Requiem for a Dream | Film | The Guardian

Requiem for a Dream

Reviews in chronological order (Total 32 reviews)

Post a review

  • Submitted by Thomas Nolan on 14/11/2000 08:52

    I just watched it last night at the stockholm film festival and I found it brilliantly suffocating and totally harrowing. As soon as it ended I just had to get out of the theatre and out into the fresh air to breathe again. Frightening.

    14 November 2000 8:52AM

  • Submitted by Tommy K on 01/02/2001 23:17

    It doesn't ultimately matter that the messages offered by Requiem are fairly one-dimensional, nor that there is a fair amount of cliche and mush. These drawbacks are irrelevant, because you've lost your critical faculty almost as soon as the film starts: you're sucked in by the horror and the shattering intensity. The cinematography and powerful close-knit direction are absolutely superlative; it's hard to sit still as your body shakes and squirms and tries to escape from the nasty battering it's taking simply from having to watch this.

    2 January 2001 11:17PM

  • Submitted by Ben on 19/01/2001 15:39

    Being in the privileged position of being in Canada I was fortunate enough to see this a fair while ago. In fact, December was a fantastic month, I made the trip back to England and easily had one of the best viewing months I can remember, what with this, Crouching Tiger, O Brother, Traffic and Memento. But this is the standout of that collection, my own personal film of the year. Of course, it will never get the Academy's recognition, due to its content, but I feel that it is more deserving than any other film I have seen in a long time. What is so beautiful about this film is the marriage of story, of visuals, of acting and of music. Anyone who saw Aronofsky's Pi will know that much of his style is the audio and visual combination, but here he demonstrates just how accomplished he is. What is perhaps most remarkable is that when you see films that concentrate on audio and visuals, they are normally let down but the narrative, but here, both in the film and the script, Aronofsky shows just how good a storyteller he is, and how good he is at defining character. It truly is a remarkable film, one which works better on any one of its levels than most films, but succeeds on all levels to that standard. A better piece of all-round film-making was not achieved in 2000.

    19 January 2001 3:39PM

  • Submitted by Elaine Donnelly on 19/01/2001 17:50

    Best film about drug addiction to grace our screens. Brutal, harrowing and unflinching. Stylistically brilliant. Ellen Burstyn's performance is stunning. Highly recommended.

    19 January 2001 5:50PM

  • Submitted by Ian Larsen on 21/01/2001 23:59

    I have never, ever felt as disturbed, shocked or affected by a film as this. There were sequences of this film that made me feel as if I might panic, while I broke out in an intense sweat of fear. This is a stunning film. Absolutely. Show this to kids in schools - then see what they think of drugs. Requiem paints a picture that Danny Boyle and Irving Welsh only wish they had the talent or vision to realise. This is a year in which the Acadamy will show more than ever before that Oscars do not count, since they won't dare to give Requiem For A Dream the best picture award. Hopefully Darren Aronofsky and Ellen Burstyn will at least be given a fraction of the acknowledgement they should do.

    21 January 2001 11:59PM

  • Submitted by Mystique on 22/01/2001 11:36

    I almost walked out of this film, but I still think it was amazing. These are the contradictions thrown up by this piece of genius film making. Beauty and truth share the screen, you may be watching a descent into hell but, boy does it look (and sound) great.

    22 January 2001 11:36AM

  • Submitted by Caz on 24/01/2001 19:16

    This was simply the most stunning, and affecting, film I have seen in months. 'Bleak' and 'disturbing' have been the key notes of many reviews. The film does give a powerful presentation of the characters' descent into darkness. Yet this is to miss the film's essential beauty. Personally I found the numerous cameos of young lovers more memorable than the image of Harry's putrid arm. The sense of innocence in Harry and Marion's final conversation when on the brink of utter degradation. Something that will stay with me for a long time.

    24 January 2001 7:16PM

  • Submitted by solidcoffee on 24/01/2001 19:21

    rarely does a film actually come out of the screen and physically open your eyes. this movie did more than that. it was so horribly enjoyable that it must be seen by any interested moviegoer. more like this please!!

