Requiem for a Dream

 Requiem for a Dream 2000

• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Seen by this director: Black Swan, The Wrestler, The Fountain
• Based on the book by Herbert Selby Jr
• Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Ellen Burstyn – Interstellar, The Fountain, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Exorcist, The Last Picture Show, TV series
• Jared Leto – Blade Runner 2049, Suicide Squad, Chapter 27, Panic Room, American Psycho, Girl Interrupted, The Thin Red Line
• Jennifer Connelly – Alita Battle Angel, American Pastoral, Winter’s Tale, Creation, He’s Just not that Into You, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Blood Diamond, House of Sand and Fog, A Beautiful Mind, Pollock, Dark City, Labyrinth
• Why? Good film
• Seen: Once before. Now: 1 January 2022      

       Harry (Leto) neglects his mother Sarah (Burstyn), a widow and pathetic recluse in her Brooklyn flat. Harry and his girlfriend Marion (Connelly) mess with drugs but they have a dream of starting a boutique with her clothes designs. Sarah wins an appearance on a TV show and starts dieting to fit into her favourite dress. Dieting is agony. She starts taking diet pills. Harry and his mate Ty (Wayans) start selling heroin, sure that they’re headed for the big time.

       In hallucinatory nightmarish sequences we see them all descend into hellish addiction and their dreams come crashing down around them.

       This must be one of the most depressing films ever made and a really bad choice to start the new year with.

       But it’s awfully good. 

4 * of 5.