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Movies / Upcoming / Requiem for a Dream
Requiem for a Dream

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Requiem for a Dream (2000)

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Reviews Counted:123

Fresh:98

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

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Requiem for a Dream

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Bubble View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
tomato
4/5

Luke Buckmaster

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 02 2001 09:06 PM

In Film Australia

tomato

Urban Cinefile Critics

Requiem For A Dream is the first great film of the year.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 09 2001 12:09 PM

Urban Cinefile

tomato
A-

Cole Smithey

"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

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 16 2009 03:44 PM

ColeSmithey.com

tomato
5/5

Kevin McCarthy

One of the most powerful I have ever seen. The film's score and editing will haunt you for years to come.

comment Comment | Aug., 02 2008 02:27 PM

BDK Reviews

tomato
3.5/4

Joe Lozito

Yes, visually this is an exhilarating, unique film. But it is also a singularly difficult and challenging film to watch.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jul., 14 2007 04:34 AM

Big Picture Big Sound

tomato

MaryAnn Johanson

If Aronofsky set out to make Trainspotting look like Teletubbies, he succeeded. Recommended only for those with extremely strong stomachs.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 30 2006 06:00 AM

Flick Filosopher

splat
C

Frank Swietek

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.

Full Review Source: | comment 2 Comments | Jul., 24 2006 03:17 AM

One Guy's Opinion

tomato

Geoff Andrew

Burnished camerawork and ex-Pop Will Eat Itself head Mansell's part-punchy, part-elegiac score reinforce and counterpoint the increasingly nightmarish visuals.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jun., 24 2006 03:53 AM

Time Out

tomato

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Requiem for a Dream is a great movie, and the few of us who see it will be acutely affected.

Full Review Source: | comment 2 Comments | May., 26 2006 03:16 AM

Combustible Celluloid

tomato
4/4

Phil Villarreal

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 24 2006 05:07 AM

Arizona Daily Star

tomato
5/5

Ron Wells

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Dec., 06 2005 07:55 PM

Film Threat

tomato
4/4

Steven Snyder

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 01 2005 03:55 AM

Zertinet Movies

tomato
A+

Greg Muskewitz

An unordinary, highly stylized, gritty hyperkinetic junkie movie -- unlike anything you've seen before.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 21 2004 08:29 PM

eFilmCritic.com

tomato
A

Eugene Novikov

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | May., 22 2003 05:20 PM

Film Blather

tomato
5/5

Harry Guerin

Regulation viewing for people who think they know better, and the most chilling fix of genius in years.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Apr., 08 2003 05:59 AM

RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland)

tomato
3/4

Ted Murphy

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.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 17 2003 08:42 AM

Hollywood.com

tomato
4/5

Joshua Tyler

I found it appropriate that I had trouble looking away.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Nov., 20 2002 07:32 PM

CinemaBlend.com

tomato
5/5

Matthew Turner

Brilliantly shot, uncompromising film, with career-best performances from its stars -- the ‘feel-bad’ movie of the year, this demands to be seen.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 30 2002 08:38 AM

ViewLondon

tomato
3.5/4

Margaret A. McGurk

As he did in his stunning debut, director Darren Aronofsky shows himself to be keenly tuned into the imagery of the living hell.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Oct., 15 2002 08:34 AM

Cincinnati Enquirer

tomato
4/4

Kevin N. Laforest

What an inappropriately drowsy title for such an explosive film.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Sep., 10 2002 08:34 AM

Montreal Film Journal

 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; Australian critics are listed first)
Bubble View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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