Want to ruin your whole weekend in under two hours? Ben Dover reviews Requiem for a Dream!
If you enjoy sitting in a dark room while a giant TV screams at you for two hours about how miserable life is, then fire up your streaming app for Requiem for a Dream. Released back in 2000 and directed by Darren Aronofsky, this cheerful little bedtime story takes a sledgehammer to whatever good mood you might have been holding onto today. It follows four folks in Coney Island who all have big dreams, zero common sense, and terrible habits that drag them straight down the drain.
Consider yourself warned before you hit play. This isn’t one of those feel-good Sunday night movies where everything gets wrapped up with a nice little bow and everyone learns a valuable lesson. It is a loud, chaotic trainwreck that moves at a hundred miles an hour, full of flashing lights, frantic editing, and characters who make choices so stupid you will be yelling at your screen. Grab your favorite snack, pour yourself a stiff drink, and prepare to feel like you need a long shower the second the credits roll.
Review by Ben Dover
Look, I’m 60 years old. I’ve seen my fair share of terrible life choices, bad haircuts, and ridiculous modern trends, but the people in Requiem for a Dream really take the cake. I turned this on expecting a standard drama, and instead, I got a two-hour headache. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is technical genius in some ways, but watching it feels like being stuck inside a blaring car alarm while somebody repeatedly pokes you in the eye with a needle.
First off, we have Harry and his buddy Tyrone, two young guys who think they are absolute masterminds of the drug trade. Kids these days think making a quick buck is as easy as standing on a street corner, but these two couldn’t organize a sock drawer, let alone a criminal empire. Then Harry brings his girlfriend Marion into the mix. She wants to be a fashion designer, but instead of getting a job or doing anything productive, she just hangs out and lets her life fall apart. It is infuriating to watch three capable adults act like absolute fools.
Then there is Harry’s mother, Sara, played by Ellen Burstyn. Now, Sara is actually the only person in this whole mess I felt a shred of pity for, at least at first. She just wants to wear her nice red dress on a television game show. But what does she do? She goes to a shady doctor, gets hooked on weight-loss pills, and starts losing her mind to her refrigerator. Yes, you read that right. A refrigerator starts scaring her. Back in my day, if the fridge made noise, you kicked it or called a repairman, you didn’t let it ruin your life.
The whole movie feels like an overly dramatic public service announcement made by someone who drank ten pots of coffee before hitting the edit room. Everything is exaggerated. Every time somebody takes a pill or does a deal, the director hits you with a rapid-fire montage of popping eyes, widening pupils, and zooming cameras. It’s exhausting! I get it, drugs are bad. I knew that in 1975, and I certainly don’t need a movie giving me motion sickness just to drive the point home.
By the time the climax hits, the film doubles down on being as depressing as humanly possible. Everyone gets the absolute worst possible outcome, to the point where it almost becomes ridiculous. I’ll give the movie credit for one thing: it definitely leaves an impression. You won’t want to touch a cigarette, a pill, or even a cup of coffee for a week after watching it. But as far as an enjoyable Friday night, I’d rather watch paint dry on my back porch.
Cast & Performance
- Ellen Burstyn (Sara Goldfarb): She plays the lonely widow obsessed with getting on a TV game show. Burstyn actually gives a powerhouse performance here, even if her character’s descent into total madness is completely terrifying to watch.
- Jared Leto (Harry Goldfarb): Plays the deluded son who thinks selling illegal substances is a great career plan. Leto does a fine job looking miserable, which is basically all he is asked to do for two straight hours.
- Jennifer Connelly (Marion Silver): Harry’s artist girlfriend who goes down a very dark path. Connelly is a talented actress, but watching her character ruin her own life for a fix is just painful.
- Marlon Wayans (Tyrone C. Love): Harry’s best friend and partner in bad ideas. Wayans actually turns in a decent dramatic performance, proving he can do more than just goofy comedies, even if his character makes terrible choices.
Special Effects & Visual Style
The special effects here aren’t monsters or explosions, but rather a relentless barrage of camera tricks. Director Darren Aronofsky uses extremely fast jump-cuts, extreme close-ups, and split-screen shots to make you feel as jittery as the characters. It works, but it is deeply annoying after twenty minutes. The famous “hallucinating refrigerator” sequence looks ridiculous, but it definitely gets the point across that Sara has completely lost her marbles.
Music & Score
The music is composed by Clint Mansell and performed by the Kronos Quartet. The main theme, a haunting string piece, is actually fantastic. It builds a sense of dread better than almost any horror movie score I’ve heard in twenty years. The only problem? They play it over and over and over again until it is drilled into your brain like a dentist drill. Great song, but talk about repetition.
