Residents of Columbus who are seeking addiction treatment for themselves or their loved ones can choose to go for private rehab in Columbus Ohio or any government-sponsored rehabilitation program in the area.
[REQUIEM FOR A DREAM screens Friday September 28th at 7, 9 and 11 p.m. at the CWRU Film Society, Strosacker Auditorium.]
Review by Charles Cassady, Jr
In this cynical mindset, then, I have to ask: with the
CWRU Film Society reviving Darren Aronofsky's addiction classic REQUIEM FOR A
DREAM, is it to serve a warning...or to give campus newcomers some useful
how-to partying pointers? Especially with fall Halloween Riots season upon us.
From 2000, the picture flirted with the dreaded NC-17
rating for its look at addicts on seemingly hopeless downward spirals. The
conundrum for filmmakers trying to depict the seductive power and destruction
wrought by drugs is walking that fine line between making getting high look too
good - or going too far with the Message Stuff and preaching a finger-wagging
sermon. I only dipped a little bit into the Hubert Selby Jr. novel that
inspired REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, but for me the film version was a rather self-conscious
balancing act for Aronofsky. He uses high-tech f/x and tricky camerawork to
convey the adrenaline rush of heroin, then finishes with scenes that show the
pathetic, doomed characters curled into fetal positions. Get it? Bad drugs!
Bad! (Or, if you're an American boy or girl circa 2012, wow that looks cool.)
In the Coney Island neighborhood
of New York City, four interrelated
characters succumb to chemical addiction over a year. Harry (Jared Leto) and
Marion (Jennifer Connelly) are childhood sweethearts, he from the lower
classes, she from a rich family. But both are addicted to smack. Harry supports
Marion's career goal to open a designer-dress emporium and tries with his
friend and fellow addict Tyrone (Marlon Wayans, best known for comedy roles, in
a serious outing) to peddle drugs to finance the venture.
But their own cravings and gang-turf wars deplete their
supply, and the two guys go on what turns out to be a disastrous road trip to Florida
in search of a fresh pipeline. Meanwhile [SPOILER ALERT!] Marion
loses herself in addiction. As a final descent into degradation she turns
tricks and performs in a grotesque lesbian cabaret-sodomy act in front of
paying customers. Alas, alas! (Or, if you're an American boy or girl circa
2012, wow that looks cool.)
Most tragic of all the quartet, arguably, is Harry's
middle-aged mother Sarah (Ellen Burstyn), obsessed with shedding weight to
appear slim and pretty for her pathetically lumpen lower-class hausfrau fantasy of going
on a TV game show. Prescribed amphetamines by a faceless, impersonal medical
establishment, she drifts into mindless oblivion herself, and it's all
perfectly legal.
Skillful, surreal camerawork (that won the director
comparisons to Stanley Kubrick) and sympathetic characters - none of them want
to be Scarface, they just want to be happy - make REQUIEM FOR A DREAM more than
just the proverbial "classroom scare film." Or does it?
I must come clean and say that as a lifelong
straight-edge and non-drinker (in other words, a freak and outcast) I had sort
of banked on the idea that remaining stone-sober would have paid off for me in
the long run. As all my peers theoretically would wind up like the characters
in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, I would stand tall as just about the only employable person for miles in
what passes for a job market in Ohio.Yet, that scheme failed miserably. Nobody wants to hire
boring old me. Deep down inside I suspect a lot of companies and HR recruiters are
instead keenly on the lookout for applicants on the level of Marion:
"Chick is crazy! She'll do anything, man! And she looks like that smokin'
hot Jennifer Connelly, too!"
Okay, now I understand why CWRU is showing REQUIEM FOR A
DREAM. Solid post-grad career and role models. (3 out of 4 stars)
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