    24 January 2001 7:21PM

  • Submitted by Liam on 24/01/2001 20:00

    Sickening in every respect. It goes screechingly over the top every chance it gets, then sweats to provide itself more. The Leto-Burstyn scenes are its saving grace, but they also are full-bore exercises in maudlin sentimentality and will depress anyone with a parent who's lived past 60. Whatever lessons it might hope to paint about the horrors of drug addiction are undermined by the ludicrous chains of events at the end, which all depend on incredibly negligent medical decisions that would provide open-and-shut malpractice cases. Because none of the last 15 minutes is at all believable, it becomes as dismissable as any other anti-drug propaganda, and just as hackneyed. The more important points it could be making about the desperate loneliness of old age and the exploitation of consumerist hopes are drowned in its hysterical artifice. Despite the technical mastery, it winds up a pointless and deeply unnecessary film. If you can't stop yourself going, leave at the title "Winter". You won't miss anything but a floridly bad time.

    24 January 2001 8:00PM

  • Submitted by Russell Middleton on 27/01/2001 17:14

    This is the most powerful, most intense film I have ever seen. Ms Burstyn's performance is out of this world, and the direction is quite incredibly accomplished. Both are deserving of an oscar. Be warned, it's revolting in places, but this film will stay with you for other reasons. It's the compelling subject matter and stunning performances that will stick in the memory. The film never preaches, but instead presents a gruelling depiction of the psychological perils of drug abuse. It would make hugely effective anti-drug propaganda for this reason.

    27 January 2001 5:14PM

  • Submitted by GrahamJames21 on 29/01/2001 16:35

    It's a bastard of a film. Bleak, hard, unique, dark are words that could be used to describe it, but above all it will draw you in, like all good films should do. The story follows the drug affected lives of Harry (Jared Leto), Harry's mother (Ellen Burstyn), his best mate and his girlfriend, Marion. Aronofsky depicts the issues that fill the four characters' lives with a good degree of detail, as they all independently fall into their own drug-fuelled demise. Ellen Burstyn provides an impressive turn as Harry's lonely mother who is left only with her TV set to console her, as she deals with the daily perils of her diet. In the end the struggle against the food forces her to visit a 'private doctor' who prescribes her with various coloured pills to deal with her weight problem. The pills are in fact uppers, which then lead to Harry's mum experiencing some desperate hallucinations involving her favourite TV show. The love between Harry and Marion provides a large part of the focus early on in the film, and made me shed a tear as I was overcome with the beauty of it all. However, all the relationships ultimately follow the same downward spiral of narcotics and descend into the deep and murky depths of sexual favours for drugs, a nasty arm infection, and being thrown in prison. The searing music of sharp strings pulled me into the film further and made the blackness of it all become much more affecting. Aronofsky shows these characters and their problems in an interesting way, with features such as the speeded-up scenes of Harry's mum wasting time watching TV and avoiding the fridge. The combination of inventive camera sequences, an effective soundtrack and some fautless acting make Aronofsky's film an experience. It might not be all that enjoyable, but if you only went to see 'happy' films you'd be sad.

    29 January 2001 4:35PM

  • Submitted by Jo Angel on 02/02/2001 14:43

    By the end I felt that my jugular had been wrenched out and I left trying to pray for those stuck in addiction. If that was the intended impact then this film succeeded in a brutal yet engrossing way.

    2 February 2001 2:43PM

  • Submitted by doctor gonzo on 13/02/2001 19:35

    Sure, this is a film which concerns itself with addiction but those who see it merely as heavy-handed 'anti-drug propaganda' are missing the point entirely. Aronofsky purposefully chooses his characters to exemplify an array of social commentary - age, sex, race, etc. The cinema audience feels itself being drawn into the helpless spiral of events because Aronofsky's central motif is that we are all of us living a requiem for a dream - that hazy point in the past when we were able to believe that the future was bright and corelative with our ambition. Poignancy lies in the divide between the innocence of that ambition and its easy brow-beating or manipulation at the hands of capitalist spectacle. The four main characters each have a weakness in their position which makes them susceptible victims. We are given the perception that they are denied - to watch with horror as they lose themselves and their dreams in the moment. As the film progresses we have the sense of things speeding up towards inevitably greater entropy. Reality twists and fragments at such a rate finally that what we are watching by the end is essentially four different films - each of the characters consigned to their own living hell apart. This is a great film, a great social critique of intricate symmetry. Institutions such as the media and the medical profession are given a very hard time indeed - perhaps unfairly - for their complicity with modern social corruption and irresponsibilty. This is, however, so that Aronofsky can get across his main point - that we should be resolute and self-aware, take responsibility for our own short-comings and betterment. Each of the characters is given a warning of things to come - a wake-up call - but none of them heeds it. Their predicaments by the end, though bleak, leave room in the imagination for still worse if the cycle is not broken. Wake-up calls are always there for us on the path to hell, says Aronofsky, but each successive one is harsher. Better to heed the first. Requiem is a superb flip-side to Pi, and both enriched my understanding of the other. Where Pi concerned itself with the addictiveness of the pursuit of knowledge, Requiem negotiates the frailties of innocence in an uncaring world.

