1. REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000)
Dir: Darren Aronofsky. Stars: Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly & Marlon Wayans
Sara Goldfarb is a TV-obsessed old widow who discovers she’s due to star on a popular gameshow.
Meanwhile, her slacker son Harry, and his beautiful girlfriend, Marion, both find their lives
taking a turn for the worse in downward spiral of drug-taking and violence…
Not for the faint-hearted, Requiem For A Dream is powerful stuff. Darren Aronofsky is a
genius who manages to make the screen drip with tension and horror in a tangible way not seen
since the late Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and The Shining.
The basic set-up seems simple enough, while the overall plot is the old-chestnut of “drugs are
bad”, but Aronofsky weaves it all together with startling cinematography, impressive sound design
and amazing camera tricks, to present a nightmarish world that just gets worse and worse…
culminating in a truly terrible conclusion that should leave you sitting on your sofa dumb-struck
as the credits roll. See this movie. See it with surround sound, on a big screen, late at night,
preferably alone… and realise the power of cinema.
Requiem For A Dream was a tough sell when it was released in 2000 and, despite some great reviews,
it died at the box-office. But make no mistake about it, this is perhaps one of the best movies
of the decade already and Aronofsky’s talent will hopefully shine in big-budget sci-fi adventure
The Fountain with Hugh Jackman, right after he successfully translates Alan Moore’s Watchmen.
He’s the man for the job, and anyone doubting him should seek out Requiem For A Dream immediately.
Required viewing – particularly in schools as an anti-drugs campaigner! Fantastic.
Watch it for: The amputation... or the fridge... or the vein... or... oh, just watch it!
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