Tag Archives: ellen burstyn

Future Classic Movie: Requiem for a Dream [2000]

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Paula over at Paula’s Cinema Club has presented the blogging world with an interesting question: what movies from 2000 to present day will endure to become a future classic? The 2000s have already been fruitful for great films, and there are an extraordinary amount of excellent options to choose from. After narrowing down my list, I kept eyeing one particular film:

Requiem for a Dream [2000]

Requiem for a Dream is director Darren Aronofsky’s second full-length film, and it is one that is unforgettable for those who have seen it. The film revolves around four Coney Island residents, all who struggle with their own personal addictions.

Ellen Burstyn, in an Oscar nominated role, stars as Sara Goldfarb, a lonely widow who spends her days watching television and eating whatever is in her typically full refrigerator. After receiving a phone call saying she was selected to be a participant on her favorite game show, Sara begins obsessing over her weight, determined to fit into her old red dress. Her attempt to follow a diet plan fails miserably, so she goes to the doctor and gets a prescription of diet pills. She becomes addicted to them.

Her son, Harry (Jared Leto), is a heroin junkie who makes a habit of stealing her television and pawning it off for drug money. He regularly dreams of getting rich off a big score with his pal Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans). Harry’s girlfriend, Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), hopes to open a fashion store and is relying on him to strike it rich. All three are users.

As the film progresses, all four main characters hit rock bottom, and we are there with them for every step of the way. This is a brutal movie experience, one that shows the extreme depths that addicts can ultimately reach.

So why will Requiem for a Dream be considered a classic in the future? Let’s take a look:

The Subject Matter
Drug abuse isn’t going away anytime soon. It has been over ten years since Requiem was released, and our country still has an out-of-control drug problem. I don’t see this changing at all, if ever, and Requiem’s message will ring true for countless years.

The Director
Darren Aronofsky is still young and should have a long career ahead of him, but there is no denying the man’s talent and repertoire already. Few people can capture the essence of self destruction like Aronofsky, and he uses some creative techniques to show the effects that drugs are having on these characters. Requiem has over 2,000 cuts (most movies of this length have 600-700), and it uses extremely quick shots to show the rapid effects of drugs entering the body. Take a look at this montage as an example:

On top of this, Aronofsky expertly uses a variety of long tracking shots, time-lapse photography, extreme closeups and faraway views. Looking at the film from a critical standpoint, this is some pretty innovative stuff. By the time all is said and done, I am confident Aronofsky’s name will be included in a list of the all-time greats.

The Credentials

  • IMDB: Overall rating of 8.4/10 based on over 280,000 votes (#66 on the Top 250)
  • 78% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes
  • Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Ellen Burstyn’s lead performance
  • Chlotrudis Award for Best Movie (plus another six nominations, including Best Director and Best Screenplay)
  • In total, the film won 23 awards and received 38 nominations. IMDB has the full rundown.

The Soundtrack
Who could ever forget composer Clint Mansell’s opening theme? Every time I hear this song, a rush of emotions comes over me. It’s such a beautiful song, but one that is equally devastating given the context. Listen to the theme in all its glory:

The rest of the soundtrack is equally impressive, a perfect fit for the film. It is so well-loved that it even got its own remix album with mixes by Paul Oakenfold, Delerium and Josh Wink, among others.

The Cast
I don’t care what anyone says, Ellen Burstyn should have won an Oscar for her performance. Sara Goldfarb’s transformation is just heartbreaking and cruel to watch. I can only imagine how difficult it was for Burstyn. Leto, Connelly and Wayans all deliver what are arguably the best performances of their careers. Special mention must also be made of Christopher McDonald as the TV infomercial host, Tappy Tibbons, in an especially memorable performance.

The Conclusion
In order to prepare this post, I gave Requiem for a Dream another watch last night. It had been at least four years since my last viewing, and it is just as amazingly disheartening as I remember. Requiem is a brutal, depressing film, but it is an incredible piece of art that its viewers will never forget. It can be argued that this is already a modern classic, and I am confident that it will hold up in the future as well.






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Movie Project #24: The Last Picture Show [1971]

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Due to the surprising success of my initial Movies Project, I decided to do a part two for 2012. This time around I put a greater emphasis on directors I am not familiar with, but I also tried to compile a mix of different genres and eras. This will be an ongoing project with the finish date being sometime this year.

The Last Picture Show [1971]

The Last Picture Show [1971]
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Genre: Drama
Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman and Ellen Burstyn
Runtime: 118 minutes

“Nothing much has changed…”

I grew up in a small town, one with a population of roughly 200 people. I could not leave it fast enough. It seemed like so many people there were stuck in a rut. They lived their lives, worked menial jobs, then proceeded to have kids who in turn fell into the same endless cycle. While not always the case, many of them rarely left their seemingly comfortable surroundings. That wasn’t me. I had to get out, and that’s how I ended up in Chicago, the polar opposite of my hometown.

The Last Picture Show takes place in the 1950s in a small town in West Texas. Its denizens are people exactly like those I knew grewing up.

There’s Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms), a high school senior who is dating a slightly overweight girl whom he is not in love with. Ambivalent about the prospects of life after school, he drifts aimlessly. His best friend is Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges), a good-looking and popular fellow senior who is more interested in girls than thinking about the future. He is in a relationship with Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), a sex-crazed girl who comes from a rich family.

