I just saw this last weekend and all i could say was.

wow.

this movie was amazing. It made me never want to do drugs. ever. the story is done extremely well, and aronofskies(or whatever) style really made this movie interesting.

Here we go again...

Stylistically, the movie is impressive. Otherwise, it's a trainwreck -- and it's certainly not "amazing".

Just out of curiosity, how is the story done "extremely well"? The characters are one-dimensional and get exactly what they deserve (the only excpetion being the mother -- the only character worthy of sympathy)...

How are the characters one dimensional?

Just askin

They are one-dimensional in that they have no redeeming features, nothing that makes this particular viewer sympathize, or, if you like, want to "root" for them.

The film is like dropping a handful of starving mice into a cage full of cheese. Mice will devour the cheese; junkies will do whatever they can to score. The mother is the exception to this in that she will do whatever she can for a son who takes adavantage of her, and that by trying to change her life, it winds up horribly.

I said this before in a similar thread: when the film finally ended, I thought to myself, "yup, that's about right."

Requiem is like the film kids: one watches it as one watches a trainwreck: for the shock (arm wound, ass to ass -- someone, eventually, will mention this ( ).

just got this from netflix, going to watch it this weekend

I disagree entirely, although I do see what you are getting at with this

I've seen threads on this before and many people have that same "wow" reaction in the "blows the mind" sense. Its really truely a "tragic" film - it makes one want to turn off their television and run from the shallowness of the world and the disappointments life can exact.

Tough film to endure, especially the last sequence of events (the director's cut has some number of seconds of additional footage relative to the more disturbing sequence with the girls... really more information than I ever needed to have). More disturbing that "Natural Born Killers" actually.

c-

The only character whose outcome remotely resembles a tragedy is the mother's.

There is simply nothing tragic about what happens to the rest of the characters in the film. The characters are so thin, how it could have ended any other way?

Saying that this film is a tragedy belittles those that truly are...

I can agree to disagree on that. I found the girlfriend's situation to be tragic as well as the mom. As far as the guy's situation I'm still on the fence, but their being thrown in jail/prison based on their appearence during their roadtrip was tragic because I suspect that sort of thing does still happen to people and such discrimination disgusts me.

c-

i hated this movie. yeah, i felt bad for the mom, but that was it.

it ruined jennifer connelly for me, and i've had a thing for her since i saw the labyrinth when i was a kid.

the problem is it's humorless. don't give me some shit about drugs are supposed to be, etc. i lost a cousin to drugs. but for my money, trainspotting is the only drug movie you need to see. it's fucking hilarious. plus, if a dead, blue baby doesn't keep you from doing drugs, nothing will.

See, I thought about the girlfriend's situation as being tragic, but because Leto's character is, as mentioned, paper thin, w/ no redeeming qualities except for the fact that he loves his grilfriend, I was left wondering, "why would she even bother with such a loser?"

"Because she's in love," is the obvious answer, but I don't buy it. It ultimately leads back to the thin characters. Give me a credible reason that she would stand by this moron, is all I'm asking. But because no answer is provided, I didn't really care about what happened to her. By the time she ends up at the party, I just felt cheated; that all of these characters have been thrown into a meat grinder. Shocking, sure; dramatically effective, no.

As for their treatment in prison, it just seemed, by that point in the film, like more gasoline thrown onto the fire, to use a cliche. It reminds me of my only complaint of Million Dollar Baby: Swank's character's family. They are drawn so ridiculously evil, it's too easy -- done simply for a cheap dramatic effect.

Now there's a film (and novel) that makes you care about its characters, and the consequences of their actions...

Thought it was a major let down after Pi.

A well polished turd.

ahhh requiem.. such an overrated film.

Ahhh, Catman...

Leto's character was shallow because it wanted to show that under all the drugs, he had become a characterless nothing

To say the characters are one dimensional is somewhat narrow-minded though. They aren't just some junkies, and I think the final scenes of the film (particularly the ones with the police and at the hospital) try to portray the situation's characters as victims of an uncaring society. If you say they are one dimensional or that they "got what they deserved," I think you fell out of the director's intentions, which was to not just show the depravity of the situation but show the lack of humanity from other people involved. Its so brutal I don't think Aronofsky necessarily entirely sympathizes with them - they did have everything coming to them, most definitely - but several of the scenes earlier in the film show that these are good people capable of showing compassion and that society is also to blame, for its "lack" of compassion for drug users and addicts. I'm not going into detail, but I'm sure you'll recall that he does.

I'd say the film lacks humor, its a very cold film. But not entirely. Maybe a black comedy almost. Come on, Aronofsky is not stupid....he knew a million teenage boys were going to be laughing at that "ass to ass" scene. In a way the whole last part of the film is so over the top with everything (and the film was making a point, not trying to tell a true story), it takes on a circus-like tone, the film is constrasty and the lights are flourescent, there is definitely very dark humor to be found.

If you watched it once and didn't like it, go watch it again. The first viewing is definitely for shock value, but I think if you pay attention to smaller details in the dialogue or the style than the director's intentions become a little clear. I would have thought that for most people it would have been obvious on the first viewing, but apparently not.

I think when it comes down to it, this film is really an amazing piece of work. I would love to analyze every scene, story detail, and statement but I'm a bit hungover at the moment.

I can't watch this film again. It always leaves me feel like shit. I don't like feeling like that.

Ass to Ass!!

Firstly, we're just slinging opinions here. To call someone's (informed) opinion narrow-minded, is, well, narrow-minded. You see something there; I don't.

Next, on the one hand, you describe the society of this film as "uncaring", yet you also describe the main characters as "good people capable of showing compassion." If Leto's character's repeated acts of taking advantage of his mother (hocking the television, for example) is the act of a good person capable of compassion, what would a despicable character do?

Indeed these characters are a contributing force in the uncaring society you describe. That's fine. Just don't ask me to feel any compassion for these characters simply because things turn against them towards the last third of the film.

Ultimately there just isn't enough in these characters, cruel society or not, that made me care what happened to them. Just because they are "victims of society" towards the end of the film doesn't make them well-rounded, or sympathetic, characters.