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Requiem for a Dream
2000 102 min United States of America 18+
★8.3
Crime, Drama
Director: Darren Aronofsky
🎭 Based on
«Requiem for a Dream»
byHubert Selby Jr.
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Description
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
Budget:
$4.5M
US Gross:
$3.64M
Worldwide:
$7.39M
Starring
Ellen Burstyn
Actor
Jared Leto
Actor
Jennifer Connelly
Actor
Awards
Saturn Awards 2001
— Best Actress
Academy Awards 2001
— Best Actress
Golden Globe 2001
— Best Actress (Drama)
Screen Actors Guild Awards 2001
— Best Actress
Saturn Awards 2001
— Best Horror Film
Key opinion
Requiem for a Dream is widely regarded as a devastating and unforgettable cinematic experience that explores the destruction of human potential through addiction. While its relentless tone and heavy subject matter make it difficult to re-watch, it is universally praised for its technical craftsmanship and powerful performances.
| Acting | Ellen Burstyn’s portrayal of a mother’s descent into madness is a career-defining performance that anchors the film's emotional gravity. | |
| Score | Clint Mansell’s haunting and atmospheric score is essential to the film, consistently cited as a masterpiece that heightens the narrative's tension. | |
| Direction | Aronofsky’s direction, featuring rapid editing and inventive camera work, creates an immersive and oppressive sensory experience that mirrors the characters' internal decline. | |
| Theme | The film succeeds as a non-moralizing, unflinching look at the loss of dreams and psychological degradation rather than a standard anti-drug PSA. | |
| Pacing | The three-act structure effectively builds from summer anticipation to winter despair, though the slow start and repetitive nature of the characters' cycles lead to divided opinions on the pacing. | |
| Emotion | While many view the film as a essential, truthful work of art, others find the aestheticization of suffering and the bleakness of the experience to be emotionally overwhelming or unnecessarily provocative. |