At the end, there isn't really a message to the film. It's an observation, and a very powerful one. Some people don't like this, but I thought it was fantastically inspiring and depressing.
Observation? It had message, or something to tell. If it didn't look like seeing from out, it wouldn't have been as good. If you still found "no message" on the film, watch it again ...
Good entertainment makes you happy. Good art makes you feel something, even if you don't like what you feel. This movie was good art, not good entertainment.
Yes. I like that movie a lot - and i still don't necessaily like the way it makes me feel. I feel bad. And I still want to see it the second time...
I've not seen it, but I heard the soundtrack is very cool. A buddy of mine is going to burn me a copy. Hey, whaddya want from me -- the Apple music service isn't online yet and I don't wanna give the studios all that dough!
Yes. I like that movie a lot - and i still don't necessaily like the way it makes me feel. I feel bad. And I still want to see it the second time...
I know what you mean... this movie certainly makes you feel like shit... you especially feel bad for connelly...
the message of the film is one of addiction and how powerful it can be... TV, heroin, just getting high one way or the other...
great movie... and it should be part of every drug education class, just to really convey the bad aspects of addiction...
drugs are not glorified at all in this film, the sex scene feels very dirty to the viewer and you can feel the shame connelly feels...it may not be a tasteful scene... but it gets the message accross...
Sara (the mom) is the only character I could feel much sympathy for, the other three were so incredibly self centered that it was more the extreme nature of what happened to each of them that elicited compassion than anything else...and even then I couldn't help thinking that worse things happen to people who don't sell heroin or steal from their families (in real life as well as in Hubert Selby Jr's books - I don't remember TraLaLa doing anything to anyone, but she got it much worse in Last Exit To Brooklyn).
Sara (the mom) is the only character I could feel much sympathy for, the other three were so incredibly self centered that it was more the extreme nature of what happened to each of them that elicited compassion than anything else...and even then I couldn't help thinking that worse things happen to people who don't sell heroin or steal from their families (in real life as well as in Hubert Selby Jr's books - I don't remember TraLaLa doing anything to anyone, but she got it much worse in Last Exit To Brooklyn).
i quite disagree. i dont think any of them were very self centered, except when under the control of their drugs. the boyfriend and girlfriend were very keen on eachother much of the time; until they ran out and were yelling at eachother for another score. then, they look passed the drugs and realize they just want to be together in the end. leto's and wayans' characters trusted eachother with a large sum of money, and stuck through a rollercoasting business venture. the mother seemed the most self-centered to me, but in an understandable lonely old-lady style. At the end, when they all get their come-up-ins, i feel for each character.
i quite disagree. i dont think any of them were very self centered, except when under the control of their drugs. the boyfriend and girlfriend were very keen on eachother much of the time; until they ran out and were yelling at eachother for another score. then, they look passed the drugs and realize they just want to be together in the end. leto's and wayans' characters trusted eachother with a large sum of money, and stuck through a rollercoasting business venture. the mother seemed the most self-centered to me, but in an understandable lonely old-lady style. At the end, when they all get their come-up-ins, i feel for each character.
You have some good points, but at the same time the business venture was selling heroin and Harry ends up pimping Marion out (to her shrink) so that he can get a fix. Even Tyrone is more concerned with getting high than with getting Harry's arm looked at. I guess its the smack dealing that I have the biggest problem with. Feeding off the misery and need of others is pretty selfish even if one is also an addict...doubly so if one is not.
Requiem for a Dream has got some problems from my POV:
1. It's in love with its style, but afterwhile the heavy-handed camera work undercuts the narrative. You begin to wonder if there's any substance under the flash,
2. The ending is contrived and merely annoying rather than profound and meaningful,
3. The story drives me crazy, like other stories its related to: I'm always asking, why doesn't character w, x, y or z just step off of the merry-go-round? And even if you buy the "they can't get off the ride" premise, this movie doesn't break any new ground.
Quote:
i personally enjoyed jennifer connolly going ass-to-ass
for the mum, the diet pills were just a mean, not the tihng .. the thing for her could have been just the rest, just the obsession of the red dress and entering to that ... and then just continueing .. and even forgetting the tv .. i would have probably not made her use the pills in the film just to show the addiction .. in the behaviour and characher. some behaviours turn addictive. and if you have nothing to fill the gap the addiction had filled, you have no reason to get out of there.. whether it's coca, any other drug, any ED, oversporting, anything.
i like especially the part where harry comes home with the taxi and lies about what he's doing and how he's fine ... and her mum freaks out with the cupcakes that she doesn't have in the empty fridge and with her weight loss ... when both see the lies of the other but don't want to see them, just what they hear and for a moment they believe they are living in their dreams. in the dreams where they still keep hanging when everything goes wrong.
I'm always asking, why doesn't character w, x, y or z just step off of the merry-go-round? And even if you buy the "they can't get off the ride" premise, this movie doesn't break any new ground.
if you have nothing to fill the gap your addiction had, you have no reason to get out of there. whether it's about not eating, gambling, drugs, sports, spiritualism - anything that can come addictive. if you are nothing without your disorder you won't get out of there. a smoker. a gambler. a skinny. just high. when your not eating manages to even for some nano seconds make you feel high like the drugs, like sex, like whatever that feels good but most normal people manage to find in other and healthier behaviours .. you'll just stuck there.
i liked the camera work. and the music (in my ipod now..).
Man... just finished watching the movie for the first (and probably only) time. It was so disturbing, and at times I couldn't follow what was going on. It also seemed to drag out at the end. But man oh man, that was some really heavy cinema. I was far more disturbed by it than by A Clockwork Orange.
