Darren Aronofsky's newest movie, Caught Stealing, is a dark comedy that is also a psychological thriller of sorts. Before it opens in theaters on Friday, you may want to brace yourself with one of his earliest works.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
The R-rated version is now available on Pluto TV, as well as The Roku Channel and Tubi TV.
Twenty five years later, the opening shots in Darren Aronofsky's second feature film still pack a punch: A split screen showing Ellen Burstyn raging at her son, heroin addict Jared Leto, as he fires back, determined to steal her television from her apartment so he can pawn it to buy some smack so he and his buddy Marlon Wayans can get wasted.
The opening scene is a brutal assault on the viewer, and it pulled me in so quickly that it made me temporarily forget why I never wanted to see this movie when it was first released in 2000. (Full disclosure: It's because a friend insisted that I watch Darren Aronofsky's first feature film Pi (1998), even loaning me his home video copy. Frankly, I was completely baffled by the movie, even though I watched it twice before returning it, and no desire to see his new movie after it was described to me as a 'drug addict movie.')
Of course, Requiem for a Dream is not a 'drug addict movie,' though it is all about addiction and recovery, revolving around three drug addicts -- Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans, and Jennifer Connelly -- and Ellen Burstyn, the mother of one of them, who is addicted to something else. Since I only remembered hearing about the drug drug addiction angle, I found Ellen Burstyn's narrative the most fascinating of all, not only because the actress gives a bravura performance that is achingly empathetic and believable and heartbreaking, but because ... wow, I lost my train of thought. What did I want to say?
Burstyn's character is constantly losing her train of thought, to the point that the train eventually departs for parts unknown, as he becomes fixated and obsessed by a constantly running television infomercial that reinforces her negative self-image and feeds upon itself, to the point that she constantly excuses and ignores the addiction of her son.
Her son (Jared Leto, in case you forgot already) is lucid and bright when he's not soaring on drugs, although the light of his personality gradually dims due to his growing addiction. Marlon Wayans is more likely to nod out than anything, though he is the one who ends up in trouble with the law.
Like Leto, Jennifer Connelly is filled with potential that is smashed by her addiction, leading her to follow a desperate and degrading path because, without the drugs, she is a physically attractive woman in a world filled with disgusting, ugly people who are eager to drag her down to their level, which she agrees to only so she can high again for a brief eternity.
The film is a tough watch, as we say. The blissful moments are truly beautiful, but they are few and far between. Instead, the screen overflows with garbage, with the type of fast cutting that can induce dizzy spells and make the viewer physically ill. The film is not for the faint of heart, as we say.
Watching the movie on an ad-supported service undermines its intended cumulative impact. (In my case, I watched it on Pluto TV.)
The ad-breaks, as welcome as they may feel, allow your stomach to unclench and your mind to clear, at least for a few minutes. That too disrupts the experience, which feels much like badly-needed medicine. It may not taste good, but it will (hopefully) help you to heal.
If nothing else, viewing Requiem for a Dream allows first-time viewers to get a taste of what Aronosky intended, even in the R-rated version, which cuts some more explicit footage. To see Aronosky's director's cut, get the 4K physical media version from your favorite retailer.
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