Requiem for Justice

There have been many injustices over the years: East Timor, Tibet, Bob Saget, but one in particular annoyed me to no end. It happened at this past Academy Awards when Julia Roberts AKA America's Sweetheart AKA Lil' Miss Toothy Grin took home the Best Actress Oscar over Ellen Burstyn. This was a slap in the face to those of us with a sparkle in our eyes, believers that good will prevail over evil. Alas, it was not to be that fateful night, as Ms.Roberts, beloved by suburbanites across the land, took home the trophy. Movie purists, and people who have actually seen Requiem for a Dream, shook their heads in disbelief and stared blankly at the screen as Roberts giggled her way through her speech, safe in the knowledge that people love her, people really love her.

But, and I can not be more emphatic at this point, did she really give the best acting performance of the year as the cleavaged Erin Brockovich? Not bloody likely! Her performance was good, don't get me wrong, but it certainly didn't warrant anything more than a Blockbuster Award. Burstyn, however, gave an unbelievable performance as a woman who is slowing losing touch with reality in Requiem for a Dream, the second movie by Darren Aronofsky, currently available in your video store.

Some of you may remember Aronofsky from his first film, the much acclaimed Pi, which is another movie worth renting. This time out Aronofsky deals with drugs, and the effects they have on the people who abuse them. This is a movie that is sickenly realistic. It forces the viewer to accept the true nature of addiction, a dismal, bleak world where the drugs are God and anything or anyone else is just scenery. Requiem stars Jennifer Connelly, Jared Leto, one of the Wayans Brothers, and Burstyn. Leto and Connelly are a couple who indulge in various narcotics night and day. Wayans plays Leto's best friend. Soon the three have the idea that as long as they're constantly looking for drugs, why not become dealers? Their venture into the drug trade and the subsequent fall from grace is wonderfully portrayed by these actors. You truly believe they are suffering and can feel the effects of their addictions. The fate of Connelly's character, in particular, is such a tragedy it's hard to keep your emotions in check. Leto, who is an unbelievably beautiful person, manages to look so sickly by the end of the film he is hardly recognizable. But it is Burstyn's performance that steals the movie.

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