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Hey there, all...
So, this depressive little snap isn't going away any time soon. Right now, I'm just basking in it, and trying not to let it affect my interactions with people too much. I think I'm going to be reclusive for a while yet.
I watched "Requiem For A Dream" again this morning, and I think I can safely say that it's my favourite movie. It is such an utterly heartbreaking film, and one of the few that I can watch multiple times over a weekend and cry really hard every single time. It's really cathartic that way, and I think everyone needs to be broken in that way. It's easier to reconstruct yourself.
"Requiem For A Dream" is a film directed by Darren Arenofsky and starring Ellen Burstyn (an Oscar-winning actress, I'm sure..and if not, she should be), Jared Leto ("Twin Peaks"), Jennifer Connely ("Labyrinth!") and Marlon Wayans ("In Living Color"). It follows the path of Sarah (Burstyn) and Jim Goldfarb (Leto), an old New York City widow and her son, as their lives are pretty much destroyed by addictions to various drugs. Jim's girlfriend (Connely) and best friend Tyron (Wayans) get dragged along for the ride, each succumbing to similarly brutal fates.
The most gripping thing about this movie is the universality of the characters. We *all* know someone like Sarah Goldfarb; they may be young or old, but they're also denying their loneliness just like she is. In Sarah's case, her loneliness stems from the fact that she can no longer perform her function as caregiver. With her husband Seymour and her only child both gone, she has all this...generosity in her heart that she has no place for any more. Sarah Goldfarb could just as easily be *our* mothers, and no matter what relationship you might have with your mother, it will break your heart to see what she has to endure in her search (addiction) for love and acceptance.
The other characters share similar fates; Marion, Jim's girlfriend, is so addicted to cocaine that she gradually starts selling her body and looks for it. The first time's horrible, but it gets easier as she gets fix after fix. Tyron just wants to make it...but his desire to help out friends and his unfortunate choices in business partners screws him just as well. Of all the characters, Tyron is the most innocent: he's the well-meaning fool who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
None of the characters in "Requiem" are bad people. In fact, they're really decent, at their very core. That's what makes this movie so hard to watch. None of them deserve anything of what's happening to them. They've just become helpless in the wheels of the monster they've created. Arenofsky is relentless in displaying how each of these characters get destroyed by life in general; especially when any one of them could have pulled the others up by the bootstraps at any time. This is especially the case with Jim and his mother, Sarah. I don't think I should give away an ending, but...it's one of the hardest things I've ever watched.
So...yes, go rent "Requiem For A Dream". It's an astonishing film, and even if you don't have quite as strong a reaction as I do too it, chances are you'll be at the very least disturbed.
So, this depressive little snap isn't going away any time soon. Right now, I'm just basking in it, and trying not to let it affect my interactions with people too much. I think I'm going to be reclusive for a while yet.
I watched "Requiem For A Dream" again this morning, and I think I can safely say that it's my favourite movie. It is such an utterly heartbreaking film, and one of the few that I can watch multiple times over a weekend and cry really hard every single time. It's really cathartic that way, and I think everyone needs to be broken in that way. It's easier to reconstruct yourself.
"Requiem For A Dream" is a film directed by Darren Arenofsky and starring Ellen Burstyn (an Oscar-winning actress, I'm sure..and if not, she should be), Jared Leto ("Twin Peaks"), Jennifer Connely ("Labyrinth!") and Marlon Wayans ("In Living Color"). It follows the path of Sarah (Burstyn) and Jim Goldfarb (Leto), an old New York City widow and her son, as their lives are pretty much destroyed by addictions to various drugs. Jim's girlfriend (Connely) and best friend Tyron (Wayans) get dragged along for the ride, each succumbing to similarly brutal fates.
The most gripping thing about this movie is the universality of the characters. We *all* know someone like Sarah Goldfarb; they may be young or old, but they're also denying their loneliness just like she is. In Sarah's case, her loneliness stems from the fact that she can no longer perform her function as caregiver. With her husband Seymour and her only child both gone, she has all this...generosity in her heart that she has no place for any more. Sarah Goldfarb could just as easily be *our* mothers, and no matter what relationship you might have with your mother, it will break your heart to see what she has to endure in her search (addiction) for love and acceptance.
The other characters share similar fates; Marion, Jim's girlfriend, is so addicted to cocaine that she gradually starts selling her body and looks for it. The first time's horrible, but it gets easier as she gets fix after fix. Tyron just wants to make it...but his desire to help out friends and his unfortunate choices in business partners screws him just as well. Of all the characters, Tyron is the most innocent: he's the well-meaning fool who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
None of the characters in "Requiem" are bad people. In fact, they're really decent, at their very core. That's what makes this movie so hard to watch. None of them deserve anything of what's happening to them. They've just become helpless in the wheels of the monster they've created. Arenofsky is relentless in displaying how each of these characters get destroyed by life in general; especially when any one of them could have pulled the others up by the bootstraps at any time. This is especially the case with Jim and his mother, Sarah. I don't think I should give away an ending, but...it's one of the hardest things I've ever watched.
So...yes, go rent "Requiem For A Dream". It's an astonishing film, and even if you don't have quite as strong a reaction as I do too it, chances are you'll be at the very least disturbed.
