-Philing
We love to think and rap about our love of cinema. We are ideaphiles, storyphiles, and cinephiles. Our aim is to share those loves, and understand their value and importance in our lives, with each other, and everyone who listens.
-Philing
009 Requiem for a Dream Part 2
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
This episode is part two of our discussion of Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream starring Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, and Jennifer Connelly.
Don't call it a potcast. This is better than pot. Rap emball gods and movies with odd. Talking about the odd meetings. And I'm a scene. Filing cats. Finally in between your ears. Filing stories. Movies.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to Filing, where we love to think and rap about our love of cinema. I'm Sean Patrick. Now we'll be joined by Brandon Mitchell. We are ideaphiles, story files, and cinophiles. Our aim is to share those loves and understand their value and importance in our lives with each other and everyone who listens. Our discussion might be a broad and detailed spoiler, so if you haven't seen this episode's movie, stop listening to us right now. Go watch it, and then return to filing to hear our thoughts and feelings. The word drug is said a total of 12 times in this episode. So if you make this episode a themed reaction game, every time we say the word drug, snort a line of dehydrated milk. You know, like they do in the movies. This is the eighth episode of the After the Life inspiration series, which is a collection of movie reviews intended to inspire the production of an original movie titled The After the Life. The After the Life is currently being produced and will screen at an event called The Fest 2026 on July 18th. Go to thefest2026.com for details about the event.
SPEAKER_05This is broader than pod. We're rapping about gods and the movies we odds. The file cast is finally in between.
SPEAKER_02This episode is part two of our discussion of the movie Requiem for a Dream. In part one, we identified the theme of Requiem for a Dream to be the cause and effect of addiction and obsession by and on the purpose one chooses. The plot theme or central conflict is the seductive power of addiction and obsession versus the long-range goals of disintegrating families and friends, longing for a vanished past, and dreaming of a better future. To swiftly recap, Sarah Goldfarb, the lead character, is the mother of Harry Goldfarb and dreams of being a contestant on her favorite television show. She's been prescribed weight loss pills in order to achieve her other dream of being thinner to fit into a red dress. She aims to return to a seemingly happier version of herself that she admires in an old photograph. The photograph also includes her deceased husband Seymour and her son Harry at his high school graduation. Harry dreams of improving his life and the life of his girlfriend Marion and his friend Tyrone. He deals drugs in order to finance these dreams. Harry also aims to do something nice for his mother Sarah. He asks what her fix is and concludes it is television. Harry then sets a goal to buy his mother Sarah a new state-of-the-art television system. Marion dreams of spending a lifetime with Harry. She's encouraged by Harry to open a store, to sell the clothing she designs, and to do it together with him. Tyrone dreams of a life with a little bit of peace and happiness and no hassles. To achieve this, he helps Harry deal drugs. They are all drug users and addicts. In part one, our discussion ended after Harry arrived at his mother Sarah's apartment building while she was sitting on the sidewalk talking to her friends. Sarah has just consumed her energizing diet pills, and upon noticing Harry's arrival, Sarah leaps from her chair, runs to Harry, and squeezes him. Harry is noticeably surprised. The two enter Sarah's apartment building and head to her apartment.
SPEAKER_00Maybe the scene of the movie, um, if if not one of them. Um when I got to the scene when I was doing my watch through this, this one was kind of it became the most pivotal one to me because at first I thought it, I thought the movie slowed down for a minute. It was so propulsive, and you get swept up in the rhythms of the movie, and this scene seemed to slow it down, and it was the first one that started to seem like exposition a little bit. Um where, you know, she's I mean, we've seen her start to get into these diepills. Harry hasn't seen it yet, so it's kind of catching the main characters up on where they are in the plot of the movie, I guess. Um, and I kind of was just felt my attention just dropping a slight bit because what I was really engaged in is how the movie just starts, you have to catch up to it the whole time. And I kind of felt like when we got to the scene, it was the most normal movie-ish type scene where the characters are, you know, like I said, sort of catching each other up, and also that way it's catching the audience up and stuff like that. And I was like, oh man, I it would be nice to if this movie avoided exposition and things like that. However, um, it turns it, it just totally turns on its head and becomes about, I mean, it really lays out the whole theme of the movie, and it's the most crucial point in Sarah as the main character, because where we where she starts the scene and where what we understand about her and what Harry understands about her when the scene ends is two different places, and it's quite remarkable on how we get there through this scene, and uh it's all about Ellen Bernstein's performance and how she kind of twists this dialogue. Um, yeah, I'm pumped to get into this one. What do you think about this part?
SPEAKER_02On this view, this scene was my favorite in the entire movie. Primarily because of Ellen Bernstein's performance. It really demonstrates her conflict, her personal inner conflict. There's really no other way to do that other than to watch her relate to somebody else and kind of explain herself. You can show it in action, but to really show the inner conflict, it's interesting to hear somebody reflect on what they're going through and see in in in their the actor's emotional reactions, the conflict, and listen to her words and understand that they're impossible. And their her words are really bizarre too. Because she says some things like, I'm somebody now. And so that betrays this view of herself that she's really nobody. And she goes on to explain that her husband's dead and her son is gone. Who does she have? Who does she have to care for? You know, she's old and lonely, everybody's gone, she's got nothing, she's nobody, because her identity is so wrapped up or was wrapped up in being a uh wife and a mother, and now when those things are no longer available to her, she finds this opportunity to be on a show, but for also the express purpose of telling everyone about her husband and her son. So even her dream, her purpose is still wrapped up in the past, although her son is still currently a alive. So I thought that that conflict was a really interesting one. As a man, I obviously can't have children, I can't be a mother, or I can't birth children, that is to say. I can't be I can't be a mother, and so I really can't completely know what that experience is unless I see it in this form in this movie, or you know, I observe my own mother or a family member dealing with something similar. And I have. But even then I can understand it, but I can't really I can't ever experience that exact thing. And it's it's an interesting conflict because it's a conflict about resisting change, which is interesting. You know, a woman who gives who's married, loses her husband, you know, and raises children and is no longer that primary responsible person for another person's life raising them. Requires, you know, once that's gone, that requires somebody to to adjust and become something else. And it's interesting to me that it sometimes doesn't happen. And people know that it's going to happen. There's a definite timeline on that. But it's such an all-consuming responsibility raising children, being in a romantic relationship that once you wrap your entire life in and around that it's very difficult to unravel and reset. And so makes me think about there's the fact that there's value in preparing for that possibility and trying to balance that with not creating some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that detaches you from those relationships before they're gone. And so it doesn't the movie doesn't get that deep. And these are just thoughts that come to my mind when I'm thinking about this character and her obsessions with the past and a happier version of herself, and it's just so beautifully depicted in Ellen Bernstein's performance. I would watch this scene over and over and over again because it's so so marvelous, but it doesn't get but it doesn't get that deep. So that's a probably another movie that needs needs to deal with that. So I hope that movie may or may not exist. Um I don't know of any. Um but it's an interesting topic. Um I love this scene. Um I thought the sound design was really interesting. There's this moment where Harry is talking to his mother and all of the sound fades out, and he turns his head to the right, and the camera pans to match his movement following him, as if he's turning his ear to where he hears the sound, which is right in front of him, which is the grinding of his mother's teeth, and then that's all you hear is the grinding of the teeth. So I think stylistically the sound design was really good in that scene, and they got in and out of that manipulation of the sound really, really well. It's seamless. And it's a heartbreaking scene, you know, because Sarah Har Harry's Sarah's son is trying to encourage her to stop doing drugs, and he's a heroin addict. And it's tough to hear that from him, but you know, it's tough to watch him watch her going through this when all he's trying to do is pay her back from being such a problem in her life, which she was from the opening scene in the movie when he steals her TV and sells it to a pawn shop. Um so you know, the movie's definitely very focused on drug addiction and its effects on the purpose one chooses. And I think Ellen Bernstein's character represents a type of psychological deficit that is really at the core of addiction. Because my understanding and experience with addiction is that it fills a void or a deficit of some sort that is typically psychological or it masks that. And the Sarah Goldfarb character may be the only character that is where it's very clear what her psychological struggle is. You know, she has she has no purpose. She's in the process of trying to gain purpose. And sh her and she is obsessed with the past. And she is obsessed with being a mother, and she's obsessed with being a wife. And all of that is gone. It's not doesn't exist. She's still a mother, but she's not the same kind of mother. And so all of that is displayed and represented in the dialogue and in this scene. And that's why I think it's the best scene in the movie, and that's why I think the Sarah Goldfire character is the most interesting character, because I think it has the most conflict. And you need scenes like these to take the time to get into the psychological makeup of the character. And the dialogue does that really, really well. And then the performance just knocks it out of the park. So I love this scene. I love the performance. It's tragic and heartbreaking. And it's it's a warning for people, you know?
