Okay I'm super late, contrary to what I said in my last post here, but I finally got it. And here we go. I scoured through many lists of "top [x hundred] movies of [insert decade here]" just to be sure, but these are honestly my top 20 favorite films ever so far in my life. Note that I'm not a huge movie buff, and I mostly like comedies, so if anybody's still reading these lists, I'm sure I'll probably ruffle some feathers with what's in here and what's absent, but whatever. Let's go!
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20.Requiem For A DreamReleased on October 27th, 2000Directed by Darren AronofskyStarring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, and Marlon Wayans I'm going to spoil some things that happen in this film. It's a film about drug use, but this film holds so much in it that simply knowing what happens isn't enough to ruin the film. Requiem for a Dream is a film to be experienced, and isn't for the weak of heart.
Based on the 1978 novel "Requiem For A Dream" by Hubert Selby Jr., Requiem For A Dream is a film about four individuals, all addicted to drugs, and their ever-growing desparation from drug use. It is dark, it is bleak, it is tragic. It is not a film to watch on a rainy day - or is it actually the perfect film to watch during a storm?
The film starts off as bright as it will ever get. Harry Goldfarb, played by Jared Leto, is a heroin addict, and he sells it, along with his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), because they aspire for greater things in life. One of them is that Harry and Marion want to open a clothing store, because Marion is an aspiring clothing designer, and Tyrone wants to get out of a bad neighborhood and make something of himself. Harry's mother, Sara, lives at home watching TV all day. Yes, this is the happiest the film gets.
Over the course of this movie, each character descends into a drug-fueled abyss. Sara gets a call that she has been invited to appear on her favorite game show, and a shady doctor prescribes her amphetamines to suppress her appetite, because she is obsessed with fitting into an old dress so she looks good on camera, and the amphetamines make her lose her grip on reality. Harry begins to get sick and his arm gangrenous from shooting up heroin. Marion starts to whore herself out for more money and drugs, and all of this takes its toll on her relationship with Harry. Tyrone is arrested and has to suffer through withdrawal symptoms, racism, and abuse. Much of the film is a slow burn and we get to see montages of these characters doing their thing, doing drugs and suffering the symptoms drug addicts tend to have. One of the most heartbreaking things to me is watching Sara slowly get more and more delusional and out of touch with the real world, sitting all alone in the dark in her apartment with just her TV, and not understanding what is going on with her son.
The film ends with heartbreaking imagery of all the characters in fetal positions, and a peek into Sara's delusional mind, believing that she's won the game show, and her son comes to congratulate her and hug her. Sara is the only one with *some* kind of happiness in her ending. Harry gets his arm amputated. Marion puts herself through humiliating prostitution and lays around the ruins of her ambitions. Tyrone is sick and abused and left alone to rot in a prison cell.
Requiem for a Dream has amazing editing and some wonderful cinematography, as well as a believable script, excellent casting and performances from the lead actors, and cemented Darren Aronofsky as one of my favorite directors, with a couple more of his films just barely missing the cut for this list, namely Black Swan which also shares a couple similarities with this film, namely the drug use and the lead characters' inability to moderate their behavior and keep their dangerous habits in check. It's an extremely dark film and could even be triggering for anybody who is or was an addict. It's also extremely powerful. Not many films leave a lasting impression on me after seeing them, but Requiem for a Dream has stuck on my brain ever since I saw it 15 years ago. Big favorite of mine, even if I don't watch it too often because it's such a heavy film to digest.