I read that Requiem for a Dream won’t be available on Netflix streaming anymore after this year ends. It’s one I’d been meaning to rewatch for a while (I last saw it back in 2001 or maybe 2002. When it was still at least fairly new to DVD).
I remember thinking it was a bit campy and over the top at the time. I also remember that it sent my mom literally running from the room crying. (We hadn’t intended her to watch it–she came in unexpectedly.)
On rewatch–I feel like I’m understanding more than back then how great some of the performances are. (Ellen Burstyn’s face seems to literally change shape in one particular scene, and I am pretty sure it’s not a special effect.) I am “appreciating” the film’s “technique” a lot more as well. And I do think I had a lot more sympathy for the characters than I did back then. I wasn’t just watching a story, I was connecting with the people to some extent. The old ladies in a row on the sidewalk, and the way they reacted to the mail about the TV show–they were so cute, and I really wanted her TV appearance to happen and go well, for her sake and even for all the other ladies’ too.
But–still–yeah, it’s way too over the top to actually be depressing. And the refrigerator thing seems laughable to me, despite the fact that I know a lot of people say refrigerators still scare them after having watched that movie years ago.
Do I recall correctly that this movie was kind of a comeback for Jennifer Connolly?
BTW how likely is it that a kid with a badly infected arm would be sent to jail first before getting treated, even though the person that spotted him was a doctor at a hospital?
For that matter, would a doctor at a hospital typically report the kid in a case like this? I would have assumed not, since it would lead to people who need treatment being afraid to get treatment. But maybe that’s naïve of me.
Also, why were they going to Miami? I didn’t catch that.