The Last Picture Show [1971]

On the adult side of things, there is Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), the depressed housewife of the local football coach. There’s a man known best as Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), the owner of the town’s cafe, movie theater and pool hall — basically the only sources of entertainment in the area — who acts as a sort of father figure to the two seniors. We are also introduced to Jacy’s mother, Lois Farrow (Ellen Burstyn), who is struggling as a single parent.

For 118 minutes, we are immersed in the world of this small dying town in Texas. Part character study, part coming of age, all hopelessly stagnant.

When I say “immersed” in this town, I am not overstating this at all. Director Peter Bogdanovich *nailed* the movie’s setting. The bleak, dusty, wind-torn town is captured in all its decaying glory, beat-up pickup trucks and all. The movie was wisely filmed in black-and-white (thanks to a suggestion from Orson Welles), making it feel like we are watching something plucked right from the 50s. Seriously, I felt like I was there.

What doesn’t feel like a 50s film is the gratuitous sex featured on screen, complete with a generous amount of nudity. With raging hormones and little else to do in town, it’s easy to see why its members rely on promiscuity to pass the time. It’s not just the high school kids who are hooking up — it’s the adults, too, including some who are breaking the bounds of marriage.

The Last Picture Show [1971]

It’s impossible to look back at The Last Picture Show forty years later and not be amazed at its cast. Many would go on to long and prosperous careers, including the very young Jeff Bridges and Cybill Shepherd. Miss Shepherd, in particular, is absolutely stunning — it’s easy to see why every guy in town is in love with her. Ben Johnson, as the aging cowboy Sam the Lion, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Cloris Leachman, absolutely fantastic in her role as the despondent housewife, won Best Supporting Actress. The only major star who didn’t make it as big as the rest is Timothy Bottoms, which is a shame because he is one of the true highlights in this film.

The Last Picture Show also received six other Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

When people discuss the greatest films of the 1970s, I rarely hear The Last Picture Show mentioned near the top. The film certainly has a high amount of critical acclaim, but it seems to get overlooked amongst the Godfathers and Taxi Drivers of the world. That’s a shame, because this is a fantastic effort all-around, and it is one that perfectly encapsulates the setting it takes place in. Some may find this to be too melancholy and others may struggle with its characters, but to me, this reminds me of home, for better or for worse.

9/10

Movie Project #18 and #19: The Exorcist [1973] and Vertigo [1958]

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The 50 Movies Project is a personal “marathon” of mine. In June, I compiled a list of 50 movies that I felt I needed to see by the end of the year. Old, new, foreign, English — it doesn’t matter. These are all movies that I have heard a lot about and have been wanting to see for some time. This project gives me a way to stay focused on the goal.

Also, I am quite a bit ahead in this Movie Project at the moment, so I am going to be doing more 2-for-1 specials until I get caught up all the way. The project has been a blast so far, but it has become quite exhaustive to write full posts about each film. Hope you guys don’t mind!

The Exorcist [1973, Friedkin]
The Exorcist [1973, Friedkin]
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair
No idea what took me so long to finally watch this horror classic. I have had so many people tell me that this is the scariest movie ever made, and many friends refused to even watch it with me because of this. Something about demons and possessed children really gets under the skin, eh?

I liked the movie well enough, though I didn’t find it scary at all. I found The Exorcist to be more disturbing than anything — that little girl sure did some fucked up shit! Perhaps some of the effect has worn off due to all of the pop culture references over the years — there were a few scenes that I was quite familiar with beforehand, despite never having seen the film.

It took me a little bit to really get into the movie due to its slow pacing, but I feel that this helped with the character development. I cared about the characters, especially since the actors played them so convincingly. It was a real treat to see Ellen Burstyn this young, as I had previously only seen her in more recent titles such as Requiem for a Dream and The Fountain.

While not necessarily “scary”, The Exorcist still holds up today as a great film.

8/10

Vertigo [1958]
Vertigo [1958, Hitchcock]
Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, Barbara Bel Geddes
Man, I love Hitchcock. As I continue to move through his filmography, I become more and more impressed. The man knew how to tell a story while keeping the suspense growing and growing.

With Vertigo, James Stewart delivers another brilliant performance, this time starring as Scottie Ferguson, a police detective with a terrible fear of heights. After recovering from a tragic accident that left his partner dead, Scottie is hired to investigate an old friend’s wife (Kim Novak), who has been walking around as if in some bizarre type of trance. As he follows her around, the detective becomes obsessed with the woman, taking an unhealthy liking to her. Then, of course, in typical Hitchcock fashion, there’s a huge plot twist about halfway through that changes the course of the film.

What ultimately takes place is a dark and haunting love story, one that shows one man’s obsession with something he cannot have. The depths that Scottie goes to accomplish his dream are frightening, and at times it seems the only sane character is his friend Midge (Barbara Bel Geddes).

In short, this is another fantastic psychological thriller from the master of suspense, and it’s easy to see why it is always recognized as one of Hitchcock’s finest. From Bernard Herrmann’s haunting score to the wonderful plot twists and turns, Vertigo is exceptional.

9/10