Review Archives

1 | 2 | 3

Today's Date is:

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM

Reviewed by: Christopher J. Jarmick
Genre: Drama
Video: Anamorphic 1.85:1 Widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
Language: English
Subtitle: English (Captions Only)
Length: 102 minutes
Rating: NR
Release Date: 05/22/01
Studio: Artisan
Commentary: There are two commentary tracks on the disk. The first features director Darren Aronofsky and the second features cinematographer Matthew Matthew Libatique.
Documentaries: The Making of Requiem for A Dream serves as the documentary on the disc. It's a 35-minute, videotaped documentary with a long sequence devoted to how one of the gory special effects was accomplished. In the actual film we only see the gore effect briefly but here we see it several times. Fangoria magazine was visiting the set and the filmmakers were showing off a bit (good for marketing). Another long sequence shows how a special camera was used to create an effect. The footage is accompanied by Darren Aronofsky who for the most part makes some sense of what we are seeing, though he occasionally is confused and tongue-tied during the narration himself.
Featurettes: Anatomy of a Scene, is a short 5-minute Sundance Channel promotional piece which is redundant of information covered elsewhere on the disc
Filmography/Biography: There are biographies and filmographies on the principal cast members and several crewmembers as well.
Interviews: Memories, Dreams, and Addictions : Winds up being a 20-minute interview of writer Hubert Selby Jr. by actress Ellen Burstyn. We don't immediately realize who we are looking at since Selby is not introduced and no chyron introduces him to us. The interview is a bit disturbing since Selby is almost too frank with his Medical problems and then his troughts and comments that he has no natural talent or abilities of any kind and labors over what he writes in an obsessive manner. Burstyn does not need to do very much to draw Selby out. It's a fascinating interview. Selby wrote the truly superb novel: Last Exit to Brooklyn which was the basis for a fairly good movie several years ago.
Trailers/TV Spots: Included on the disk is the original theatrical teaser , the longer theatrical trailer and two television trailers. They all look to be in pristine shape.
Alternate/Deleted Scenes: There are a total of nine deleted scenes shown on the disc. They can be watched with or without the director's commentary. The first five of the deleted scenes comprised a sequence that was edited out of the film and make up a sequence in which the three junkies decide to quit using heroin. None of the scenes are essential, but a few are of interest. A very long scene with Author Selby playing a prison guard and taunting Tyrone (Wayans) quickly becomes grating and annoying. It's a scene that was shot very long to trim later on.
Music Video: None
Other: In addition to the extras mentioned there is also 13 pages of production notes presented with a small collection of images taken from the original website that was created to hype the film as it went into production. Artisan has released both the un-rated directors cut version of the film and an R rated version of the film. The main difference between the two are some more graphic and suggested scenes of Jennifer Connelly (though we don't ever see her completely nude) as she performs sex for drugs.
Cast and Crew: Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Keith David
Screenplay by: Hubert Selby Jr. (novel) Darren Aronofsky and Hubert Selby Jr. screenplay
Produced by: Producer are credited:. Ben Barenholtz (co-executive producer) Beau Flynn(executive producer) , Scott Franklin (co-producer) , Ann Ruark (line producer), Stefan Simchowitz (executive producer) , Randy Simon (co-producer), Jonah Smith (co-producer), Scott Vogel (co-producer) , Eric Watson (III) (producer) , Nick Wechsler (I) (executive producer) , Palmer West (producer)
Directed By: Darren Aronofsky
Music: Clint Mansell
The Review: Requiem for a Dream gives us two parallel stories (which occasionally intersect) about addictions. The exterior setting is mostly confined to New York's run-down Coney Island and takes place over three seasons that are announced with intentionally intrusive title cards. Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) is a lonely, widow who enjoys watching infomercials on television and eating chocolate. Her 20 something son Harry (Jared Leto) occasionally steals her television to pawn it and bet cash to buy heroin for himself, his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly) and his friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). One day Sara gets a call telling her that she is going to be on television. Try as she may Sara can not fit into the special red dress she has saved for truly special occasions. One of her friendly neighbors (played by Louise -Mary Hartman- Lasser) lends her a sure-fire diet plan. The grapefruit type diet however quickly drives Sara batty and she decides to get her doctor to prescribe diet pills for her As Sara becomes more and more addicted to the pills, she becomes more paranoid and believes her refrigerator is a monstrous beast. Meanwhile her son Harry and his friend Tyrone have a scheme in which they will better manage their heroin addictions while dealing heroin on the streets. Harry's girlfriend Marion is also a heroin addict. At first their drug dealing reaps enough rewards for Harry to offer a big screen television to his mom as a gift and a bit of a penance for his former behavior of stealing Sara's t.v. However, Harry and Tyrone's main dealer is brutally murdered and bad luck plunges the trio of junkies into a darker and more hellish world where everything is sacrificed for a fix. Requiem is a film of stylistic tics and easy satiric targets (infomercials, diets, senior women, and disillusioned youth) that reveals itself as being as authentic and truthful about addictions as the camp classic 'Reefer Madness'. For those not familiar with the exploitation films of the 1930's, and to a lesser extent films like The Weird World of LSD or The Trip, this film is poised to be the new millenium's version of a hipper Just Say No campaign. There's a lot of filmgoers and critics who have been utterly fooled into believing the film captures an authenticity about the life of a junkie. It doesn't. It's much too slickly made for one. Almost to the very end of the movie, these junkie characters act, look and talk like hip and beautiful people. Real life Junkies as desperate as these characters are, act nothing like these film characters do. However, to show the junkie life with real authenticity would be much too grim for a non-documentary film. So exhibiting all the tricks he utilized in his impressive low budget debut