SPEAKER_00Um I I see where you're where you're going with that. I mean, like, um, you're right that the the movie doesn't quite go that direction. But um yeah, it's one of the many warnings that this this movie offers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, this movie is a big warning label. And the most obvious one, especially when I was younger and I watched this movie, was Don't Do Heroin. And this movie coincided with a lot of other movies that came out around the same time that had the same message. Train spotting, basketball diaries, rush. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. I'm not familiar with that. Is that a heroin movie?
SPEAKER_00No, no, no. Uh I think there is a movie called Stay Tuned. No, I just meant stay tuned on Rush. Yeah, that was a a little um nod to a an episode coming out soon. Yeah. Yeah. Or potentially, yeah. Not sure yet. But but yeah, so yeah, this, I mean, the the dialogue is interesting in this, really in this whole movie, and the fact that um I I didn't read through the whole thing. I've I've read bits and pieces, and um just paying attention to the actual words in in the movie, like in the scene in particular. Um, there's there's nothing that strikes me as like overly excellent about the dialogue itself. Um I find a lot of it pretty straightforward and there like therefore that's what blows me away about the acting, especially like in this scene. Um, I'm not saying the dialogue's bad or anything. It's just it could, you know, it's it's kind of like a typical dialogue in a movie that it could be read in mul in multiple different ways. And what she kind of pulls out of this dialogue by making it almost completely contradictory of itself, uh, in a way, you know, it's like everything that she's saying from saying that the doctor is a nice doctor when he doesn't seem to care about patients whatsoever, um, to her saying how happy she currently is while the more she tries to communicate that to Harry, she almost has a complete breakdown into a crying fit and at the same and also another element just I don't know, maybe in in the I don't know if it's legit or a makeup effect or something, but she's actually sweating through this speech as well, where you know, I I know actors can make themselves cry if that's part of the scene, and I don't know how they have the skill to do that, but I wonder if she is good enough of an actress to make herself sweat on command because there's perfect line deliveries and beads of sweat are pouring out of her hair, and it's just kind of nice details.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I find it hard to believe that someone can sweat on command, but there's certainly things you can do to an actor or actress to induce that. Yeah, right, right. Even if it's just wearing wearing a wig and pumping water through it and down her face.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But just the no matter what it is, you know, if it's just putting hot lights on her, you know, and that makes a person sweat, whatever it is, just the that being an additional detail to the scene is extraordinary to me. And then and that just uh also it's such a pivotal scene in terms of uh Harry as well, because you get to watch him when he enters the apartment, he thinks he's doing something good for her. Um, even though it's slightly misguided as well, because the reason he comes upon the idea to get her a new TV is because he relates it to a drug fix. Right. You know, so um there's that, but then but he walks in there not knowing that she is going down this road of addiction, but he can recognize the signs quite easily, and he tries to warn her about it, and then he recognizes that she's probably right at that edge of if she takes this any steps further, she's gonna become a full-blown junkie, and he recognizes that, in my opinion, you know, because he's already pretty much there himself, you know, and there's some denial on his end, but when you're watching somebody else do something, it's easy that easier to call them out than call yourself out on where you're at. So I think he's like experiencing that in the moment. Um, and he knows that the real thing to offer her if he wants to be a loving son, is just the time of him coming over to visit. And when he says, Hey, me and Marion are gonna come over, we're gonna have dinner, that's the true thing that he needs to do to help her out. But I think we leave the scene knowing he's not gonna do that. And so the scene ends, and it's truly the pivotal moment where now we know where this whole movie's going, you know. And I think uh not to jump into the next scene, we can if you're ready to, but it does go immediately to him leaving, crying, because he's has recognized all this stuff, and through the performance, we also recognize it. So that's amazing. Yeah, that's the scene.
SPEAKER_02That's the scene that I think represents the recognition. I think in the scene in Sarah's apartment, he's grappling with everything, and he's trying to find a solution. And the solution is what you said. He recognizes I just need I need to come here more. That's the right thing to do. That's I know what she wants. She said it. She said it to him. Yeah. Straight to his face. You're gone. Your father's gone. I'm alone. And so he realizes that yeah, buying the TV isn't what she needs. What she needs is me to come see her and for her to see my girlfriend and be less alone. And so I think he's just grappling with it. And so in the next scene when he's in a taxi cab and he's crying, that's when I think he he really recognizes the uh I'm sorry. I'm getting I was getting some feedback. Um so yeah, the scene in the taxi cab. So Harry's in the taxicab, and that is when he recognizes the situation that his mother is in. And he breaks down and he cries. And what does he do? He shoots up heroin in the taxi cab, and then he's fine, which is kind of bizarre.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because the movie goes through one of those quick cut montages, and it's difficult to believe that that that is what he's doing in the taxi cab, but okay. Because he's in the taxi cab crying, and then it does like four or five shots of him preparing the heroin, injecting the heroin, and then his eyeball pupil dilating, and then it cuts back to him sitting in the taxi cab, same exact position, but he's calm and emotionless.
SPEAKER_00It's it's interesting. I was just thinking about it because um that's maybe one of the there's many moments in this movie that get criticism, and I think one of the main pieces of criticism is that it's not realistic, and I think details like that are where that criticism comes from. Because if you start thinking what like could he really shoot up in the taxicab, you know what? I'm sure people have done it before. You know? Yeah. Um, so I think it is a a possibility. Um sure it would look kind of probably different than how we see it, but I'm just not one that looks at this movie as uh the realism comes from everything we're seeing exact uh you know, exactly as it is. Um, I think this movie is more trying to represent it's like a horror movie experience of where addiction can take you. I th you know, a real true addiction, I think going from the initial checking out a dru say a drug, because this movie actually I think one of the great parts about it with the Sarah Golfarb character, she does get addicted to drugs too, but I think it um I think there's well the obsession part that you were bringing up is part of it. Um so it's not and you can get addicted to a whole host of different things. Like food. She she does that too. So she has like s sort of an addictive personality, just hasn't materialized into drugs until you know she starts doing the diet pills. And I'm going off on sort of some tangents here because it's just making me think of the different things that this movie is doing and showing different ways you can find yourself in these predicaments where she's older and almost getting taken advantage of by doctors that are just prescribing medication because for whatever reason, I'm sure there's profit reasons for them doing that. And you know, she's a person that just gets caught up at in it thinking, well, if this doctor's prescribing it, he must know what he's doing. So I'm not gonna question it. And you know, she's making herself think that she is feeling better when she's clearly not in that scene. But anyway, the taxicab scene uh to me it just represents the the more important thing is the how upset he is and that shooting up the heroine just washes it away. It could be it could be in any location, you know. Um, I think putting it in the taxicab does it it it's kind of purposely weird, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_02I think the criticisms of the lack of realism are legitimate. It's definitely lacks realism. And one of the one of the things a filmmaker needs to do is suspend disbelief because when you suspend disbel when you fail to suspend disbelief, you distract from the theme, you distract from the conflict, you lose focus on what's going on. A more sophisticated, perhaps more sophisticated movie watcher can approach something like that and appreciate it more as symbolism, like you are. But I'm of the opinion that if you can suspend disbelief, if you can make it realistic, do it. But movies have limitations, and you have to do what you can do with what you have, you know, budgetarily, and once you get into the editing room, you have what you have. So how are you going to get across the idea? And that might be the first scene where we see the idea of Harry using heroin to escape difficult emotions. I think prior to that, and I could be wrong, but I think prior to that he was only using it for recreation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I can't remember. But but yeah, most likely it's something around this point. Yeah. So because this is the the bit the big spot in the movie.
