Ten years before the stunning Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky's sophomore outing is just as challenging, just as demanding and just as draining.
The plot:
Four residents of Brooklyn Beach see their lives shift into an unstoppable downward spiral due to their various drug addictions.
We watch on as lives that, though tainted by addiction, are mainly in control descend into a maelstrom of chaos, delusion, paranoia and outright horror.
Aronofsky's directorial style renders each scene captivating, a dense barrage of sensory overload that would make Oliver Stone proud, though he is no copyist, imbuing a clear personality to his movies.
To invoke a cliche, at times it is hard to tear your eyes from the screen, so immersive is the experience.
By turns harrowing, bewildering, horrifying, dizzying and awe-inspiring, the skill here is in building such a riotous crescendo, depicting scenes that may seem absurd in less skillful hands in a manner which never once breaks down that fourth wall.
The movie builds and builds, each humiliation or horror endured by our despairing addicts more awful than the last, lending a sense of the morbid fascination: what on Earth will happen next?
Truly exhausting as a viewing experience, Aronofsky is quickly becoming a firm favourite here at Smell the Cult HQ.
Special mention must be made of Ellen Burstyn, veteran actress who here plays a Jewish widow addicted to diet pills that may or may not be amphetamines. Hers is as accomplished a performance I have seen in quite some time.
A truly remarkable movie in every single regard, this is must watch stuff.
Brilliant.
5 out of 5
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