Rating of
3.5/4
A traumatizing truth.
memento_mori - wrote on 08/24/13
Darren Aronofsky rarely disappoints, and with Requiem for a Dream, he has created another movie that successfully encourages you not to do drugs. While I do not consider it his best work, it definitely comes from the heart and means something.
Ellen Burstyn is outstanding as the weight-loss obsessed aging mother Sara. There is a scene in the film, where she reveals her addiction to her son Harry. Her acting alone in those few minutes is some of the best I've ever seen.
Aronofsky's direction is great as always. His production design and the way he filmed it through glossy focus lenses is excellent.
He brings his point across very well about the disadvantages of narcotics, - legal and illegal - but it isn't a message stuffed down your throat. He just shows side-effects and personal influence.
The highest compliment and simultaneously the highest criticism I can give this movie, is that is is beyond abstract.
I'm not exactly an aficionado of artsy films, but I do enjoy them when I can figure out what they mean, when it gives me some insight into the characters and the story. Not when it's art just for the sake of being art and no one understands it.
This movie is extremely difficult for me to comprehend. I understand the story, but it doesn't exactly touch me. Which begs the question why some of these certain shots are in the film, that I felt the film could have done without. Like Sara imagining her refrigerator is a monster… Yeah.
Plus, the soundtrack really got on my nerves. It consists almost entirely of one song. That's right, one song playing during random scenes.
Well, at its core I do understand what it's trying to say: Drugs are bad. We've had plenty of those movies, but this one shows it in a realm of creativity, even if a good part of it doesn't really make sense.
Anyway, I don't have to worry about getting addicted to substances. Movies are my drugs :)