SPEAKER_02Well, we definitely know it's tilt. Yeah, we definitely exactly we definitely know that in this particular scene he is doing heroin to not face the difficult feelings that he's experiencing from seeing his mom and the and the condition that his mom is in. Yeah, yeah. That's another warning sign. And but to speak to his development as a character, that is very central to his character. Because it's not it's not just fun and games now, you know. Right. We we already knew in a previous scene that he wanted to do drugs earlier in the day than normal. And Mary and his girlfriend asked him not to do that, and now he's escaping himself. So the slip had already kind of started, and I think you're right. The scene with his mother kind of pushed him a little bit over the edge, and and then in the very next scene after that, Tyrone is sitting in a limousine and he's speaking to his drug boss about getting more opportunity, and the driver shoots everyone.
SPEAKER_00We do the title cut to fall.
SPEAKER_02Not yet.
SPEAKER_00Oh, not yet?
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_00Oh.
SPEAKER_02The title cut to fall is absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yep. And so this is the scene where Tyrone's drug boss gets shot in the head, and Tyrone's face gets splattered with blood, and he jumps out of the limousine and he's running and gets arrested. And then after he gets arrested, smash cut, whites black screen, white title, fall. Which is obviously pretty apropos. Don't don't need to read too deeply into what's going on with that. The fall has begun. So and then we go into Sarah's apartment. Um, she's looking at an enormous television system that Harry bought her, and the speakers are huge. It's a low-angle shot, making it look like a mountain range. She is taking pills, but they're not having the same effect that they previously had, and she just remains still. And then we we drift into a montage. Uh, Harry and Marion are taking drugs together with um split screen quick cuts. Um they're laying on the floor, surrounded by her designs. Um, and they just look completely wasted, lying on top of her work. And Marion tells Harry that she loves him. She says, I love you, Harry. You make me feel like a person and beautiful. And Harry responds, You are beautiful, you're the most beautiful girl in the world. You're my dream. And very simple dialogue, you know, just similar to Sarah's dialogue in that scene. Pretty simple, but it just drives the theme and the setting and how and what they're doing, their locomotion or lack of locomotion. And then you juxtapose that against the scene in the apartment building when they're being mischievous and running up to the roof and expressing the same things. You know, there's previous scenes where they're they're moving around more, they're more expressive, they're they're still saying all the same things, but they're stoned, completely stoned and motionless and whispering, and there's almost no life to them. But they're clinging to this dream, this idea that they love each other. And then it cuts to the interior of a jail, and Tyrone is standing in a jail cell holding the bars while people are quickly scurrying super fast behind him. It's just one shot. Very simple shot, but like many others, very stylized. Do you remember that shot?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And then it goes back to Sarah's apartment, and she's on the phone with her doctor's office, and they explain to her she's she's adjusting to the meds, and she's trying to express that they're weaker. And so she decides to take two at one time, and then she turns on the TV and she starts to feel more energy, and she starts daydreaming that she's on the show and hallucinating that the refrigerator is jumping as if trying to unplug itself from the wall. And then we cut back to the jail. Tyrone gets bailed out, and then we cut to the streets at night, and Harry and Tyrone are discussing what had happened. Um, Tyrone explains that the cops have pretty much all of their cash, and Harry explains that Tyrone is being booked for consorting, um, and that there's a war between the Italians and the blacks, and that the Italians are keeping their drugs in Florida until the non-Itali dealers are all quote unquote knocked off. And then Tyrone tells Harry of a new guy named Big Tim. This is the first time we hear about Big Tim, and Big Tim has drugs, but he's not selling. Um, instead, he's using it to allegedly buy sex from women. Um, and so then they see a body getting dumped into a trash bin and they run off. Um, this is another scene that presents a lot of information via dialogue to propel the plot forward. And it's a good scene, it's very efficient. And then we go to a scene back in Sarah's apartment. She takes three pills at once and is pacing around her apartment in fast circles around her chair. And at this point, things are starting to get a little crazy with Sarah Goldfarb and the uh the style of the movie, the visual style, especially, and the sound design, the camera movement, the lighting is starting to shift to represent that.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_02And we get a little bit of that in the jail, too, with Tyrone. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And everything starts to become really grimy, yep, and green and brown at this point, just making you feel sort of more and more disgusted.
unknownRight.
SPEAKER_00I don't know. Yeah. Um, yeah, I wanted to mention too about the TV in Sarah's apartment, the new one. Yeah. Um just, you know, being shot with I think like wide angle lenses, just making it sort of I think her apartment starts being shot in more wide angle lenses, so it's like distorting everything and making it seem a little more less realistic and stuff. But I just love the detail of the whole entertainment system is sort of just wedged in this place that something like that doesn't belong, and where there's a painting behind it. And you know, typically if you have some sort of artwork on the wall, it's placed in a way so that it can be seen, and it's just there's no room for this whole entertainment center. So it's just where her old TV was, and it's like just covering up her painting, like it's that's just basically peeking out from behind the TV. It's like that detail.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Another another very good detail.
