Anybody ever see it? It's one of those much hyped movies that get into IMDB's top 250 classification... and I've been meaning to rent it. Finally did, in fact.

First, let me say these things: I think it was very well done. I think Ellen Burstyn's role was incredible, amazing. The always impeccable (and, I must say, absolutely delicious) Jennifer Connelly was reliable as ever, raw and vicious and soft and perhaps one of the best actresses ever. The movie did what it set out to do, to simultaneously glamorize and not glamorize, and to show a dark side of life that does exist. I know it does, I've seen it, and this captures it. It's scary and sad, and beautiful and intriguing, and it was a well done film, imho.

That said, it was perhaps a bit much in parts. Those spinning, mind-bending scenes (asylum screams, I call them). The ending, the sadness, the emptiness. Real, maybe even correct, but just too much. The final 20 minutes exhausted me and made me want it to end.

That's my take. Yours?

Oops, didn't see this earlier post. Wow Troy, I think we're pretty much in agreement for a change! The film is sometimes stylistically extreme and less than believable in an objective sense, but those are deliberate elements of Aronofsky's style.

Have you seen pi?

I did, and come to think of it that struck me the same way... I admired it more than I liked it, but I liked it. It intrigued me but it made me white knuckled in the arm chair, ya know? Very... stressful is how I might describe it, and Requiem.

<bumping over the double post thread >

I dug Requiem for a Dream - and for me, stylistically extreme, when done well (aka: badass) is way welcome. So those elements you guys were kinda eh about had me liking the film even more.



And, Troy, this movie/performance by Ellen Burstyn is the one I refer too everytime I mention my big sadness with the Oscars. Julia Roberts/Erin Brokovich beat E. Burstyn/RfaD that year for best actress. F*cking criminal.

I should clarify. I don't care for scenes that are frantically filmed, mostly. The style of the movie I loved. The empty, the stark pain, I can take. I don't like the "loony bin" filming sequences is all... and that was really just 15 minutes of the film or so. I did like this film, more so the more it sinks in.



From IMDB Trivia:

During Ellen Burstyn's impassioned monologue about how it feels to be old, cinematographer Matthew Libatique accidentally let the camera drift off-target. When director Darren Aronofsky called "cut" and confronted him about it, he realized the reason Libatique had let the camera drift was because he had been crying during the take and fogged up the camera's eyepiece. This was the take used in the final print.

I was agreeing with Troy that the film is sometimes extreme, but that's actually one of the things I liked most about it (and about pi). I love films that put me on edge and make me uncomfortable!

I love this film. I even bought it. The story is real and gripping....and heartbreaking.

Sorry, just wanted to quote that so you couldn't edit your post and deny someday that it actually happened in this thread!

Requiem was an awesome awesome film, IMO. Echoing what others said - it was Ellen Burstyn's performance more than anything that sold me on this movie.

Not to say that I don't dig Aronofsky's style - because I do. Thanks to working at Blockbuster in college, I saw Pi before Aronofsky made a huge splash in the industry and fell in love with the way he used sound fx in seemingly ordinary circumstances (ie lighting a cigarette or sipping a cup of coffee.)

A slight (but related) highjack:

We haven't seen this, but saw Aronofsky's The Fountain, earlier this year, and were so moved by it, we had to have it. We rarely buy movies, but this one really got to us. Anyone else see it, too? What'd you think?

Sorry (back to the accolades):

"Almost" saw it this week, but didn't rent it because it sounded so heavy. Will check it out now, thanks for the tip.