Requiem for a Dream


sorabji.com: Last movie you saw: Requiem for a Dream
THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016).

By Pug on Friday, June 1, 2001 - 07:23 pm:

    This thing is now out on video and it took my fucking head off. It's directed by Darren Aaronofsky(sp?) who did "Pi"----the cinematography is absolutely mindblowing and the cast to a man of them are great....it's based on the novel by Hubert Selby, Jr. (one of my favorite writers), who also co-wrote the screenplay----and it blows the doors off the asinine screen treatment given to his LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN some years back....
    It's also one of the most relentlessly depressing flicks I've ever seen....I mean, it's harsh, brutal and painful----even by my standards. It makes "Leaving Las Vegas" look like a Disney Cartoon.
    If your stomach is strong....check it out.


By PeriPheral on Saturday, June 2, 2001 - 03:10 am:

    I just saw it tonight, too. It made me restless, but I definitely wanted more at the end. I didn't like it as much as Pi. Some of the same cast from Pi had roles, so that was sort of interesting. I would call it dark. It had a very *tick tock* feel like Pi.


By semillama on Saturday, June 2, 2001 - 12:17 pm:

    I really liked it, and I agree with Pug's assesment of it. Of all the movies lately that have come out that tried to put a human face on drug abuse, this one does it best.

    I'll have to go check and see if Aronofsky is still co-writing the next "Batman" film with Frank Miller (Last I saw he was).


By Pug on Saturday, June 2, 2001 - 02:05 pm:

    Aronofsky and Frank Miller???
    I'D BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR!!!!!!!
    Maybe they could infuse it with the "Dark Knight Returns" mentality that I wish the previous series had....
    Naah....
    Hollywood, the pussies, would never stand for it.


By patrick on Monday, June 4, 2001 - 12:49 pm:

    human face on drugs? this movie was in a lot of ways unreal. There was so little reality in this movie, it WAS a dream. Getting an arm amputated due a to a drug habit? Please, this happens once in a blue moon.

    The movie made me edgy, but some drug movies do that. Seeing a personal descent to the bottom does that to me. And watching people do drugs sometimes makes me edgy, because I've been there.

    I thought the movie was well crafted, and very beautiful at times with the sounbdtrack...but nothing terribly special.


By Pug on Monday, June 4, 2001 - 07:53 pm:

    Uuuuuuhhhhh.....
    I disagree vehemently.....
    Maybe it's the bad aftereffects of junkies showing up on my doorstep asking me to help them kick and then having them not kick.....or maybe it's having to look down the barrel of my own obsessions and demons and dreams....
    And even as I swore a couple years ago(perhaps as a result of dealing with my junkie pals) that I was done with Junkie movies and anything that romanticized the whole junkie trip....this movie STILL clobbered me. Maybe it was looking at all these characters descend into their own personal hells and thinking, "all these people wanted was to be happy"....And, of course, I can relate---
    That's the thing about Selby as an author, tho----he's adroit at painting pictures of people and their wants and the obsessions that destroy them.....maybe that's why it hit home for me.
    As far as cinematic achievement, I challenge you to show me something on the same level.


By Pug on Monday, June 4, 2001 - 08:03 pm:

    Crimson told me this story once about being in intensive care....having to wait to be moved into the room while this other girl----a junkie whose veins had collapsed, died and made room for her.....nurses standing around watching her die and telling her, "well, there's noplace left to stick an IV into! We're sorry---but it's YOUR FAULT!" It might be once in a blue moon....but it happens.


By crimson on Monday, June 4, 2001 - 08:29 pm:

    yeah, that was really creepy. i felt awful about the whole thing. i was in the ER in fairly dire need of medical attention. i was in monstrous pain, but i had to wait for the junkie to die first to make room for the next patient (me). the hospital staff was angry with her while she died & they yelled at her, telling her it was her own fault & they were sick of low-life junkies wasting their time. what a thing to hear while you're dying. i was glad to finally get admitted to the hospital...but i hated that someone had to croak first in order to make room for me.


By R.C. on Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 05:06 am:

    THAT'S certainly a slice of E.R. hell! What hospital was this, Crimson?

    I watched REQUIEM & TRAFFIC back-to-back over the weekend. I loved PI so I was looking forward to REQUIEM. It was a litle too showy for me/but Aronofsky is 20-something who grew up heavily influenced by videos & flashy imagery/so I guess dazzling camerawork & crazy edits are to be expected. It got to be a little distracting/but I admired how he used the camera to really *tell* the story/rather than just to record it. All that madness with the refrigerator & Ellen Burstyn when she slides into her speed hallucinations was so intense. (But do people really trip like that off speed?)

    The bit w/the amputation ruined it for me. If anyone knows how to find a usable vein/it's a junkie! He had a perfectly good other arm/his toes/his neck to shoot up in.

    And the movie never really addressed how they went from having a shoebox full of cash over the Summer to tricking off all that money come Fall. Even if dope was hard to find in the city/they cd've hopped a train to Philly & copped their piece & kept on making $$. Wayans had the cash at his crib/so it's not like he didn't know his boy was dipping into their bankroll.

    I never quite got what he saw in Jennifer Connelly tho'.


By patrick on Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 11:55 am:

    Jennifer Connelly is hot...I can go on and tell you what I see in her, but thats not what you want I suppose.

    with the exception of the mother, all the other characters were weak. I dont know anything about the Jenn Connelly character other than she started a clothign store of some sorts, which we never saw. and she was a real bitch when she didnt have her dope. the Marlon Wayans character, I dont know a god damn thing about him, who he is....all I know about him is he facilitated deals, wanted to please his mother and looked like i wish i did in the buff. Who were these people? What motivated trhem other than this semi blind pursuit of happiness. we all pursue happiness, big deal.

    I had a friend that shot up in NYC, he missed his vein, caught an airborne virus that infected his arm, had he neglected it, he would have had it cut off. I know these things happen.

    But showing characters pursuing happiness via drugs is old, played out and nothing new.

    Tell me how the the character Jared played had his dreams stomped on. I don't recall ANY idea of dream he was pursuing. All i know is he had his dope a little more under control than his girlfriend and cared for his mother.

    Like i said, the camerwork was great but, character development sucked ass. This film was terribly over rated.


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