10 Massively Underrated 2000s Movie Performances

As beautiful and poetic as it may sound from its title, you’ve got to know what you’re letting yourself in for with this 2000 drama. It’s a haunting piece of cinema that takes the viewer and its characters to some very dark and frightening places.

At the core of the movie are four main cast members (Sara Goldfarb, her son Harry, Harry’s friend Tyrone and Tyrone’s girlfriend, Marion), all of whom have or develop an addiction to drugs. They each have their dreams they wish to accomplish (Tyrone wants to escape his lowly existence, for instance) and believe that their addiction will help them get there. Through the use of aggressive cuts and some very intense sequences, Requiem For A Dream shows the effect that the drug abuse is having on their deteriorating physical and mental states in vivid, harrowing style.

Ellen Burstyn steals the show in this extraordinary film as Sara Goldfarb, a Brighton Beach widow taking amphetamines to control her appetite (so she can fit into a dress she loved in her younger days). The highs and lows these actors have to portray are just unimaginable, but Burstyn in particular is up to the task. She has a truly electrifying monologue.