From the twisted bastard Darren Aronofsky, who brought you the movie PI, comes this absolutely depressing and horrific mess. I thought the movie PI was visually interesting, entertaining, and kept me wondering what was going on. I went into Requiem with these same expectations. However, the movie continually raised two questions:

How much worse can it get?

How much longer can it go on?

Unlike many other movie 'critics' I am not saying this to be funny. I am saying this because it is true. I wasn't sure what the movie was trying to tell people, so I made a list of the possible messages the movie could hold:

-following your dreams to excess is bad
-following your dreams is bad
-dreams are bad
-the american pharmacutical industry is no different than the street gang drug industry
-drugs are bad
-drugs are bad because they can wreck your dreams
-drugs are bad because they can make you create a movie like 'Requiem for a Dream'

The movie might actually not have had any message at all, which would truly suck, because it has little redeeming qualities otherwise. The effects, editing and time lapses are good (much like PI or Spun, or Memento) and the movie gives a good sense of 'trippiness' without being ridiculous. Other than this, there is little good I can say about the movie, other than I suppose it might have some value if it were used to teach High School Age children that "Drugs are Not Cool", or if you thought your life sucked, you could watch this movie and not feel so bad about your own miserable life.

The next bit of information is part spoiler, and part warning. There is no 'resolution' to this movie. The situations in the movie get better for just a moment, then get worse and worse and worse and they don't stop getting worse until the movie finally (thankfully) ends. By the end I was wishing for the characters to die because they would probably be better off. It is a test of your willpower to see how far down the spiral of depression you are willing to ride.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: movie reviews, Ubersuck