

Henry Stram

Heather Litteer

Jenny Decker

Ami Goodheart

Nina Zavarin

Stanley B. Herman

Scott Bader

Jim Centofanti

Scott Chait

Daniel Clarin

Ben Cohen

Eric Cohen

Brett Feinstein

Ricky Fier

John Getz

Andrew Kessler

Ross Lombardo

Carter Mansbach

Scott Miller

Todd Miller

Joshua Pollack

Craig Rallo

Geordan Reisner

Keith Scandore

David Seltzer

Chris Varvaro

Ricardo Viñas

Chad Weiner

Jesse Weissberger

Greg Weissman

Hubert Selby Jr.

Lianna Pai

Darren Aronofsky

Palmer West

Eric Watson

Nick Wechsler

Stefan Simchowitz

Ann Ruark

Beau Flynn

Clint Mansell

Matthew Libatique

Jay Rabinowitz

Ann Goulder

Anne McCarthy

Mary Vernieu

Judy Rhee

Ondine Karady

Carolyn Grifel

Laura Jean Shannon

Lori Keith Douglas

Douglas Wilkinson

Stephen Barden

Brian Emrich

Alicia Weber

Judy Chin

Tom Johnson

Tony Sereno

Charlotte Fleck

Kenny Gaskins

Mike Easter

Catherine Rankin

Cathy Rait

Nelson Ferreira

Steve Baine

Phil Testa

Andy Niceberg

Gary Martone

Pedro Hernández

Tally Morse

Marie Abma

Ken Ishii

Karl Wasserman

Michael Nickodem

Nicole Klett

Joseph Stephans

Martin Bernstein

Arne Olsen

Francis Catalano

Freddy Luis

Lori Eastside

Peter Bucossi

Timothy Bird

Chip Signore

Jennifer Getzinger

Richard Rutkowski

Jim Bartolomeo

Jennifer Koestler

John Baer

Will Arnot

Sandy Hays

Shelley Rich

Robin Koenig

Roman Greller

Tim Oravetz

Akeo Ihara

Marjorie Durand

Mia Thoen

Quentin Harris

Charles McKenna

Brian Sherratt

Paul LeBlanc

Drew Jiritano

Perri Pivovar

Craig Henighan

Jill Purdy

Lee de Lang

Ron Mellegers

Tim O'Connell

Andrew Tay

Peter Kelly

Brad Zoern

Jason Kaplan

Bob Lacivita

Laurie Regan

Roy Farfel

Crime

Drama

Requiem for a Dream

Artisan Entertainment

Thousand Words

Protozoa Pictures

United States of America

Shattering expose of the fallible human condition.

What to say about Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream that hasn't been said already? Without doubt it's a film, that in spite of its high standing on the main movie sites, polarises opinions. It's a film that in simple terms follows four people through their addictions until the shattering denouement, but the journey is made more bleak by offering tantalising snatches of hope, the dreams of the protags offered up as some sort of goals for the addicts to cling on to - only for the narrative to stick in its rusty serrated blade to draw the lifeblood from the hapless hopefuls.

Arononfsky brings a multitude of technical skills to the party that emphasise the emotional discord on show. Standard split-screening is married up with rapid cutting, isolated framing, close ups, long tracking and Snorricam, all of which is sound tracked by Clint Mansell's haunting musical composition. All told it's an assault on all the senses and terrifying with it, boosted no end by Aronofsky getting top performances from his cast of actors. Love it or hate it, it's a film that simply can't be ignored, unsparing cinema produced by a most gifted director. 9/10

Only my second viewing of this, last time probably was when it came out on DVD, and not one I'll re-watch anytime soon, but still a great drama featuring incredible performances, most notably Ellen Burstyn who was worthy of her Oscar nomination. Has some darkly wild moments and a swing in tones, guess giving viewers insights into the highs and lows of heroine use. Not entertaining in so much as fascinating film worth it for some of the visuals and acting. **4.5/5**

I've never been so afraid of a refrigerator.

Requiem for a Dream is a  psychological drama movie by Darren Aronofsky, based on a 1978 book of the same name by Hubert Selby (1928-2004) that passes in NY in the 70's era of drugs.

The book was written already with Hubert thinking about a movie and had a screenplay for it and approached Aronofsky with it in hands, and Darren rewrote the screen with the help of the writer plus directed the film, being his second official movie after Pi.

With a small cast of protagonists Ellen Burstyn (Sara Goldfarb) mother of Jared Leto (Harry Goldfarb), Jennifer Connelly as Marion Silver (Harry girlfriend) and Marlon Wayans as Tyrone C. Love (Harry's friend).

It passes in the four stations of one year of 70 to 80's in New York Coney Island district - Sara's son Harry is a drug addicted drop out jew student of high college that constantly sells his mother TV set to pay for various drug including heroin, crack and marihuana, aided by his friend Marlon. He has a, aspiring fashion student addicted as well and share his drugs with her.

The plot follows a drug enriched summer through the months each one reflecting the drugs effect from the use, high and withdraw with the seasons, involving also Sara as she is a lonely widow that lives watching shows on television about weighting loss and dreams to be in one. One day she receives a letter saying that she was selected to maybe star on one of those and after failing diet she tries to loose weight with prescribed drugs that induces to addiction as the body arrange itself with the dose. 

This drama as most of Aronofsky's movie have a very different way of showing up the passing of time and the drugs, into a magnificent and frenetic way as I must say - I am an Aronofsky fan, and at least for me. he is into my top 10 directors/ writers list.

The acting of young Leto and Connelly in the start of career are superb and Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar for her performance. It isn't an easy movie to watch but it shows the way drugs act in a realistic way of euphoria in short bursts hip hop sequences and the sudden drastic effect of withdraw as it wrecks the life of the protagonists. Especially towards the end the movie is very heavy to watch, as expected especially at the start of the 2000's. 

Several cinematography techniques as split screen, timelapses, long shots and close-ups are used, and editing was strenuous
using as 4 times more sequences than an usual movie due to the frenetic nature of drug use. 

As Aronofsky was into the start of his career I suspect he was not indicated to more Academy awards like editing, cinematography and original soundtrack (using string quartet arrangements of Kronos Quartet) written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang.

Even now, 20 years after the making it is an very enjoyable and a must see movie like the director works to understand how revolutionary it was at the time. It is as important to drug addiction as Kids was to Sex (never watched Trainspotting so I can't correlate). 

For my an easy 9.5 out of 10.0 / A + and a masterpiece of traditional techniques that is a must see to any cinema lover.