The Movies That Shaped Me: Requiem For a Dream

All the movies I’ve seen, good or bad, have been engraved into who I am. Any cinephile can speak to this. They’re transparent tattoos that are a roadmap of my fandom and personality. As I get older and follow the endless yellow celluloid road, more and more are added. Why not start an ode to these lovelies?

I know each groove of Requiem for a Dream. The contours in which it bends and the sound it makes when it breaks. Its vibrations and its dance: frenzied and elegant simultaneously. The assured descent on display is one of rare form. Darren Aronofsky’s sophomoric feature is an unforgettable picture and one that this writer saw as a young teen where I came transfixed.

Requiem is a movie many say they can’t see more than once. For me, it was a lesson. One in gut0-wrenchingly impactful performances, and a score that renders an emotional response every time I hear it. It was a film in which the ugliness and tragedy of life were made beautiful.

It follows the lives of four individuals and how they each eventually succumb to their addictions.

“I’m somebody now, Harry.”

Harry Goldfarbs (Jared Leto), girlfriend Marianne (Jennifer Connelly) and best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) are young, indulging in drugs and frequent bouts of reckless behavior. We meet each of these three in the Summer of their youthful, hopeful selves. By its end, it’s the Winter of consequence, and it’s a cold, harsh one.

Harry’s mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn) lives alone and has a strained relationship with her son who frequently takes her TV to sell for cash. When she gets something in the mail about an opportunity for her to appear on her favorite television program she’s swelled with purpose. She gets out a dress her late husband loved and gets on a diet. When she sees no success she hears from a friend that there’s a doctor with a medication that’ll slim her down. While it works, it fractures her fragile mind.

A fever dream at times of a nightmarish magnitude, the tension that rises aligns and rises, as does your heart rate.

“You are my dream.”

Spiraling down dark paths and regrets the bleakness of the film can not be overlooked or ignored. The film feels innovative in its editing and cinematography. The score by Clint Mansell is mesmerizing. It is haunting and beautiful, capturing the character’s ups and downs with an achingly devastating theme that matches the equally impactful narrative.

Requiem for a Dream is a masterclass in acting. It captures a spectrum of emotions and consequences, showing the deterioration physically, and mentally as well as what it does to the human spirit. The cast is phenomenal. They are all tested and bonded through love and their shared flaws.

I think it’s a masterpiece; gut-wrenching and soaked in a hellscape of realistic proportions. Requiem for a Dream is a tough watch, but an essential one.