SPEAKER_00And then and then the uh the stuff that starts happening uh stylistically with Tyrone in the jail cell, um, and it starts happening more and more is is just sort of messing with sped up or slowed down frame rates, but they're interesting because you know the main character is not at the same speed as all the rest of the characters in the movie are. Um, and so it's just starting to, I think, bring up the distortion of time when you get into like a drug downfall, yeah. Where it can seem instantaneous. And that's uh that kind of goes back to the thing in the in the cab, where I think I think some of these stylistic ideas are you know messing with time in a way that literally could happen, where you're it could take two and a half years to become an alcoholic or something, and but that downfall could just be like, oh yeah, I remember this one I I started drinking too much, and then all of a sudden my whole life's over, you know, when it's and and I I just think that's kind of what m like showing those uh those differences in you know, he's sitting in jail, so he's obviously there for some time, and he probably just hangs on to this these bars for who knows, it could be days and just that's the safest place he can be is just hanging on to these bars, and all of this madness is probably going on behind him or whatever, and it's just you know, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02He's probably going through he's probably going through withdrawal also, and that's affecting his perception and his experience. And to your point about the distortion of time, I think you're absolutely right. There's also a motif in the movie that where we go to back to uh close up on a clock on a wall, I think in Sarah's apartment, a few times during montages.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so at this point, we're in Marion's apartment, and it's nighttime, and Marion is going through withdrawal, and Harry notices the infection on his arm for the first time, and Marion tells Harry, that Tyrone will score in the morning. So they're both in bed together and they're they're struggling. Harry explains to Marion that Tyrone may not score in the morning. It's very difficult out there. And she says it'll be okay. And he says, I guess so. And then we cut to the doctor's office. And this is not just a wide-angle lens. I think this is a vici lens that is being used in this scene because it is ultra-wide and very distorted. And Sarah is getting weighed. And then she meets the doctor, and she's obviously getting increasingly detached from reality. She straight up tells the doctor she's not fine and tries to tell him about the refrigerator and that everything is all mixed up and confused. And the doctor's like, he says there's nothing to worry about and gives her more drugs. And she even hears the sound of the refrigerator while she's trying to explain this to the doctor, and she freaks out and almost completely looks at the camera. Yeah. And is becoming increasingly unraveled. To the point where, and this seems to have happened kind of fast, but it seems she's at the point where doing these drugs is causing brain damage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And everything's distorted. Her experience, how she's moving, what she's hearing, she's hallucinating, and the doctor really doesn't care. So we cut to Marion's apartment, and it's a quick scene. Tyrone informs them that he did not score any drugs, and they both start blaming each other for the situation. Um they had a little bit of heroin the previous night, and Marion convinced Harry to do it, and now they don't have anything for the morning. And Marion's upset at Harry for also doing drugs because if he didn't, they would both have something more for right now. So it's at this point, it's just becoming completely illogical, and the behavior is being completely guided by the discomfort of the withdrawal. And it's affecting their relationship. And then we cut to Tyrone's closet. It's the same shot as before from the perspective inside the closet. And Tyrone pulls the shoebox out of the closet and gives Harry some of the money they have left, which is not much. And Harry assures him not to worry. Another little visual motif that occurs a couple of times with that shoebox, but also with Sarah Goldfarb's mailbox as she's looking for mail from the television studio. Um and then we cut to under the boardwalk at the beach, and Tyrone is explaining to Harry that there's going to be drugs available for purchase, but at double the price. And just moving the plot forward with a quick, quick dialogue scene. And then we're back at Marion's apartment at nighttime, and Harry asks Marion to get money from her therapist, and she warns him she doesn't know what you'll have to do to get it. Um, she actually does. We just don't know that yet. Um and Harry tries to appeal to her again by explaining the dream of being back, getting back in business and saving and making things perfect again, like the way it was. And she agrees. And so cut to the restaurant, and Marion is talking to Arnold, her therapist, and she she it's a it's a very different attitude that she has from the first scene with Arnold at a restaurant. She's not as playful, she's not she's she just doesn't have the same energy because she knows what she has to ask and she knows what she has to do, but we don't really know this yet. As I said, she daydreams about stabbing Arnold in the hand, and then Marion tells her therapist that she needs a favor and that she needs to borrow some money. And then we cut to a bedroom, presumably the therapist. And Marion asks Arnold to turn the light off, and he asks, Why do you want the light off you never did before? Revealing that this is not the first time she's had sex with her therapist, which means she lied to Harry. She knew exactly what she needed to do, but Harry probably knew too, which is why he asked, but we do not know that for certain. It's never said. And so this is a big reveal. And this kind of, if you were to think about the first scene that she is in the restaurant with her therapist, all of that becomes clear. Like all of her behavior becomes clear. It seems like she's just messing with the guy because she thinks he's a creep and she doesn't need anything from him. Maybe. Or this is just what she does.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because she doesn't want to go to therapy with this guy, but she doesn't want her parents to cut her off. So she's instead probably sleeping with him for money. You know? So pretty, pretty bad, um, pretty disappointing point of the movie for me, because it's just completely unravels the relationship she has with Harry. It's like totally, totally not what it appeared to be. Right. Not that what they were feeling and trying to do wasn't genuine, but it's suddenly revealed, oh, this is much more complicated than just they're getting fucked up on drugs. Yep. There's there's other underlying problems going on that we never really get to, which is the underlying emotional or psychological issues that Marion's really dealing with. You don't get to that. You just kind of get to meander along the surface. And this is probably the deepest we get with her character. And then we cut to Marion's part.
SPEAKER_00I just think the uh there's I mean, two kind of major fantasy sequences like that one, you know, because Harry has one earlier about stealing that cop's gun and playing around with it when he's all messed up earlier on the boardwalk. Um, and then she has a similar one, and I think stuff like that is done to show like it's in my opinion, it's a way to alert us as viewers that we can't necessarily trust everything in this movie, anyway. So for me, I think it's important when people use that type of stuff. I I think it covers up things like uh getting too critical about he's in the taxicab and did he really shoot up in there. Are we supposed to believe that that's what really happened or whatever? I mean, I think you you throw those big fantasy sequences that they're just quickly having um in a situation. I I I just I th I think to me it's just a clear way of getting getting yourself out of problems. Because when you're tr when you're trying to do something like this type of movie, which is really trying, it's it's not you're not watching this movie to be like, I'm on the edge of my seat, I want to know what like are they gonna get the drugs or you know, all this plot-based stuff. It's I don't think that's the point of this movie. Um, and I think that's an important that that the movie is about the experience of going through this and trying to give an audience member who doesn't want to go into a several years-long heroin addiction to know what that's like. It's like giving you the experience in the movie, and that's the important part um to me. And I think so. I think these little fantasies kind of help gloss or you know, like band aid over the those other bigger issues that people could find with this movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I I could see that. I think uh that particular fantasy is the closest insight to uh Marion's inner conflict in that scene.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because we see the anger. Right. She doesn't want to sleep with this guy. She really doesn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02She wants to stab him in the hand with a fork.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But she doesn't, you know, because she's a heroin addict. She needs money. I don't know why she can't go to her parents, but you know, she's a heroin addict.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, they might she might have blown through that relationship already.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and presumably she's already spent all the money that she receives from them. So moving on, we go to Marion's apartment again, and Harry is waiting for Marion, and he is watching TV, and he begins to daydream about Marion having sex with Arnold. And it's an interesting shot because he sees he's watching TV, and then what he's watching on TV cross-dissolves into a shot of Marion having sex with Arnold. And the shot is a similar angle and perspective of when Harry and Marion were making out in the elevator in the first scene. We meet Marion. And it's obviously not in an elevator, though. But I thought it was an interesting choice of angle and perspective because it made me think it made me think of that scene.
SPEAKER_00Right. And so it's like a way of doing a weird callback. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. And so we then we do another quick cut, close-up motif of Harry doing drugs to escape that thought, and then Harry's daydream fades out and he lays down. And then we cut to a hallway, and Marion is leaving Arnold's apartment. She gets into an elevator and walks out of the building and throws up. Um, similar camera choice as when Tyrone jumps out of the limousine after his drug boss gets shot and his brains splatter in his face. Where they're using what is called a snorricam, which is a chest strap with a pole coming off of the actor's chest, and at the end of that pole is a platform, and you can mount a camera to that platform and then point it directly at the actor. So it follows very precisely the exact movements of the actor, and so it makes it seem like the background is kind of shifting and the actor is staying in the same spot. And so it gives it's kind of a disorienting effect in its own, right? And probably shot with a wider angle lens because it's so close to the actor's face, you know. So you want to get you want to get more perspective.
