Requiem for a Dream can feel like government funded shock therapy for anybody considering picking up a needle or swallowing pills or idealizing false dreams.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:122
Fresh:97
Rotten:25
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Though the movie may be too intense for some to stomach, the wonderful performances and the bleak imagery are hard to forget.
Runtime: 1 hr 42 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $2,546,851
Synopsis: For his follow-up to his darkly brilliant debut, PI, director Darren Aronofsky chose to adapt a tough and meaty piece of work: Hubert Selby's 1968 novel REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, a dark spiral into the... For his follow-up to his darkly brilliant debut, PI, director Darren Aronofsky chose to adapt a tough and meaty piece of work: Hubert Selby's 1968 novel REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, a dark spiral into the abyss of barren fantasies doomed to extinction. However, in Aronofsky's frenetic, visionary, unique, and disturbing style lies the perfect setting for this story of four people whose intertwined lives are filled with eternally hopeful despair. This is a different sort of horror film. Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) are lovers in Brooklyn with dreams of setting up a small business and spending the rest of their lives in love--their version of the American dream. The two are also desperate heroin addicts, a compulsion that darkens their lives and leads Harry to repeatedly pawn his mother's television. His mother, Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), is addicted to television, which is why she keeps replacing the stolen set. One day she receives a call from her favorite show, the surreal TAPPY TIBBONS SHOW, and learns that she has been selected to appear on an upcoming broadcast. When she can't fit into her best red dress, her doctor prescribes diet pills (uppers), to which she swiftly and painfully becomes addicted. Harry's cohort, an intelligent hustler named Tyrone (Marlon Wayans), completes the foursome. With its unflinching dissection of addiction, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM is a psychologically disturbing, visually captivating depiction of lost hope. The last half hour of the film is among the most harrowing of any film ever made. [More]
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Keith David, Sean Gullette, Louise Lasser
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Screenwriter: Darren Aronofsky, Hubert Selby, Jr.
Composer: Clint Mansell
Studio: Artisan Entertainment
Reviews for Requiem for a Dream
"Requiem For A Dream" is a movie about drug addiction, but that's only where the plot resides so the thoroughly drawn characters can work toward their imperfect dreams. Cinema history has been made with this
One of the most powerful I have ever seen. The film's score and editing will haunt you for years to come.
Yes, visually this is an exhilarating, unique film. But it is also a singularly difficult and challenging film to watch.
If Aronofsky set out to make Trainspotting look like Teletubbies, he succeeded. Recommended only for those with extremely strong stomachs.
Requiem for a Dream is meant to have a hallucinatory, mesmerizing quality, but it manages to be about as enlightening as a bad acid trip.
Burnished camerawork and ex-Pop Will Eat Itself head Mansell's part-punchy, part-elegiac score reinforce and counterpoint the increasingly nightmarish visuals.
Requiem for a Dream is a great movie, and the few of us who see it will be acutely affected.
There's a wholehearted commitment in every frame toward synthesizing the feeling of hopeless addiction. It's in the writing. It's in the chaotic cinematography. It's in the actors' eyes.
With this movie, Aronofsky sends a couple of messages. One, of course, is about how much habitual drug use can fuel your delusions and what that combination can take away from you. The other message is that the director is now a major American filmmaker.
It's the type of experience that you will never cry at in the theater, but will cry at long after, as the message fully sinks in.
An unordinary, highly stylized, gritty hyperkinetic junkie movie -- unlike anything you've seen before.
Never have we been taken this close to the edge and never have the characters teetering over it elicited so much sympathy. Requiem is difficult to watch but it richly rewards those who stay with it.
Regulation viewing for people who think they know better, and the most chilling fix of genius in years.
This harrowing look at the perils of addiction -- whether it be food, television, fame, sex, or drugs and alcohol -- has to rank as one of the year's most genuinely disturbing films.
Brilliantly shot, uncompromising film, with career-best performances from its stars -- the ‘feel-bad’ movie of the year, this demands to be seen.
As he did in his stunning debut, director Darren Aronofsky shows himself to be keenly tuned into the imagery of the living hell.
Latest News for Requiem for a Dream
August 25, 2009:
EW Lists 16 Classic "Dare You to Look" Scenes ![]()
All the Nazi-scalpin' action in "Inglourious Basterds" has got the EW staff to thinking about some of the most hard-to-watch scenes in film -- and to that end, they've assembled... More...
January 09, 2008:
Lorenzo di Bonaventura Talks G.I. Joe, Transformers 2
You think G.I. Joe and Transformers producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura doesn't hear your grousing, film fans? Well, he does -- and fortunately for you, he isn't the type of... More...
March 28, 2007:
Aronofsky to "Fight" with Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon
Last seen together in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg will reunite for Paramount's period piece boxing drama "The Fighter,"... More...
July 24, 2006:
Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz Get Real Close in a New Trailer for "The Fountain"
Armed with a love story taking place at three times over a thousand years, flawless special effects, and more period costumes than you can shake a stick at, the man who brought... More...
More Movies
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie | Date |
|---|---|---|
| | Shutter Island | 18/2 |
| 33% 33% | From Paris With Love | 18/2 |
| 97% 97% | The Hurt Locker | 18/2 |
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Sponsored Links
Around The Network
- Requiem for a Dream at Rotten Tomatoes
- Requiem for a Dream at IGN
- Requiem for a Dream at AskMen
Fresh Links
Featured

Get all the latest review updates, movie news and features here.
Competitions

We're giving away the Audrey Tautou-starring fashion pic on DVD.



Top Critic