    13 February 2001 7:35PM

  • Submitted by Peter on 21/02/2001 19:25

    An astoundingly stressful movie, I do not remember having left a cinema that exhausted before. Yet it was an utmost exciting film to see, probably the best in a very long time.

    21 February 2001 7:25PM

  • Submitted by A sceptic on 21/02/2001 23:22

    So trite and teeth grindingly boring that I almost fled the cinema. Unconvincing, poorly drawn characters, and alienating and repetitive visual trickery left me completely unmoved. This film might shock the completely naive and ignorant, but it bored me rigid.

    21 February 2001 11:22PM

  • Submitted by danpad on 23/03/2001 00:36

    The main problems of the four characters stem from their desires. Not the existence of desire per se, but of a society which breeds puerile, tawdry desires. What is there to desire from such a society other than 15 minutes of vulgar fame or fortune? Marion’s fall is arguably the most precipitous because her desire is the highest. Yet, to be a fashion designer? To collude in the orchestration of the very type of desire and concern which infects society from within with fear, repression and often self-loathing? (No offence fashion designers). Requiem, for me, is about a world of stultifying narrow horizons and the isolation which ensues. Kafka once wrote: "I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us...We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." I think this film fulfils Kafka’s criteria.

    23 March 2001 12:36AM

  • Submitted by Rachel Kennedy on 28/03/2001 12:31

    From the director of Pi comes this visually stunning movie about four people who lose control of their lives over the course of a year. Sara Goldfarb is a lonely widow who is a TV and chocolate junkie. When she believes she has the chance to appear on her favorite game show she becomes obsessed with her weight and gets addicted to the uppers that are prescribed to her. Meanwhile we watch as her son Harry along with his girlfriend Marion and his best friend Tyrone get more and more addicted to heroin and will go to any lengths to get it. While Pi looks as though it was shot on a small budget (although still fantastic) with Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky seems to use any cinematic device he can lay his hands on. The result is clever, fast moving and totally breathtaking cinematography. However, the storyline suffers a little because of this, as although the scenes are sequential, one can seem detached from the next. As far as the acting is concerned, while Jared Leto will not win any Oscars for his portrayal as Harry, his performance is more 3D than we've seen him before. Also, Ellen Burstyn is brilliant as the tortured Sara. All in all, Requiem for a Dream is really very disturbing and touching with the title fitting the film as the characters realise what they really wanted out of life is what they just lost. The last half hour of the movie will tear your heart out so don't be expecting a happy ending, but do expect something sad, insightful and absolutely beautiful.

    28 March 2001 12:31PM

  • Submitted by Cain on 06/02/2001 20:09

    Dated and unoriginal journey into addiction by a director who, sadly, hasn't really proven to be more than a one-trick horse. Great visual technique (as PI had) in parts, (though the camera-strapped-to-actor shot was used a bit too much, and I think it would have benefited better if he hadn't used TV remote control and pill-swallowing motifs as much - or at least varied the shots each time?) but I was screaming out for him to let his actors do a bit of acting. I sense they all gave excellent performances (esp. Ellen B) but that was lost in over-directed, visually-biased pacing and structure. Addiction shot as horror works, but unfortunately, we don't care what happens to the characters, as they are not developed enough, so it becomes more like watching a car crash. Curious, rather than horrified. I am curious to see what he does with Batman:Year One...

    2 June 2001 8:09PM

  • Submitted by Peter Schiazza on 07/02/2001 11:49

    As a kid I used to like happy endings and after Pi's delicate finale I did have a certain amount of expectation. But we all know that expectation is a terrible thing. I have rarely left a theatre so desolated by a film. It was a lot of things, but ultimately it was great.

