3. Ellen Burstyn - Requiem For A Dream
Addiction: Amphetamines What To Say: You don't need to lose any weight love What Not To Say: We got a winner! Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., Darren Aronofskys film depicts addiction and its effect over three seasons on the lives of the films protagonists. The narrative threads of junkies Harry, Marion and Tyrone are all compelling but nothing we havent seen before. The thread concerning Harrys mother Sara, however, is a frightening descent into madness brought about by addiction to weight-loss amphetamines. Played by Ellen Burstyn, Sara is an elderly widow living all alone in Brooklyn whose story begins when she receives a phone call saying she will be invited onto her favourite game show and ends with her committed to a psychiatric ward undergoing electroconvulsive therapy after suffering from amphetamine psychosis and terrifying hallucinations. Burstyn gives one of her most memorable performances, which is saying something considering her career, and conveys the utter desperation and obsession of her character in an acting tour de force which is the thespian equivalent of a car crash; you dont want to but you just cant stop looking at the horror unfolding in front of you. The Oscar winning actress deservedly earned another Oscar nomination for her role but, rather unjustly, lost out to Julia Roberts family friendly turn as Erin Brockovich.