Originally Posted by
DreDayDetox
Requiem for a Dream: 8.5/10
If you're going through a tough time in life, this movie will probably not make you feel any better, but it will make you glad you're aren't in this fictional world that Darren Arfonsky has created. This really, really fucked up and surreal world where hitting rock bottom is the worst feeling you can get. This is Arfonsky's finest work. The audio visual experience is moving to say the least. This is an experimental film that feels like a movie because of its run time. There's one shot where the audio pans around my speakers in a circular motion, and you can literally hear the audio pan if you have a home theatre. It's mind blowing. The cinematography of this is insane. But if you're happy, this movie makes you feel like shit, and it certainly scares the shit out of you. You constantly think that there are actually people in real life who have these things happening to them, and Arfonsky shows this in the best possible way through the very fast paced editing.
I remember watching this movie as a kid at school. It certainly painted an image in the back of my head. One day, we were all called down for an assembly. I think it was grade 8 or 9, and we knew it was about speakers who spoke about alcohol and drugs. What we didn't expect at this assembly was a 10 minute edited version of this film. When I saw this for the first time, I shit my pants. The point was taken clearly; don't do drugs. Drugs are bad. Then, to put the cherry on top, they dimmed the lights or turned them off, I can't remember. And they were playing an audio soundscape of this couple who are going home from a party. They had too much to drink. The girlfreind begs him to get a taxi or another friend who's sober to drive him. They argue and basically the guy drives, extremely drunk. They argue on the road and get into an accident from a tanker truck. They were screaming and when the tanker hit their car, it was so loud in the assembly and they must have had some fireworks and smoke machine because a small explosion went off. Fuck, now that's am effective way of telling kids not to drink and do drugs. But this movie helped more.