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Requiem for
a Nightmare
by Spencer
Ross
I suggest
seeing Darren Aronofsky's 1998 movie, "Pi," before you
view the movie "Requiem for a Dream." As abstractly
genius as that movie was, it is only parlayed further in
"Requiem." Although originally scheduled to be released
with an NC-17 rating (for reasons particularly obvious if you see
the movie), Aronosfky managed to have it released under Artisan
Entertainment. Artisan ordered theaters to be observant not to
let the 17 and under crowd though. The needn't have worried; no
young teenager would have wanted to sit through this movie.
Again, I dont know whether to not rate it or give it five stars.
Aronofsky again directs a well planned movie that delves deep
into our minds and creates intense stress and paranoia.
I can't help
but review this movie in comparison to "Pi" due to
Aronofsky's unique but repetitive directing techniques. The movie
opens up the title sequence with one of Aronofsky's traditional
extreme close up shots, augmented by stressed sound effects of
heroin being repared and shot up, and then a dialating pupil.
This sequence is often repeated during and between scenes to show
the effect of the drugs and then their downer.
The plot of
the movie starts with a young man, Harry Goldfarb ("Fight
Club"'s Jared Leto), whose mother Sara ("The
Exorcist"'s Ellyn Burstyn), locks herself in a closet and
her TV to a radiator. This whole scene is shot with a split
screen to show the separation between the two, as the son takes
the TV to be pawned to get money. (The man he pawns it to, Mr.
Rabinowitz, is Mark Margolis, who played the mentor, Sol, in
"Pi.") From there, we are also introduced to Harry's
friend, Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans of "Scary Movie"
in a more serious role). The two plan to buy more cocaine wit the
money to eventually cut it and get higher up in the druglord
hierarchy. Entering with them is Harry's girlfriend, Marion, who
is played by Jennifer Connelly ("The Rocketeer") In the
meantime, Sarah is shown as obsessed with a TV infomercial/game
show "Juice," which is hosted by the
televangelical-like Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald). When
she gets a junk call on the phone that says she may be a winner,
she becomes even greaterly obsessed with getting on the show and
being able to wear a specific red dress.
The storyline
weaves back and forth between Sara and Harry, Tyrone, and
Marion's lives. Unfortunately, none of their lives are happy.
Sara needs to lose weight to get in the dress, so she sees a
doctor who, without listening to her case, gives her pills to
take to lose the weight. Eventually she becomes so addicted to
pills that he increases the dosage and she takes more, leading to
her increasing frequency of hallucinating-- of being on
"Juice," of the refrigerator eating her, etc...
Harry,
Tyrone, and Marion also hid a downward spiral as everytime they
expect a break in the drug business, something goes wrong.
Eventually, Marion must have sex with Arnold the Shrink (played
by the star of "Pi," Sean Gullette) in order to get the
money to pay for a new shipment. When the delivery goes awry and
they fail to get the cocaine, the three of them start to
breakdown. Tyrone and Harry go to Tallahassee to get more, while
Marion is so addicted, she sells herself to Big Tim (Keith David)
to get more money. Harry and Tyrone end up jailed and Harry
(whose heroin injected-scarred arm has gotten so ugly) has to be
attented to by the doctor. Thus, all of the characters are split
as a result of their obsessive addictions. The end of the movie
becomes intensely climatic as the characters' struggles are shown
in a frame-by-frame barrage; a blinding display that further
induces the anxiety of the viewer.
In looking
for some of the acting credits on IMDB.com, I was struck by a
viewer comment that said that even after seeing "Fight
Club" and "American Beauty," they were two
different types of nihilistic movies. "Requiem"
however, is more similar to "American Beauty" in
feeling, however, "Requiem" is much darker and
stressing. Aronofsky, as a director, continually tries to invoke
stress and paranoid in the viewer. Some of it comes from his
usage of quick and plentiful edits, some of it comes from his
in-your-face camera usage, but Clint Mansell's techno-based score
with some violins by the Kronos Quartet is what truly enhances
and paces the movie.
I found this
movie so disturbing that sitting through this movie to the end
was a real struggle. The characters' lives became so distraught
that I wanted them to either all die or have the movie become
"disney-fied" and happily ever after. Un/fortunately,
it didn't stop and they became more and more drawn into the
downward spirals their addictions caused. This movie was based on
Hubery Selby's 1978 book Last Exit to Brooklyn, and Selby
shares in the screenplay credits, however this movie is
apparently a lot darker than the novel and an earlier Jennifer
Jason Leigh adaptation. I highly recommend this movie, except it
is extremely powerful and thought-provoking to enormous levels.
And as badly as I wanted to leave the movie theater, staying to
the end made me walk away thinking even more and discussing with
the friends I saw it with. This movie definitely takes maturity
and thought to watch and is definitely not for everybody.
1/5/01
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