Saturday, January 17, 2004
Requiem for a Dream
What an intense movie. I saw it last night for the first time. The movie is beautifully shot, and well written. It's also very, very intense and in your face. There are a few unfortunate scenes that would fit in better with hard-core porn, however, and that would be the reason I wouldn't recommend this film to many. It would have gotten an NC-17 rating, but the company that released it decided against a rating at all. There is aparently a cut version that is rated R, I would like to see what they cut.
What is it? It's a movie about addictions. Drug addictions is what it deals with mostly but it also touches on food and television addictions. It follows the lives of four people: A son and his mother, girlfriend, and friend. The three younger persons are all addicted to crack and will do anything to get a hit. The mother is addicted to television, food, and later to diet pills (Her's is perhaps the most tragic story of the four) for which she will end up in a mental institution after becoming highly addicted to the uppers that were prescribed to help her lose weight. The son ends up losing his arm because of an infection he got from shooting up. The girlfriend ends up selling her body to men in exchange for drugs. His friend ends up in prison doing hard labor after being caught.
The scenes I mentioned that would fit in better in a hard-core porno flick mostly involve the girlfriend selling her body, though there is one scene of the friend with his girlfriend. They don't leave a lot up to the imagination there, unfortunately.
Anyway, I rented this one from Netflix, didn't buy it, and I'm glad because I think it's a one time deal.
The cinematography, however, is absolutely beautiful in many places, even when the scene that is shown is intentionally horrible, the filming is beautiful.
Not for the squeamish, young, or anyone who has a problem with sexual acts taking place on camera. The sexual acts aren't shown in a way as to make them attractive, but to show the horror of what she has brought herself to do because of her addiction, but I really could have done without them.
Klasinc&Loncar Duo (Just trying to help it get picked up by Google spiders, I maintain it for them)