PI, and adding a few new ones, Director Aronofsky, make this moralistic cautionary tale crackle with an endless onslaught of stop motion photography, an effectively moody Kronos Quartet soundtrack and a bag full of editing and post production tricks. The result is a film that has lots of energy, some interesting visuals, and a couple of genuinely effective sequences. It's also a film that's as rigged and genuine as a Times Square hustler playing Three Card Monty or the shell game with gullible tourist is. The film's best ideas and tricks are exhausted by the end of the first hour. Many of them have been recycled from PI, or borrowed from the film Trainspotting. There's a few effective shots and couple of gross-outs, but as it becomes crystal clear the film has said all it intends to say and will offer no real insight, you eagerly anticipate the series of degradations that befall the film's central four characters. We're now waiting to view the inevitable car wreck we know will occur. At the end of this onslaught that at least has the decency to have some humor and some creative inventiveness to separate itself from the latest Oliver Stone concoction, we are left with the message: Drugs and Addiction are nowhere. Thanks. Acting wise the film belongs to Ellen Burstyn whose over-wrought scenery chewing performance is exactly what the film needs. Good make-up and editing helps make Burstyn more effective than the thin script would have on its own. Her overly pronounced New York accent works because it sounds much better than when co-star, Jared Leto tries on his exaggerated accent which sounds like a mediocre stand up comic from Cincinnati trying to sound like a New York City taxi-driver.. Marlon Wayans and Jennifer Connelly at times exaggerate their facial expressions but seem to hold their own . It's hard to tell though since the film uses all the actors mostly like puppets dancing among the camera gimmicks, odd angles, editing and more. Everyone in the film is a caricature held up more or less to be ridiculed, laughed at, or pitied. Addiction in any form you see is a bad bad thing. And the world is full of people ready to take advantage of the weak. And in the end we are left with. . . The credits. Oh stop with the hate mail. When you've seen as many movies as I have it's easy to spot a phony one--even if it is as interestingly made as this one is. It is for the most part a fascinating film to watch. I wish there were more to the story, and a better screenplay however. This film will be remembered most for its monster refrigerator scenes. I hope writer/director Aronofsky keeps trying to hit one out the park. This one struck me as a foul ball, but I'd much rather see an attempt like this one than another of Michael Bay's worthless large budgeted concoctions.
Image and Sound The picture quality over-all is excellent. There are scenes which are intentionally given a washed out or grainy look by the film-maker and the effect remains as effective as intended because the color levels, and black levels all remain strong throughout the film. Contrasts between the character Sara's Red Dress and a snow-covered sidewalk are stunning. Several of the dream/fantasy sequences have bright colors that are sharply defined. On occasion some edge enhancement can be noticed. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is excellent and the sound mix is utilized apparently to it's fullest extent which noises, music and sound effects coming out of various speakers, moving from speakers to another and more. An almost circle of sound is created during the strongest hallucination sequences. This includes having the dialogue jump from center channels to others. Yet all dialogue noises and music remains very clear and sharp.
The Extras This disk is packed with a wide variety of interesting extras that examine the many aspects of filmmaking from several perspectives. There are also some hidden features Easter Egg fans will discover on the main menu screen. If you push the down arrow on your DVD remote from any of the selections, you will highlight: "Hear Tappy's Amazing Life Story!" If you press enter when that is highlighted you will see a 5-minute version of the infomercial that Ellen Burstyn is constantly watching in the film. When you first put the disc in the player the film will become extremely snowy and distorted and there will be a clip of actor Christopher McDonald selling his No Meat self-help program. After a couple of minutes this will change to a clearer but still slightly distorted (tear lines) blue screen with a 900 number and various Tappy Tibbons books. Ah but those books will take you to where you want to go. It's a fun way to start a DVD though it wears out its welcome with the loud audio clip of the infomercial going into loop mode if you don't make a menu selection.
Commentary There are two separate commentaries available. Director Aronofsky's commentary casually and apparently very much off the cuff tells us several stories and experiences he had while making the film and gives us some good insights into the creative process. He is very generous with his praise for the cast and crew and his co-writer. The second commentary track features cinematographer Matthew Libatique who mainly discusses the very detailed technical aspects of the shoot including the type of cameras, lenses, and lighting he used to achieve the various shots. This is a very invaluable track to anyone with an interest in photography or filmmaker. If you aren't you'll find it too technical and dull to enjoy.
Final Words: Although over-all I didn't like the film, this dvd package is a very impressive presentation of the film, and worthwhile extras that allow the filmmakers to show film buffs how the film was created and what they were trying to accomplish. Director Darren Aronofsky has proven he is very skilled at camera and editing tricks. He allows enough humor into the film so as not to have the film become either too grim or overwhelmingly preachy. He is not part of the school of filmmakers who make feature length MTV videos. Although his biggest detractors may lump him in that category, this filmmaker is closer to David Lynch than MTV. I ultimately didn't like the film, but I am eagerly anticipating Aronofsky next film and hope he utilizes his talent to create something more substantive the next time out. Christopher Jarmick, is the author of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed, steamy suspense thriller. For information on Author readings/signings or availability of special autographed editions of the novel email: glasscocoon@hotmail for details. Original portions of this review Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2001. The above work is protected by international copyright law.


Send all Comments to Teakwood Productions
 May 27, 2001