    2 July 2001 11:49AM

  • Submitted by Vicki Morrison on 08/01/2001 00:04

    Absolutely stunning. Excellent art and awesome acting. Fabulous. Ms Burstyn certainly deserves an Oscar and the rest of the cast was right up there. Aronofsky is now on my radar screen.

    1 August 2001 12:04AM

  • Submitted by Max on 08/02/2001 21:59

    Never have I left a cinema more affected after watching this film. Bleak, disturbing, unsettling. YEAH! SO! This is what film should be about! The magical, brilliant directorship (easy on the Scorsese rip-offs!) coupled with a dynamic, engaging story. Not only could every scene be represented as a still in a gallery for its beautiful composition and cinematography but the acting was truly superb (bless Ms.B!). A film that not only threw so many punches about life in America but raised the question of what is true beauty. How do we escape? Bless the media for all the evil that it does and the despair as we humans consume every piece of waste that we see as desirability! A story about real people who lose their way and as all endings should be end up in their own hell deservedly or not. I have only left the cinema twice now being blown away by a film (which I won't mention) but it is no competition to this absolute masterpiece. SEE IT!

    2 August 2001 9:59PM

  • Submitted on 08/03/2001 18:54

    Simply put, the most upsetting film I have ever seen. I could never sit thru this again. NO WAY! You will never want to do drugs after this, believe me. Scary!

    3 August 2001 6:54PM

  • Submitted by Suhel Ahmed on 28/08/2001 17:42

    In an age where the mechanics of the blockbuster has left US cinema creatively anaemic, it is like the taste of watermelon on a hot day when something novel graces the cinema screen. That refreshing novelty comes in the shape of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream, a tantalisingly dark, grim and foreboding story that casts aside Hollywood's slushy predilections to present an unwavering journey into the destruction of the human spirit. The story, based upon Hubert Selby Jr's novel, follows four people's sharp descent into the abyss of drug addiction. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) plays a desperate lonely widow whose sole comfort in life is her television. Preliminarily chosen to appear on a gameshow, her life takes on renewed meaning as she goes on an addictive diet of slimming pills to turn back the clock and fit into her red dress, a nostalgic symbol of her youth. Meanwhile, her son Harry (Jared Leto) is equally on the path of self-destruction with an addiction to heroin. As their lives unravel, so do those of Harry's friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), there's an acute feeling that the Hollywood safety net of the all's-well-that-ends-well format may have been sent on a rare vacation this time round. Harry and Tyrone's venture into low-end drug-trading reaps some early rewards but any dreams of bathing in a jacuzzi surrounded by mountains of cocaine is soon thwarted as their own addiction alters the film's pallor as well as their own. Without the bucks to fund their habit, desperation sets in, with pretty girlfriend Marion resorting to the inevitable profession to pay for that hit. Meanwhile, Sara's addiction to slimming pills interlaced with her loneliness and an obsession with a soulless TV show presents a similar slide into oblivion. Aronofsky's film could have easily mutated into a pallid documentary citing the consequences of drug-taking , but his formidable mastery over technique has breathed a genius-like veneer onto the film. Aronofsky has dug deep into his trove of cinematic treasures to punctuate each scene with an enviable dramatic quality. Washed out monochromatic filters help carve out the squalid visuals so effectively used in Trainspotting. Moreover, the unrelenting use of jarred juxtapositions, along with vivid close-ups and sown together with some kinetic editing makes this story intensely gripping and strangely enjoyable. The last half hour brings together all these elements and builds them up to a shocking conclusion as we watch with bated breath whether Aronofsky will take the foot off the accelerator. However, any hint of redemption is ruthlessly throttled under Aronofsky's sadist approach to take these characters through the most unenviable rite of passage. Aronofsky is certainly one to look out for as he has the courage and vision to carve a niche in a market that is normally frightened to err away from convention and happy endings.

    28 August 2001 5:42PM

  • Submitted by Olivia on 09/03/2001 06:19

    I still find myself lost for words. Wonderful. In regards to a review written by "sceptic", I would like to add that I find it sad my friend, that a movie like that does not shock you and that you believe that only the naive would find it powerful. In fact I found it very powerful, and considering I have lived next door to one of Australia's most dangerous and largely populated heroin societies I do not consider myself naive at all. However I agree that some of the repetitive camera shots did make me feel, maybe not bored as you described it but more frustrated. It really is about time a movie was made that doesn't glamorise drug usage, and gives everyday society a glimpse of what really goes on in our world. I thought Ellen Burstyn was wonderful and her character was very well portrayed. Disturbing, powerfull, brilliant.