SPEAKER_00It's really cool. I like the way it's used in this movie a lot. I think it it's like a Spike Lee thing. Pretty sure he used that type of camera move a lot. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Um, I don't think I ever saw it until this movie.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. Yeah. Definitely was one of the first times that I remember seeing it too, and it's it's still, in my opinion, some of the best usage of that shot. I mean, it uh I don't think Harry ever gets that shot. I can't think of one off the top of my head, but uh all the rest of the characters get one, at least. Yeah. So yeah. Um and I and it's used to different effects on all of them. Yeah. So I I really like it. I I think this one with Marion is maybe the best one because just that whole sequence from her in the elevator with those dudes behind her. Yeah. Um, she's so uncomfortable trying to get out of this elevator, and you don't know that that's what's coming, that she's gonna run around the corner and and barf all over the place. But um, it just it's really visceral. Like you really feel like I I like you feel the same way, I think, just be with that camera and knowing what it must feel like to be trapped in an elevator after you just had an experience like she had, and then there's other men behind her, and you're just she's probably just thinking, I want to get out of here so bad. Yeah. And then on top of it, oh yeah, she was gonna barf this whole time, and you know, just trying to not add the extra embarrassment of doing that around anybody else. And um, yeah, it's really well done.
SPEAKER_02And then we go to Sarah's apartment, and we are in a montage. Sarah's putting on her red lipstick, and then it dissolves into Tyrone looking at a picture of his mom, and then back to Sarah twirling around her bedroom in front of the mirror like a dancer, kind of looking like a clown at this point, with her orange hair all over the place and in this red dress. And then we cut to what appears to be a grocery store. Harry and actually, I did skip, I did skip one scene when Marion returns to her apartment and sit sits next to Harry and they don't say anything to each other. And then we go to the montage, and then we go to the grocery store. Harry and Tyrone go to a dock of a grocery store to purchase drugs with a crowd of other people, and then someone pulls out a gun, shooting commences, and everyone scatters. And then this inner this scene is intra-cut with Marion tearing through her apartment looking for drugs. And we wind up back at Tyrone's apartment. Harry comes up with the desperate idea of driving to Florida to purchase drugs, and the two of them kind of get excited again because they have a plan and they're gonna make everything better. So they're still pushing forward. And then we cut to Sarah's apartment, and now Sarah takes four pills, and her phone is off the hook, and we can hear the sound of it constantly beeping. And at this point, the lights in her apartment are flickering, and her refrigerator continues jumping in place, and it might be kind of roaring at her at this point, too. I don't know. It does that eventually, maybe it in the final scene once it gets unplugged. But things are getting weird to say the least at this point. And we go we cut to Marion's apartment, and Harry tells Marion he wasn't able to buy the drugs, and she gets furious with him, and she says he screwed everything up, and she calls him a loser, and then Harry calls Tyrone and gets the number of Big Tim to give to Marion. And um, Marion also blames Harry for making her have sex with Arnold for money to buy the drugs, although she had done this before, you know, so it wasn't like something that she was disinclined to do, you know. So things between Harry and Marion are completely unraveling at this point. And it just I hear this type of stuff, and I'm just like, what this it's just ridiculous. You know, like blaming him for something that you were already doing.
SPEAKER_00And well, I think it could be if she had done this stuff in the past, it was on her own terms. That makes sense, you know, and maybe that makes her look at it a different way. But once it gets into now, and and also she's keeping it presumably a secret from him, so there's a level of it's not real that she could delude herself with. But once he's in on it, and she, you know, because she kind of gives him that one little piece of advice, you don't know what I'll have to do to get this money. Um he knows. You know? Yeah. And then and so it makes it a in her mind probably a different, more horrible thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I mean, it's not to say that Harry doesn't bear responsibility. I mean, there's certainly shared responsibility in putting themselves in that predicament.
SPEAKER_00And there's another thing with them too, when when she gets home and they're sitting on the couch together, that's really the first time that they're together in this apartment, and yet they seem like they're completely alone.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00Because being alone is a theme in this movie, too. And that's and and having your partners back or your family members back is so important in getting through these tough moments, and when you lose that, it's like hard to hard to make it through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So we cut to Sarah's apartment, it's nighttime, and this is the scene that really demonstrates Sarah's massive detachment from reality. So Snare Sarah is sneaking around her appointment at this point, apartment at this point, to avoid the refrigerator. It keeps jumping in place. Her pills are scattered all over the table next to the chair that she sits in to watch TV. She's eating the pills at this point like popcorn or like candy. And she continues to daydream about herself being on television. Um, she's watching TV, she sees herself in the television program that is the Tappy Tobin show. And then her daydream self and the Tappy Tobin character, they disappear from the television and they appear in Sarah's apartment. And what's interesting, here's a little detail that you might already know, but would probably appreciate is their transition is accompanied by a buzzing sound of her apartment's door buzzer, as if someone Somebody's trying to buzz her door and get into the apartment. So her daydream self and Tappy Tobin they start laughing at her and she starts defending herself because they're looking around her apartment and they think it's hilarious how she has things set up and designed, and she starts defending herself. And then the audience on the TV starts laughing at her and pointing at her. Suddenly her apartment walls start coming apart, and the apartment transforms into the television studio, and her daydream self with Tappy Tobin and other characters begin performing a conga line around Sarah as she sits in her chair and lights twirl all around her. Eventually the refrigerator gets loose from the wall, and everyone, including the fridge, starts chanting, Feed Me, Sarah, until the refrigerator tries to eat Sarah. And then Sarah runs out of her apartment screaming, Smash Cut, White Title, Winter.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Probably the original best scene of the movie. The first time you see it.
SPEAKER_02It's definitely the most memorable, definitely the most stylized and probably the most special effects.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's I love it. It's a straight up masterpiece, the way that the set comes apart. It's totally surprising. There's no way anybody would be thinking that this is what's gonna happen to her. And then she's out of it. And and I just I love it. I mean, it's like the special effects are awesome, they're not insanely difficult because I'm sure this all like all these apartment things were shot on a set, you know, so it's just walls plopped down with lights above them and everything. So it's but just the creativity of coming up with all this stuff. The special effect, too, of the characters coming out of the TV and they're sort of static-y in the real world. They look like they were cut out of the TV, you know, and then put in her apartment. It's awesome. You know, it's all a hallucination. So it's essentially her looking down on herself and her whole lifestyle and then and making fun of herself and trying to defend herself to herself. So it's really uh dissent in her self-esteem and all of that stuff, and then to amongst all of that stuff, to ramp up the refrigerator into like a straight up 80s B horror monster. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Again, they or Darren Arnofsky and and crew really dig deep into the psychological makeup of the Sarah Goldfarb character. Because you're right, it does do a good job of essentially representing her own self-hate.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Because her daydream self is laughing and mocking her real self, and it's all the same person, yep. Visually represented pretty well, and very memorable scene. Um, so we cut after Sarah runs out of her apartment to her walking down the streets. This is a really interesting shot. It's a high-angle shot of her walking down the sidewalk. There's piles of snow on either side of the sidewalk, and then there is what seems to be people very, very swiftly passing by her, but you can't even really make them out as people. They just seem they almost seem like these ghosts, right? Like silhouettes of ghosts just drifting past her in either direction. And she's walking down the street in just a red dress, and it's obviously in the middle of winter and very cold, and she's just looking around and doesn't know what's going on. Totally lost her mind at this point. Um we cut to the interior of a car at night. Harry and Tyrone are driving across the Brooklyn Bridge heading to Florida. Then we cut to subway train. Sarah's on the train asking people if it is going to Madison Avenue because she's going to be on television and she just needs to find out when. And people are looking at her like she's crazy. And some of the people on the subway are even laughing. I think we've all had the experience of being on a train or being out in public and being around somebody who doesn't appear to be completely sane. And I found it interesting to be having that same experience while simultaneously having all of the information that led to that, and and knowing what caused it, and seeing her not in that state, seeing her very lucid and clear-headed. And so I felt really sympathetic for her, and it made me think of all those people I've seen on the streets like that, and just had the thought that they were crazy and had no sympathy for them. So I thought that was an interesting experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree totally. That I mean, that's that's a great thing about this scene. It does broaden your perspective of that type of stuff. And um, I also love the actors of the other train riders. Those are some good characters. Yeah. The one the one guy's like, you're whacked. And then the other dude's just looking at her like, what the if he's like, you see this girl. He looks at somebody else and he's like 10 coins. Both of those guys get across so much so much. Yeah. I mean, they're kind of funny, like after you've seen the movie 18 times, but um, they're so good. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I think I've seen those same guys while I've been in those experiences in my life around the crazy person. Uh so then we cut to Marion's apartment, and Marion calls this guy Angel, and she's um Angel is Tyrone and Harry's drug connection, and she's crying and begging for help. And in this scene, she finds out from Angel that Harry left and is going to be back in a few days. And so she's still reaching out to Harry for help at this point, and then we cut to an office building, and Sarah is Sarah is talking to a receptionist and asking, Why aren't you calling me? So we are assuming now that she's at the television studio, but we don't know that. She could be just at some office building. Yeah. And eventually she is talking to a crowd of people trying to explain herself and her motivation for being on the show. And they're all looking at her. It's mostly women, if not all women, looking at her with a lot of sympathy and care. And you can tell some of the women are bothered. Very different from the people reacting to her on the train. Eventually, the fire department arrives and they escort her out of the building. Then we cut back to Marion's apartment. It's nighttime, and ironically, we find out that Harry wrote the phone number of Big Tim on the back of a photograph of Harry and Marion standing in front of her new clothing store smiling. So Marion is looking at this photograph, and then she turns it over and sees the phone number. And I think this is a brilliant, if not literal, representation of the dream turning into a nightmare. Like it she literally is turning it into the photograph.