Rating
3 out of 5 Stars – An absolute masterpiece of technical filmmaking that you will never want to watch ever again.
It is undeniably well-made and acted, but it is about as much fun as getting a root canal without anesthesia.
Complete Synopsis & Plot Breakdown
The story centers on four individuals living in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Sara Goldfarb is a lonely, widowed elderly woman who spends her days watching television infomercials. Her son, Harry, is a heroin addict who regularly steals her television set to pawn it for drug money, though Sara repeatedly buys it back.
Harry and his friend Tyrone decide to go into business together by buying pure heroin, cutting it, and selling it on the street to make enough money to open a legitimate business. Meanwhile, Harry’s girlfriend, Marion, dreams of opening a clothing store. For a brief period, their plan works, and they begin saving money.
At the same time, Sara receives a phone call informing her that she has been selected to appear on a popular TV game show. Obsessed with wearing a specific red dress from her youth for the appearance, she finds the dress no longer fits. She visits a sketchy doctor who prescribes her amphetamine-based diet pills. Sara quickly becomes addicted to the pills, experiencing increased energy, weight loss, and severe paranoia and hallucinations.
As the summer ends, a turf war among local gangs cuts off the heroin supply in New York. Harry and Tyrone’s business collapses, and their savings quickly evaporate as they struggle to buy high-priced, low-quality fixes. Desperate for money, Marion agrees to trade sexual favors to her sleazy therapist and later to a high-end pimp to secure drugs for herself and Harry.
Sara’s mental state severely deteriorates due to high doses of diet pills. She experiences terrifying visual hallucinations, including a monstrous version of her refrigerator attacking her and game show host figures mocking her in her living room. Wandering into the cold city streets in a manic state to find the television studio, she is admitted to a psychiatric ward, where she eventually undergoes traumatic electroconvulsive therapy.
Harry and Tyrone drive to Florida in hopes of buying drugs directly at the source, but Harry’s arm has become severely infected from repeated injections. They stop at a hospital, where a doctor recognizes Harry’s drug use and calls the police. Both are arrested. Harry’s arm becomes gangrenous and is amputated at a prison hospital, leaving him emotionally destroyed. Tyrone is subjected to hard manual labor and racist abuse from prison guards.
Back in New York, Marion sells her dignity completely at a chaotic underground party just to obtain a small stash of heroin. She returns home, clutching her fix, totally isolated. Sara remains catatonic in the hospital, living in a permanent fantasy world where she won the game show. The film ends with all four main characters curled up in the fetal position, their lives entirely destroyed by their respective obsessions.
5 Famous Quotes from the Movie
“I’m somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they’ll all like me.”
— Sara Goldfarb
“In the end, everything will be all right.”
— Harry Goldfarb
“I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress and the television and your father and yourself.”
— Sara Goldfarb
“Somebody like you could really make things happen for yourself.”
— Tyrone C. Love
“It’s a reason to get up in the morning.”
— Sara Goldfarb
5 Interesting Movie Facts
- Extreme Preparation: Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans actually spent time hanging out with real drug addicts in New York to prepare for their roles, and Leto reportedly lost nearly thirty pounds to look the part.
- The “Snorricam” Technique: The director made extensive use of a special camera rig attached directly to the actors’ bodies, pointing back at their faces, to create that disorienting, claustrophobic feeling when they run or walk.
- Ellen Burstyn’s Transformation: Ellen Burstyn had to spend four hours in makeup every day to wear special prosthetic necks and suits that made her look either heavier or drastically emaciated depending on the timeline.
- Iconic Theme Song: The main song from the soundtrack, titled “Lux Aeterna,” became so popular that it was reused in dozens of movie trailers for years afterward, including The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
- NC-17 Controversy: The film was originally given an NC-17 rating by the MPAA due to its intense climax, but the distributor chose to release it unrated in theaters so no cuts would have to be made.
Photos
Trailer
Reviewer Notes
I see what you meant about the music.. very good sound
THATS A LONG WAY TO TAKE A TV
Marlon Wayans is unrecognizable no wonder you don’t remember it was him
The mom is making me sad…
That split screen with harry and Marion is about as sensual as it gets very cool and no nudity
Followed by a food scene it’s mom that s amazing
All that care in the split scene followed immediately by bush… lol
Ok that music again I’m hooked
I’m convinced Aronofsky is a genius
weird
Stacking bills
Holy shit that’s a Lot of diet pills
Damn when this gets dark it gets really dark. Fantastic acting all around.
Drugs are bad mkay I get it
Finally got. A tear in the end dream when mom an harry hold each other on stage