10. Requiem For A Dream
Artisan Entertainment
The Drugs: Heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, prescription amphetamines Trainspotting ends with a subtle hint of optimism, that the characters caught up in heroin abuse might just managed to find their way through to a better life - no such positivity exists in Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronovsky's visually audacious and depressing film about heroin addicts living in Coney Island, New York. Jared Leto and Jennifer Connelly star as addicted lovers Harry and Marion who, along with their friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) struggle through each day finding the cash to pay for their latest fix. Meanwhile, Harry's mother - a downtrodden woman all too familiar with her son arriving unexpectedly to cart away her television to sell for junk - decides she needs to lose weight so that she'll look good when she appears on a game show (an event which only exists in her delusional mind). Aronofsky's flashy photography and deft editing belies the traumatic, tragic underbelly of Requiem for a Dream; a relentlessly bleak view of drug addiction and self-destruction.