SPEAKER_00No, I love that shot. I think the way they twist your understanding of what's going on is so well done. She does she's well, she's I think smoking a cigarette and thumbing through an empty heroin bag. Um, and that's a cool detail, just to show that, you know, obviously she's used everything she got. Um, but then she I think with the same hand she has a cigarette in, uses one of her fingers to kind of rub Harry's cheek in almost like this loving way. Yep. And so your mind is thinking she's she's still in love with Harry and thinking on along those lines, but then when she flips it, immediately your brain goes the other direction, you know? And it's like so awesome. I love the handwriting of the phone number with the the pencil, like the pen the pencil they use to write that is kind of uh artist pencil, you know, thicker, softer I don't know what number, if it's like a number four pencil or something, but it has this cool fat thick look to it, and the handwriting's something about that always stands out just because if the handwriting is catchy in a way or memorable, it makes it easy to easier to latch on to the ideas. You know, so and so I don't know. I just like that detail of whoever wrote the the numbers down and uh it's just really really good detail there.
SPEAKER_02Well, this detail provided to her by Harry is the phone number for Big Tim, which was a contact provided to him by Tyrone. And she calls him and he answers and she hangs up right away. And then she calls him back and he answers, and she's very meekly says hi, and you can hear this deep laugh on the other end of the phone. And then we cut to the inside of an ambulance, and Sarah is given oxygen as she lies on a gurney in the ambulance after she tells them she's gonna be on television. And so everyone she everyone she's interacting with is just, hey, I'm gonna be on television. She doesn't even know what's going on in the back of an ambulance. And then we cut to the interior of our car. Tyrone and Harry are shooting up heroin in a car on the side of the road, and this is when Tyrone sees Harry's infected arm for the first time, and this is probably the grossest part of the movie. Harry injects heroin directly into this large purple infected hole in his arm. Pretty gross.
SPEAKER_00Because he'll blow it if he doesn't.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, right. And then we cut to the exterior of Big Tim's building, and Marion stands outside of the building and is seen through the distorted call box video before being buzzed in. And then we cut to the hospital. And at this point, it's a probably a good point to make that the pace of the movie is increasing and the pulse of the movie is increasing, and so the cuts, the frequency of the cuts are also increasing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I'm pretty sure uh the score of of the movie, which starts at the very beginning, like it's present the whole way through the movie, um, at different points, but I I'm pretty sure once winter starts, that score is full blast going the whole time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the whole thing is edited around that score. Yeah. And it just keeps it rolling.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So now we cut to a hospital and a doctor greets Sarah as she's being rolled into the hospital. He asks if she can hear him. She says, Yes, Seymour, which Seymour is her dead husband. He asks her if she took anything, and she responds, I took my red dress, and then the doctor cuts her off, tells his colleague that this is in an emergency, and then he cuts back to Sarah and she's like, television. And then we cut. I actually think that scene's really funny, just the way uh all the lines are delivered. It's I don't know. There's a silliness that comes through in Ellen Bernstein's performance. It's like almost like she's reverting to like a childlike state. And then we cut to Big Tim's apartment, and Marion is entering the apartment, and she sits down with Big Tim and the legend.
SPEAKER_00Keith David.
SPEAKER_02Keith David, yes. Keith David. Man, is he so gross in this movie? Um, he does it so well. Yeah. And so without drawing this scene out too much, Marion essentially performs oral sex for drugs. And we cut back to the interior of the car that Harry and Tyrone are in. Harry's feeling increased pain from his infected arm. And Tyrone makes the observation that they're 600 miles closer to Florida. And Harry remarks, it is also 600 miles further away from New York. So Harry doesn't seem too enthusiastic about going through this process. While Tyrone, he seems to be the only one on point. Although he is addicted to heroin, also. Um still keeping it positive. He just wants some peace and happiness. He doesn't want any hassles. You know, he's got the simplest dream, and he's the one the most on point. So we cut back to Big Tim's apartment, and Marion is preparing to leave. And Big Tim enters the bathroom naked and lets her know. I think he tosses her some drugs and invites her to a party that's happening later with a bunch of good people, and that she should come. And then we cut back to the hospital, and the doctor is talking to Sarah. He asks Sarah how long she's been taking her pills, and he assures her they will get her fixed up in no time. Cut back to Marion's apartment. Marion is lying in a in a bath in the fetal position with her head under the water, and she screams with her head underwater. We cut quickly back to the car. Harry shows Tyrone his infection. It's getting much worse. We cut back to the hospital. Sarah is injected with something by a nurse that slows her way down, makes her pass out. Cut back to the hospital. Tyrone takes or a new hospital. Tyrone takes Harry to a hospital and a doctor sees his arm while Tyrone is in the waiting room. And that doctor who looks at his arm immediately grabs some items in the in the room that Harry is sitting in, as if they're drugs of some sort. And he has this look on his face where he's really angry and concerned and doesn't look like he wants to be much of help to Harry, because he seems to recognize that I'm dealing with a drug addict, and this guy doesn't deserve my sympathy, and I need to protect the hospital myself, so I'm gonna grab these drugs so he doesn't take any of these, and he just leaves. And it's a bizarre scene, but I think reflective of some attitudes in the culture regarding drug addicts. Um, because although it can be considered a disease, it's a self-inflicted disease, so they deserve less sympathy, according to some people. And so I thought this scene represented that really well and very quickly, yeah, I might add. Um, and so we cut back to Marion's apartment. Marion is looking at the photograph of Harry and her again. She's running her finger along his face, and she turns the photo over again to read Big Tim's phone number. Then we cut to the hospital. Sarah is strapped into her bed and getting force fed by some male nurses. And we cut to Marion's apartment. It's a close-up of Marion's eye as she's brushing mascara through her eyelashes. And that's it. That's the whole scene. So the pace at this point is really picking up. And then we cut to a hospital, and Tyrone and Harry are approached by police officers and arrested. Then we cut back to the other hospital, and the doctor is explaining to a delirious Sarah that she needs to eat and work with the attendants, and that he's going to try some new medications, and she is still strapped to her bed. And then we cut to Marion's apartment, and this is a close-up of Marion brushing mascara through the eyelashes of her other eye. And then we cut to the hospital that Sarah is in, and she's getting strapped in a chair, and she's mumbling incoherently, and the attendants are force feeding her by injecting a tube down her mouth and pumping food into her stomach. And then we cut to Marion's apartment, and Marion continues to apply makeup to her face as she prepares to go to Big Tim's, and then Harry calls her from prison and she asks Harry when he is coming home. And he says soon, and she asks if he can come today. He says yeah, and immediately starts crying because it it that's impossible. And everybody knows it's impossible, and he's lying to her, and then he apologizes, and she's basically says it's okay, and she hangs up. Pretty sad scene. Things kind of slowed down there for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's um it's kind of a good token with Harry. It's well it it it's reminiscent of the scene with his mom in the first scene that we talked about today.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Where he it's another example of him giving like a false promise um of something that he's not gonna pull through on. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Very sad. We cut to the interior of a hospital, uh the doctor for Sarah is explaining to her that the medications aren't working. And he asks her to sign up for ECT, which is electroconvulsive therapy, and she signs it. Pretty ridiculous request from a doctor. Yeah. Again, and yet another indictment of the medical industry. The doctor that prescribed her these medications. I think certainly indicts some in the medical industry of essentially malpractice and being in disinterested and really trying to help their patients, or at least failing to fully appreciate what it is that they're doing. Almost as if they're treating people as guinea pigs with these drugs. Calls a lot into question. And this scene calls a lot into question as well. You know, if a woman is so out of her mind that you need to strap her into bed and force feed her by pumping food through her into her mouth, into her stomach, is she capable of agreeing to electroconvulsive therapy? And what is the proper course of action in this sort of situation? That doesn't get redressed, but it just comes to mind when I think about this scene. We got to the prison. Harry and Tyrone are going through withdrawal in prison, and Harry starts screaming from the pain in his arm. And Tyrone starts screaming for help. This uses the same shot from when Tyrone was in prison earlier before Harry bonded him out. But it's gets more distorted.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's a wild effect.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'm not sure what that effect is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It reminds me of something similar, I think, that was used in Fight Club. But especially when Harry, or pretty much both of them, like the more they scream, the more the their image in the frame shakes around.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there's some sort of like horizont horizontal shifting of the image, as if the film is coming off the reel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. I don't know how one. Yeah, I don't know how one achieves that. And yes, it is wild. So then we cut to Big Tim's apartment again, and Marion is arriving at Big Tim's and is greeted by him at the front door. And then we cut back to the prison and we enter a montage. It's a pretty long montage. Um, starts by prisoners being examined to determine if they're okay for work. And we hear a voiceover throughout this montage. Can you hear me? Can you see me? Okay for work. Can you hear me? Can you see me? Okay for work. It seems to be maybe the warden of this prison, because Harry and Tyrone are in a prison in the south, perhaps in Georgia or Florida. It's not clear. And the warden is shining a flashlight into the eyes of the prisoners who are standing in a line. This is all intercut with Sarah being taken into electro-convulsive therapy treatment and Marion moving deeper into Big Tim's apartment toward the gathering of men and the activity that they're participating in. And then back to the prisoners being examined for work. Um it's interesting the examiner at the prison is pointing a flashlight into the prisoner's eyes, and the attendants at Big Tim's party are using flashlights to look at the naked girls. Umtage continues with Sarah receiving multiple rounds of electroconvulsive therapy, Harry being taken to a hospital, Tyrone being taunted by prison guards while working at the prison, Marion performing sexual acts with three other women in front of dozens of men with flashlights, and climaxing with Harry having his infected arm amputated while the blood from the amputation splatters on his semi-conscious face. And then we do a fast fade to white.
SPEAKER_00Doesn't Tyrone puke into some white mixture?
SPEAKER_02I don't know if he throws up. I don't recall. I don't think so. I don't think I don't think so. I think he's just working and he's getting taunted by the prison guards. There's a lot going on in this scene. It's a very intricate montage. It's the climax of the movie. And everything builds to this. And it's a bit overwhelming and a lot to talk about. And I think after this, we enter the denois. Um we fade into Harry's boardwalk daydream of Marion standing at the end of the boardwalk in a red dress. He already had this daydream once when he was waiting in his apartment, or perhaps Tyrone's apartment, while Tyrone was purchasing their first large supply of heroin, and he's running toward her in this new daydream, and she disappears. Then he stops and he starts to walk backward and falls off the edge of the boardwalk into blackness while screaming Marion's name. So it's kind of like an anesthesia dream of some sort. And we're back in the hospital, and Harry is greeted by a nurse as he lays on a hospital bed. He is whispering Marion's name, and the nurse tells him she will come visit him. He says she won't and starts crying. And the camera pulls out and reveals his arm has been amputated. And then we cut into another montage. And the montage intercuts with Marion arriving home, Tyrone arriving back to the prison barracks, and friends of Sarah visiting her at the hospital. Marion lies on her couch in the fetal position, smiling and hugging the drugs she earned. Tyrone lies in his bed in the fetal position, struggling through heroin withdrawal, and Sarah lies in her hospital bed, daydreaming about being introduced on Tappy Tobin's television show. And she then turns to her side into a fetal position. And then we cut to the television show, and Tappy Tobin is introducing the audience to Sarah Goldfarb. Tappy brings out her son Harry, and the audience starts chanting, juice for Harry, juice for Harry. Oh Harry. And Sarah and Harry Sarah and Harry embrace one another in a deep hug. She tells him she loves him, and he tells her he loves her. And then the movie ends.
SPEAKER_00This is all the Reagan administration needed was this movie.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right. Yeah, pretty dark movie. Stylistically very intricate and full of spectacle. Even as dark as it is, still pretty fun to watch and experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's weird. Yeah. Although I was um I was doing since we cut this into two parts, I don't usually do this, but I was like uh had some extra time, so wanted to look up some criticisms about the movie. Um just I don't know, it was sort of like an interest to me. Um and that's how I came, that's how I came across. I think overwhelmingly, um this has a pretty good reputation. Like for the most part, I think a lot of people that it I think it got pretty good reviews, and I think um, you know, most user reviews and all that stuff are pretty good. But there's there seems to be a a group that really just don't go for this movie at all. And I mean, I did hear even from people that like it, I heard a comment over and over about this is a movie that you watch once, you know, and even if it's like it's a good movie about addiction, but I can't go through that again. And I find um I got to that point at one at one time where I had seen it a handful of times and kind of kept noticing the same things. So uh I felt like I wanted to stop, but watching it again for this, um, you know, I think doing this tends to or make us like really get into it in a different way. I uh I'm pretty sure you are similar to me in that where um when once you're forced to sort of start analyzing like how how a scene goes from one to the other and uh what what elements are like do they represent the theme, like all that different stuff. It just like it makes it so much more engaging, and I really I I I watched this movie over and over for this. You know, it it's uh it is a weird one to just dive into in that way, but there there's some something about it that uh it's in my opinion, definitely watchable. You know, it's not it's not a hard watch, even though it's it's tough. Yeah. But the the the time the the runtime of it's short, which certainly helps. It's it's important if you're doing a movie that's this dark, keep the runtimes short.
SPEAKER_02It's short but dense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. But again, I mean I love I love the I I like the part, see the the criticism, the main criticisms were a lack of realism and a lack of plot. And I sort of myself, I find I don't have a problem with the lack of realism. For example, um you the scene you brought up near the end where he goes to the hospital and the doctor looks at him all weird and takes those vials of injectables uh from the room and then turns them into the cops. Um I agree that that whole scene is probably not super realistic, you know, like that's not how a doctor probably would handle that situation, but I still don't need this movie to exist on that plane of pure realism.
