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Requiem for a Dream
Artisan Entertainment


8.8

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 126 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not rated

Starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, Marcia Jean Kurtz, and Janet Sarno

This modern-day fable is set on the rusted mean streets of Coney Island, Brooklyn. The dual storyline parallels four people who set out in pursuit of a better life. (Artisan Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Darren Aronofsky Hubert Selby Jr. (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Darren Aronofsky
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 22, 2001 Video: May 22, 2001 Theatrical: October 6, 2000
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Ellen Burstyn received a 2001 Oscar nomination for her starring role.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

No one interested in the power and magic of movies should miss it.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Aronofsky has fashioned a chilling vision that lives up to the caustic irony of its title and gives us a nightmare that is not lightly forgotten.

100

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

May be the first movie to fully capture the way that drugs dislocate us from ourselves.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

He (Aronofsky) has put together a phantasmagoria of self-destructive obsession that is so visually astounding it becomes its own saving grace. Otherwise, we might not be able to bear it.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Burstyn is astonishing, forsaking all vanity to make silly biddy Sara a fully dimensioned human being.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

A fluent, intelligent piece of work whose sex and violence are anything but gratuitous, and exactly the kind of highly personal, no-holds-barred vision of life on the ragged edge that independents always aspire to but rarely have the goods to achieve.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Be warned: it's a downer, and a knockout.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

A work of art whose beauty has the eternal power of redemption.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

An unrelentingly dark vision that's as hard to watch as it is impossible to walk away from.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Aronofsky brings a new urgency to the drug movie by trying to reproduce, through his subjective camera, how his characters feel, or want to feel, or fear to feel.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Locks in on its self-destructive subjects so precisely, it's almost unbearable to watch.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Easily the most searing movie-going experience of the year.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A powerful fable about love and addiction that manages to be darkly humorous when it isn't graphic or harrowing in the extreme.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

The tremendous power of Aronofsky's filmmaking -- its omnivorous omnipotence, if that makes any sense -- has the curious effect of diluting its emotional impact.

Austin Chronicle Sarah Hepola

Haunts the memory long after you've left the theatre.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Often, Requiem for a Dream is as technically inventive and daring as the Scottish heroin film "Trainspotting," but it has more resonance and feeling. And when Burstyn is on screen, it often becomes heartbreaking.

Variety Todd McCarthy

It’s technically striking filmmaking, to be sure, but what it’s presenting is nothing that many people will want to look at.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This bleak vision directed by Darren Aronofsky ("Pi") is pointless with good reason.

Film.com Peter Brunette

Love it or hate it -- and I suspect, frankly, most people are going to hate it -- this is like no other film you've ever seen.

Slate David Edelstein

Becomes increasingly unwatchable -- not just bleak but punishing, as if the director wants to fry your circuits along with his characters'.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

May be an elaborate stunt, a bungee jump, but even so, it's forceful enough to leave a rare palpitating residue.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

It's one of the most beautifully unpleasant movies ever made - its reverse charge being that it is no fun at all.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Aronofsky has given us a well-acted, gorgeously overwrought and luridly entertaining exploitation flick -- a midnight movie for future generations.

TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly

Chilling and technically proficient and, also, fairly hollow.

TNT RoughCut J. Rentilly

Chilling and technically proficient and, also, fairly hollow.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

To be fair, Aronofsky has a knack for stylistic overkill, and his hammering onslaught is undeniably riveting, at first anyway.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Solid acting helps the story stay earthbound when Aronofsky's filmmaking gets addicted to its own flashy cynicism, but the picture sometimes seems as dazed and confused as the situations it wants to criticize.

LA Weekly Paul Malcolm

Far too complex and provoking.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Never the heart-wrenching emotional experience it seems intended to be.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

It's two hours of slumming in a vision of hell hatched from bourgeois comfort. That, and not its unsavory subject matter, is what makes it bummer theater.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

While director Aronofsky pistol-whips your attention with his style, the characters (mostly relegated to human mannequins in Aronofsky's visual schemes) suffer big time.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Too self-consciously dark, too aware of its long, murky, art-designed descent into the underbelly of America's addictive personality.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

In the end the movie goes nowhere a hundred movies haven't already been and tells us nothing we don't already know. It does so with so much violent energy, however, it's like four brutal years at film school crammed into an hour and a half.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 126 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Evil B. gave it a9:
Hard to describe. Gut wrenching, disturbing, thrill ride, engrossing; just to use a few. Darkly fascinating and wildly entertaining. Any movie that can get your pulse racing, be it good or evil, is an epic flick for sure.

Kazumi&Daisy gave it an8:
Amazing! Can't find any word to describe except the one I just used. - Kazumi Kazum Hotogishi I never watched the movie but my husband said it was absolutely fabulous, I'm very posh and he's Jap - Daisy Elizabeth Hotogishi Oh I forgot to brush my teeth!!

Anon B. gave it a10:
Without a doubt, one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. It grabs hold of you and doesn't let go. 98% of the brilliance of this movie is in its excellent music. Clint Mansell is brilliant.

Devin W. gave it a9:
Unbelievable masterpiece. It's so deep on so many levels, that weeks afterwards you find yourself discovering new meanings. I see a lot of very ignorant reviews of this movie. Do not be fooled because however depressing or dark the movie is, it leaves you in a way of striving to avoid the downfall of the characters in the movie. A lot of bad reviews read of how terrible it was, but i think that most of the people who wrote those reviews did not get the point of the movie at all, ruining the whole experience. Brilliant, just brilliant.

Andy M. gave it a7:
This movie is a horror movie that you can't scream throughout and laugh with your friends about afterward. Instead, you just sit there, staring, not wanting to watch the depressing, frightening images but unable to tear your eyes away. The style and direction is distinct, the editing abrupt and jarring. It is very well filmed, but it doesn't bring much else to the table. You watch it, in awe of the darkness and despair of it all, and what do you get? Drugs are bad. Yes, yes they are. You want a more... INSPIRED message in the end, or at least a somewhat happy ending! But you don't get it. It is, all and all, a worthwhile piece of film, but don't watch it if you expect either of those things. Really, just watch it on hulu.com, it's free. And even then... be in a good mood.

Abhinav G. gave it a10:
Undoubtly, this is the best movie I have seen this whole year. I cant believe that I didnt see this movie till today. Awesome direction, terrafic performances by actors and storyline is like something I cant be explain in words. If you havent watched it yet, watch it now.

Chris K gave it a0:
It is the most overrated and dangerous movie atrocity ever. It takes every stereotype about drugs and drug abuse and reinforces those stereotypes to absurdist, kafkaesque levels. Comparisons to the propaganda classic "Reefer Madness" (go watch it at archive.org and spot the similarities) are both valid and necessary. People who know nothing (and want to know nothing) about how addiction works give this film a high rating because it confirms their infantile views (Drugs=Evil)on the issues dealt with in the movie. Cater ignorance to the ignorant. Always a wise business decision.

Requiem for a Dream Artisan Entertainment

Requiem for a Dream
Artisan Entertainment