Comments
Originally posted by Barto
At the end, there isn't really a message to the film. It's an observation, and a very powerful one. Some people don't like this, but I thought it was fantastically inspiring and depressing.
Observation? It had message, or something to tell. If it didn't look like seeing from out, it wouldn't have been as good. If you still found "no message" on the film, watch it again ...
Originally posted by bunge
Good entertainment makes you happy. Good art makes you feel something, even if you don't like what you feel. This movie was good art, not good entertainment.
Yes. I like that movie a lot - and i still don't necessaily like the way it makes me feel. I feel bad. And I still want to see it the second time...
Originally posted by Moogs
I've not seen it, but I heard the soundtrack is very cool. A buddy of mine is going to burn me a copy. Hey, whaddya want from me -- the Apple music service isn't online yet and I don't wanna give the studios all that dough!
well, it isn't online yet...
it should be shown to anyone who ever even thought about starting down the path of illegal drug use.
Originally posted by Mulattabianca
Yes. I like that movie a lot - and i still don't necessaily like the way it makes me feel. I feel bad. And I still want to see it the second time...
I know what you mean... this movie certainly makes you feel like shit... you especially feel bad for connelly...
the message of the film is one of addiction and how powerful it can be... TV, heroin, just getting high one way or the other...
great movie... and it should be part of every drug education class, just to really convey the bad aspects of addiction...
drugs are not glorified at all in this film, the sex scene feels very dirty to the viewer and you can feel the shame connelly feels...it may not be a tasteful scene... but it gets the message accross...
it's maybe one of the .. well ... 2 or 3 websites made in flash that i have ever liked. it's like the film.
listening to the soundtrack of the film now..
1.the old lady who went crazy,
2. the guy who had his arm amputated,
3. the girl who got in the sex racket, and
4. the black guy in prison.
I think it was the guy with the arm. He had it the worst. Next maybe the old lady.
Originally posted by midwinter
RFaD is the best movie I never, ever want to see again.
That's exactly why I bought it.
Originally posted by kneelbeforezod
Sara (the mom) is the only character I could feel much sympathy for, the other three were so incredibly self centered that it was more the extreme nature of what happened to each of them that elicited compassion than anything else...and even then I couldn't help thinking that worse things happen to people who don't sell heroin or steal from their families (in real life as well as in Hubert Selby Jr's books - I don't remember TraLaLa doing anything to anyone, but she got it much worse in Last Exit To Brooklyn).
i quite disagree. i dont think any of them were very self centered, except when under the control of their drugs. the boyfriend and girlfriend were very keen on eachother much of the time; until they ran out and were yelling at eachother for another score. then, they look passed the drugs and realize they just want to be together in the end. leto's and wayans' characters trusted eachother with a large sum of money, and stuck through a rollercoasting business venture. the mother seemed the most self-centered to me, but in an understandable lonely old-lady style. At the end, when they all get their come-up-ins, i feel for each character.
Originally posted by thuh Freak
i quite disagree. i dont think any of them were very self centered, except when under the control of their drugs. the boyfriend and girlfriend were very keen on eachother much of the time; until they ran out and were yelling at eachother for another score. then, they look passed the drugs and realize they just want to be together in the end. leto's and wayans' characters trusted eachother with a large sum of money, and stuck through a rollercoasting business venture. the mother seemed the most self-centered to me, but in an understandable lonely old-lady style. At the end, when they all get their come-up-ins, i feel for each character.
You have some good points, but at the same time the business venture was selling heroin and Harry ends up pimping Marion out (to her shrink) so that he can get a fix. Even Tyrone is more concerned with getting high than with getting Harry's arm looked at. I guess its the smack dealing that I have the biggest problem with. Feeding off the misery and need of others is pretty selfish even if one is also an addict...doubly so if one is not.
1. It's in love with its style, but afterwhile the heavy-handed camera work undercuts the narrative. You begin to wonder if there's any substance under the flash,
2. The ending is contrived and merely annoying rather than profound and meaningful,
3. The story drives me crazy, like other stories its related to: I'm always asking, why doesn't character w, x, y or z just step off of the merry-go-round? And even if you buy the "they can't get off the ride" premise, this movie doesn't break any new ground.
i personally enjoyed jennifer connolly going ass-to-ass
i like especially the part where harry comes home with the taxi and lies about what he's doing and how he's fine ... and her mum freaks out with the cupcakes that she doesn't have in the empty fridge and with her weight loss ... when both see the lies of the other but don't want to see them, just what they hear and for a moment they believe they are living in their dreams. in the dreams where they still keep hanging when everything goes wrong.
Originally posted by Timo
I'm always asking, why doesn't character w, x, y or z just step off of the merry-go-round? And even if you buy the "they can't get off the ride" premise, this movie doesn't break any new ground.
if you have nothing to fill the gap your addiction had, you have no reason to get out of there. whether it's about not eating, gambling, drugs, sports, spiritualism - anything that can come addictive. if you are nothing without your disorder you won't get out of there. a smoker. a gambler. a skinny. just high. when your not eating manages to even for some nano seconds make you feel high like the drugs, like sex, like whatever that feels good but most normal people manage to find in other and healthier behaviours .. you'll just stuck there.
i liked the camera work. and the music (in my ipod now..).
RFaD is the best movie I never, ever want to see again.
sorry, still takes a distant second to Deliverance in my book for that title.
Originally posted by alcimedes
sorry, still takes a distant second to Deliverance in my book for that title.
Good point.