2. Requiem For A Dream
The Sad: So it's another Darren Aronofsky movie on a list of films with sad endings. Though his debut film Pi gained cult success, the film that put Aronofsky on the map was 2000's heroin-drama Requiem for a Dream, which follows the story of three junkie friends trying to stay in heroin, while the elderly Sara Goldfarb accidentally gets addicted to prescription meds. The last twenty minutes or so of this film as so visceral and harrowing that many people refuse to watch this movie, or at least re-watch it. Harry is at a point so low in his life he's injecting scag into a necrotic arm. Tyrone goes through withdrawal alone in prison. Sara is admitted to a psych ward and submitted to electroconvulsive therapy. And Marion... she does some things too.
The Silver Lining: It's maybe not a silver lining for Tyrone, who ends up in prison. Nor for Sara, who is stuck not only in a mental hospital but in the depths of her own drug-induced psychosis. But Harry manages to get a life-saving arm amputation, so that's good news, right? And it seems like Marion got what she wanted, even if at a horrible price. So happy ending, no?