It’s not that often that I discuss films here on the site anymore. While I can’t stick just to just films made in the 90s, I’ve decided to broaden the years and share some of the films that really resonated with me and still do.
I remember very vividly the first time I saw Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. In all honesty I was given fair warning from my friend that this was going to be burned into my brain forever. Boy, was he right.
The film follows parallel but very distinct stories on how love and loss affect their lives. The first instinct when watching it is that it’s about drugs, but it’s so much more. Ellen Burstyn plays a widow who suffers from being lonely and strung out of the routine that consumes her life. Her son, played by Jared Leto is a drug pusher just trying to get by and get up in the world by any means including self-destruction. Jennifer Connelly plays his girlfriend who in turn has her own dark story. Marlon Wayans, in a surprising role for him is Leto’s friend and inevitably gets drawn into this seedy Brooklyn story.
The subject matter is dark and twisted but the accompanying moving images, cinematography and camera work is like nothing I have ever seen. If you’ve ever seen Pi, one of Aronofsky’s earlier works this is a radical departure but still has his fingerprints all over it as a director.
While this film isn’t one to watch over and over again it’s worth seeing as a new type of cinema that was ushered in during the start of the millenium.
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images via kinopoisk.ru