SPEAKER_02It's not it's not the point, it's not the point of the movie, and especially if it's a drug movie that is affecting one's consciousness to be aware of reality, it's appropriate to distort the realism, and the movie does distort the realism throughout.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think you got at something really important with that is where it's the it's it's addressing kind of a lot of issues where it's addressing whether the medical field could be culpable to some of these addictions and like not the best treatment.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we learned that also what we've learned that since this movie was released. This movie was released in 2000, it's 2025 now, and there's been a lot of investigations into the pharmaceutical industry, and there's been more art and entertainment produced representing and at least in the public sphere, indicting the pharmaceutical industry for being culpable in the opioid epidemic that has occurred after the year 2000 when this movie was released. So this movie was a response to what was going on in the 90s, which was the first wave or maybe the second wave of the opioid epidemic. And it appears to be ahead of its time in being critical of the medical industry, at least in the art and entertainment industry.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that scene with that doctor also got at that other point where you were saying um the just the the stigma and how people get looked at as being sort of lesser for being in this predicament and becoming an addict. And that one little short scene, it also it gets from one part of the plot to another because in reality, could you imagine a dude that's arm is all messed up from heroin and has to go to the hospital eventually showing up in pr like finding his way in prison? Like that's completely realistic to me. But getting there in less than a minute with one scene that also addresses a couple other issues, it to me is really good filmmaking.
SPEAKER_02You know, it it's it's it's uh you have a limited amount of time to represent a logical series of events. So they did they did the job. You know, the the point of the movie is to show the effects, demonstrate the conflict in less than two hours. You know, and so the effects of the theme, which is consequences of drug addiction on your on your life, or the consequences of obsessions on your life. And that's the point. So everything else is secondary. So what group is that you you mentioned a group. There's one group that is against this movie or not a proponent of the value of the movie, like yeah, not a named group or anything.
SPEAKER_00Just a grouping of people. Got it. That there's just you know, it's not the majority, yeah. But there's there's a vocal group that is uh hates this movie. And it's and it's for I I think they what I've read just, you know, before the show, just looking at that type of stuff just to do it. Um, you know, I had to scroll past a a ton of 10 out of 10s to find the this is a terrible movie, everybody that thinks it's good is an idiot. And then you read what and it's just and a lot of sounds like a troll.
SPEAKER_02Sort of, yeah. We we we don't need to respond that quickly. But yeah. Just kidding. You're all correct, you know, movies so fake, you know, to a degree like all movies.
SPEAKER_00I won yeah, I wanted to ask you one one question because in the first episode you really made a an effort to not talk about style at all.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So I think the style of this movie is to me one of the most important things about it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh, so maybe I was a one just wanted to find out why you wanted to try to go through a conversation about it without discussing the style. And you know, maybe do you think that uh like an overabundance of style is a detriment to movies?
SPEAKER_02I think the style of the movie is the obvious strength of the movie. Okay, yeah. I'm not particularly interested in talking about style right now because I'm curious about how the theme and the central conflict integrates with the characterization and whether or not that's a value in our lives, and whether or not that value is an important value. I think that's my focus, and there might be an argument to say that the style of the movie is excessive. I'm not prepared to make that argument. I think it's fine. Um some of the quick cut montages are difficult to follow. But I think to some degree that's the point. I think the over-stylization, if you want to call it excessive, is purposeful because it's trying to represent something visually and sonically that is an altering of one's consciousness. And how do you do that without style? And you know, drugs can have a rather extreme effect on your consciousness, and some of the drugs can make you hallucinate. So I think it's absolutely appropriate to go to extremes when stylizing this sort of movie. And I think it's done very responsibly, I think it's done with purpose, and I don't think there's any accidents with the style. And so there's so much style that it would we could dedicate one or two episodes just to talk about the style of Requiem for a dream. So I was so to to conclude, obviously it's a very stylized movie. Is it excessively stylized? I don't think so. Because it's obviously very stylized. I think it was an interesting experiment to look at this movie primarily from the an examination of plot and characterization. It's a very plot-driven movie. I think every movie that is good is plot-driven. And I think it's good to not make that obvious because if you make that too obvious, then that could be something that distracts the audience and fails to suspend disbelief. Especially if it's unoriginal, you know, if it's formulaic, it's something you've seen all the time. But as we've seen with Ellen Bernstein's performance, it can be very simple. Can be doesn't the dialogue does not have to be extravagant because ultimately it's the performance. How an actor uses their body and their face and their emotions and the inflection and all the qualities of that manipulate saying the words and which ultimately culminates into the performance that really drives home the realism of the character and then the plot and the theme. And um, I think it's great that this movie got celebrated primarily for performance at the The Oscars. That's completely deserved. I don't know if it was nominated for anything else, but um, I'm glad it was for Alan Bernstein because she's great. So um with that in mind, we gotta wrap this up. Do you have any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_00No, man. Ready for the next one. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So are you a requiem for a dream file?
SPEAKER_00I definitely am. Ellen Bernstein file. Um more maybe more interesting of a question, Aronofsky file. What do you think about that?
SPEAKER_02I'll have to get back to you on that one. Yeah. I think that would require a more nuanced examination of his filmography.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Um, but I do think this is a really good movie. It's hard to love because of it. It's so dark, but I do love the intentionality and the attention to detail. And in that respect, I'm an Aronovsky file.
SPEAKER_00He's an interesting dude. I'm way high on him. Definitely a lot higher than most people I talk to.
SPEAKER_02So you're an Aronovsky file?
SPEAKER_00I I would say that I am because um, yeah, there's actually no movies of his that I don't like. Um, but I was a huge um fan of Mother or Mother. And I don't know if I've even met another fan of that movie in my life. Um Black Swan, I love. I remember really liking Pie. I haven't seen that in a long time. And The Fountain. Wrestler. Wrestler, the Fountain, um both remember liking. I'll have to go back and check them out. I thought The Fountain, I was very like super interested in that movie, but I don't know if I completely understood it. I I never I've never revisited it. I saw it once in the theater. Um Caught Stealing just came out this year. And I think that movie's interesting because it's a super simple movie, but it's almost like him trying to. I mean, it's definitely still Aronoski, but I think he's not going for anything deep with that movie, in at least it doesn't seem so to me. He's just kind of making like a fun run around the city movie, and I kind of appreciate that at times when directors just make a movie that almost seems like let's just go out and have fun and make a movie, you know, and he can do that really well. So I know that movie wasn't that well received, but I think it's good. Um, and then the a movie that I am kind of fascinated by is Noah. I don't know what's up with that movie, but I'll watch bits and pieces of that from time to time. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's a he's a talented filmmaker. He leaves I don't think much to chance. I don't think there's any evidence of him really leaving anything to chance and work with him for a dream. You can question some of the realism of some of the scenes, but considering the the themes of this movie, I don't think that's necessary or appropriate. So um I haven't seen all of Aronofsky's movies, but perhaps we can sometime in the future choose another uh Aronofsky movie to discuss in a future episode.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, at this point we're just I guess uh figuring out a four files of specific movies, and maybe eventually it'll work its way into the artists themselves.
SPEAKER_02So watching Requiem for a Dream may not be love at first sight in respect to Darren Arnovsky, but maybe something that we can develop and grow as we interact more with his filmography. So saying that, Mr. Brandon, would you call this a rap? That was a rap. But not a rap on life and love. Go love yourself, your life, and someone else. As for Requiem for of a dream, Requiem of a Dream? Requiem for a dream. Requiem for a dream. Yeah. Go file it. File it. Stories, movies, style.