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The nothingness. The cosmic void. Actually, a syringe full of air injected into a vein and subsequent embolus, just to stay true to the iconography of the film in question. Let’s pull this tooth: "Requiem for a dream" is one of the most overrated films of recent history. A cult for addicts, rehabilitated ex-users, or troubled teenagers of all ages. The theme is addiction, to every kind of drug. And guess what? Even TV can be addictive: the desire to appear at all costs is a drug, that stubborn pursuit of those proverbial five minutes of fame. Pills of wisdom by Darren Aronofsky, who has in common with many great philosophers just an almost unpronounceable surname.
Let’s take a look at the rest of his filmography. Pi: schizophrenic but interesting. The Fountain: an inhuman abomination, the pinnacle of new-age trash. Finally, the Golden Lion The Wrestler: not bad, though little more than an acting vehicle for Mickey Rourke’s unexpected comeback. My opinion is that his only true masterpiece, so far, is having married that stunning woman Rachel Weisz.
"Requiem for a dream" flounders between a frantic music video-style montage and an excessive use of distorting lenses, not to mention the insistent use of the SnorriCam: all overly pedestrian rhetorical devices aimed at reproducing the altered perception state of the characters. A few successful directorial moments (particularly in the less hyperactive first part) are not enough to justify the abuse of these devices: visionariness should mean a tighter synergy between every element of the staging (and, leading up to it, of the plot) not just the use of "tricks" to subjectively and superficially present the image. Is it enough to define Aronofsky as a visionary director? Apparently so.
Taken like this, the film would be a harmless exercise in style, an unpretentious visual trip with some flashes of allure. But when such a product is hailed by many as a masterpiece, a forge of concepts and transcendental meanings... well, then it’s another matter.
Good actors. Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans seem born for their respective roles, given the air of unrepentant junkies they carry in every film. Jennifer Connelly generously offers herself to the camera on more than one occasion and the male audience can only be grateful. Ellen Burstyn, nominated for an Oscar for this performance, does what she can with the scant material available.
The programmatic despair of the ending has the flavor of a theorem we’ve already memorized on much worthier manuals.
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Other reviews
By ziabice
Requiem For A Dream is perhaps one of the most hallucinatory films I have ever seen, an extrasensory experience of ninety minutes that leaves a bitter taste and a sense of unparalleled disorientation.
No one comes out clean from this story.
By fede
"Requiem For A Dream, the funeral of a dream, the American dream, never before so bitterly and violently brought to its conclusions."
The work is a real hammer blow to the glass universe of the American dream: it highlights all contradictions, invisible cracks and shows how thin the line between success and annihilation really is.