    3 September 2001 6:19AM

  • Submitted by Elina on 24/04/2002 00:54

    This is by far the best, most emotional film and novel ever produced. How very real and touching it is, I can not express in a tiny review. Mainly its about the story of 4 normal people who get seduced into addictions because of their dreams and the destructoin they cause to themsleves therefore.

    24 April 2002 12:54AM

  • Submitted by Dan Mack on 22/09/2002 03:00

    Requiem for a Dream feels like what I would imagine disembowelment must be like. From the moment the title card slams down on the screen, the sound a prison door closing and locking echoing in your ears, you know that for better or for worse this film has taken a hold on you. It hurts. A lot. It brings you into the lives of four brilliantly portrayed people; you come to understand their dreams and wish with all of your being for them to succeed. The fact that the audience is rooting for Harry and Tyrone - two drug dealers - to do well is a testament to the masterful manipulation of Requiem for a Dream. Once these characters become familiar and even loveable, Aronofsky begins to rend it all to pieces. By the climactic end montage in which all four characters come crashing into the bottom of the pit that they cast themselves into, the viewer cringes and even weeps at the sound of the broken bones and dreams. In fact, the chief complaint of Requiem for a Dream is that it is too powerful, too overt, Aronofsky is accused of possesing no subtlety. The opposite is true. In Requiem, Aronofsky executes literally hundreds of digital effects, and even someone who has viewed the film multiple times would have trouple pointing out more than five. The score, a beautiful mix of the Kronos Quartet and the undeniable talent of Clint Mansel conveys a range of emotions, from boredom, to the purest of hope and back again to the agonising requiem that is often repeated throught the film. The cinematography consciously portrays a battle between light and dark; summer and winter. Requiem for a Dream, for all of its power, is not revolutionary. Instead, it is evolutionary. For every camera angle and editing technique it borrows from previous films and film-makers, Aronofsky invents one of his own. The result is a film that is as near to perfect as any can claim to be. Requiem for a Dream dares us to ignore it and follow in the footsteps of its characters in denying reality, and will sadly add our names to the list of the dead if we fail to heed the blaring trumpets and neon lights heralding Selby and Aronofsky's warning to wake up and face the music.

    22 September 2002 3:00AM

  • Submitted on 12/08/2002 19:08

    This is a brilliant film! The acting is superb, the film technique used (split, simulataneously screens - I'm sure there's a more technical name for it) and a case study for drug addiction. Four very different, but perhaps underneath not so different,people on a downward spiraling road to nothingness. Nothing is glossed over here and there are no happy endings but a film worthy of note and watchning nevertheless. I highly recommend it to teenagers and parents of teens.

    8 December 2002 7:08PM

  • Submitted by Peter on 28/03/2003 17:16

    If you watch it you will leave feeling rotten inside. Simultaneously though, it is one of the most beautiful films I have seen - the colours, the angles, the effects are all stunning.

    28 March 2003 5:16PM

  • Submitted by Just Say Yes on 20/10/2003 00:17

    A very clever film indeed! I haven't seen a film this good since "Reefer Madness". Just cool and hip enough to attract the teenage audience that needs bludgoening over the head with an anti-drug message. The only flaw with this anti-drug movie was that you may end taking some drugs just to avoid the relentless nauseating propaganda. So just remember kids, the next time you're offered drugs, you could end up with your arm cut off, in jail, and whoring yourself...

    20 October 2003 12:17AM

  • Submitted by Max Richards on 27/05/2004 12:38

    It's like a tragic opera without the singing. This film stays with you and I wanted to cry when the girl gets in with the pimp. An absolutely superb crafting of a very emotional and desperate situation. Even thinking about it now still makes me feel a bit upset and sickened, and so it should!

    27 May 2004 12:38PM
Open for comments. or create your Guardian account to join the discussion.

Today's best video

On Film
  • The NSA files trailblock image

    Follow NSA-related developments as controversy over leaks continues to make headlines

Film search

Latest reviews

More film reviews
  • Across the site