Requiem For A Dream DVD, 2000

A hypnotic tale of four human beings each pursuing their vision of happiness, Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream is an emotionally charged and visually exciting film set among the abandoned beaches and faded glory of Brooklyn's Coney Island. Based on the novel by author Hubert Selby Jr., the story intricately links the lives of a lonely widowed mother (Ellen Burstyn in a tour-de-force), her son Harry (Jared Leto), his beautiful girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) - four blighted people desperate to rise above their stultified lives. Even as everything begins to fall apart, they refuse to let go, plummeting with their dreams into a nightmarish freefall.

This film is an audaciously grim thrill-ride.

Those familiar with the work of Hubert Selby Jnr will have braced themselves already for the coming onslaught o... more >

This film is an audaciously grim thrill-ride.

Those familiar with the work of Hubert Selby Jnr will have braced themselves already for the coming onslaught of degradation. Yet the victims of life's vicissitudes presented here are themed around the issue of consumption - which is also the basis of the film's social critique. This is no redundant wallow in misery. The compulsive cravings for food, sex, and drugs are the negative manifestations of the consumer society. The requiem of the title is a lament for those who suffer because for them the American Dream turns out to be a hollow fantasy.
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