Requiem for a dream.

A rare feature for Jared Leto in one of the weirdest films created. Those that have followed the blog will know that a similar thing was said about Scarface on the first year of the blog because of the nature of it- drugs and some weird thinking.

Requiem for a dream is another film about drugs but not about gangsters, Two different types of drugs and 4 people that get hooked on it and do all kinds of weird things. The film itself has a low-budget feel to it in the way that everything has been filmed. The setting is simple- run down apartments and no furniture- prisons and streets- nothing that really takes money but just because a film doesn't have money it doesn't mean that the film will be terrible. You only have to look at 'Clerks' to understand that money isn't everything in the film business.

One of the best scenes in the film was a prison scene. Everything is kinda fading- the feel that you get when you have lost a lot of blood and there is just one of the main characters in his prison jump suit at the bars of his cell. Behind him are shadows of people moving in double time. It literally looks as if the producers fast forwarded everything behind the main shot. Some people will hate that type of shot, claiming that it looks clumsy, lazy and cheap but I liked the imagination behind it. When you are loosing blood or dying everything feels like it's going slower, you can't hear things and sometimes it looks like everyone else is going at twice the speed you are therefore this scene is true to reality and should be embraced by all in the film industry as something special.

Jenifer Connolly was once again outstanding. Playing a drug addict accurately and believably is actually harder than people think. There is more to the role than taking drugs, it's keeping the balance between calm when regularly taking it and the slow decline into paranoia and stress very quickly when not able to take anymore of the substance. Normally people go over the top when going in to withdrawal. Balanced from both Connolly and Leto.

The star of the show was Ellen Burstyn. When the film was released in 2000 worldwide there was a cry for her to receive awards for her performance and her performance is a tip top performance, I have spoken about Jenifer Connolly but even her performance cannot touch Burstyn. You think that she is just pulling off an average performance as an average character until she goes in to hospital and then the game really steps up. The performance just becomes something incredible when the pressure is on. I take my hat off to her and she deserves to take a bow every time the film is watched!

Next up- Days of Thunder/ 12 angry men.