I think it’s a masterpiece; gut-wrenching and soaked in a hellscape of realistic proportions. Requiem for a Dream is a tough watch, but an essential one.

| Mar 12, 2023

If anything, Aronofsky’s doomy, freaky, humorless style defeats his own purpose: It re-animates the dark romance of dissolution.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 3, 2022

Though all aspects of the film are excellent from story to cinematography to directing it is the acting which holds the whole thing together. The three leads are amazing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 14, 2020

While a whiff of symbolism softens the horror elements in Pi, no such escape is provided in Requiem for a Dream (2000)...

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 3, 2018

At times disturbing and always intense, this flick offers its own acid trip for viewers and is a first-hand look at four people who become trapped by their own hell.

| Original Score: A | Sep 12, 2017

As uncompromising a work of art as you can ever view.

| Original Score: A | Feb 20, 2014

A staccato narrative parallels the experiences and hallucinations of a woman on drugs with those of her son and his friends.

| Sep 20, 2011

Aronofsky's second feature is an emotionally intense, relentlessly grim tale of forms of addiction that may rely too much on montage to achieve real dramatic impact.

| Original Score: B | Jul 18, 2011

Translating this into a music video would make a lot more sense than the film does in present form

| Original Score: C- | May 14, 2011

"Dream" glamorizes nothing en route to a near-nauseating finale, which feels like a rollercoaster car hitched off the track and hurtled into hell's depths. A decade later, it still follows through with full force on its cautionary stomach punch.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 17, 2010

Unfortunately, about halfway through, the film takes a (deliberate) nosedive into the depths of human degradation from which it never emerges.

| Jul 6, 2010

A gut-wrenching, formally adventurous masterpiece or an ugly, flashy piece of empty-headed propaganda?

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 8, 2009

"Requiem For A Dream" is a movie about drug addiction, but that's only where the plot resides so the thoroughly drawn characters can work toward their imperfect dreams. Cinema history has been made with this

| Original Score: A- | May 16, 2009

One of the most powerful I have ever seen. The film's score and editing will haunt you for years to come.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 2, 2008

Yes, visually this is an exhilarating, unique film. But it is also a singularly difficult and challenging film to watch.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 14, 2007

Seldom has a film so powerfully affected me as Requiem for a Dream has -- affected, in this case, as if my eyes and psyche have been bludgeoned.

| Original Score: A | Jun 21, 2007

If Aronofsky set out to make Trainspotting look like Teletubbies, he succeeded. Recommended only for those with extremely strong stomachs.

| Dec 30, 2006

Requiem for a Dream is meant to have a hallucinatory, mesmerizing quality, but it manages to be about as enlightening as a bad acid trip.

| Original Score: C | Jul 24, 2006

Burnished camerawork and ex-Pop Will Eat Itself head Mansell's part-punchy, part-elegiac score reinforce and counterpoint the increasingly nightmarish visuals.

| Jun 24, 2006

Requiem for a Dream is a great movie, and the few of us who see it will be acutely affected.

| May 26, 2006