Requiem For A Dream (2000) ****1/2

Requiem For A Dream (2000) (one of my Top 100 Films) is a harrowing experience, no matter how many times you've seen it. I've seen it at least four times now, I believe, but it's definitely a "one and done" for some people, due to its depressing content. 

Darren Aronofsky and co-writer Hubert Selby Jr. put viewers through the wringer with their adaptation of the latter's 1978 novel, an unrelenting and uncompromising look at how addiction and the search for the American Dream send four individuals on a downward spiral. All manner of squirm-inducing bodily harm befalls our leads, each of whom give a powerful and memorable performance, in particular Ellen Burstyn. 

Aronofsky uses seemingly every cinematic and editing trick imaginable—often in sledgehammer fashion—to jar his audience and put them into the mindsets of the characters. These include fast cut montages, split-screen, uncomfortably tight closeups, Snorricam (mounted on the actors), fisheye lenses, and time-lapse photography. Not every choice works or necessarily holds up, but the film, when considered as a whole, most certainly does.

These techniques and performances, when married with Clint Mansell and Kronos Quartet's gorgeous, sad, diverse, repetitive, and penetrating score, create an unforgettable work. The leitmotif, "Lux Aeterna", even after endlessly being used in pop culture removed from the film, remains a truly moving piece of music.

Twenty years on, RFAD remains a brilliant, audacious, influential, landmark film—one that continues to leave an impression and provoke many varied emotions. 

You can find my Darren Aronofsky Feature Films Ranked list here.