15 Best Movies About Drugs And Addiction In Cinema History

2. Requiem For A Dream

Darren Afonosky has a knack for making it appear as though the walls are slowly closing in. His sad, emotional portrait of a desperate, aging athlete in The Wrestler won critical acclaim, as did his journey into the scattered mind of a young dancer in Black Swan. But before his work with Mickey Rourke and Natalie Portman came Requiem For A Dream: a sickeningly intense examination of addiction, paranoia, and reluctance to reconvene with reality. Aronofsky demands the best from his performers, and Requiem For A Dream features a catalogue of fine perfomances from Jared Leto, Ellen Burstyn, Jennifer Connolly, and - perhaps most surprisingly - Marlon Wayans. The film scans across each of these addicts, moving from the crunch of a lighter and crackle of lit cannabis to the gulp of the throat and swallowing of a pill. The outcome is more terrifying than most horror films. The film demonstrates how in the pursuit of pleasure, it is so easy to destroy ourselves. It's one of the most difficult films you will ever see about addiction, but it also one of the greatest. Aronofsky is arguably the most intense contemporary director working in Hollywood today, and Requiem for a Dream is relentless in its manipulation and production of legitimate, raw emotion.