I Thought Nought: Hit Me, Baby, One More Time

The decade's almost over. Me talking about it? That's only just begun!

Moments and Thoughts on the Best of the Noughts...


Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

Marion: Anybody wanna waste some time?

Addiction has never been this addictive. Darren Aronofsky's exquisite descent into human misery and despair is like shooting up and snorting some truly potent sort of powder; you're emotionally desecrated but everything is so sensory and sensational that you're content to take just one more hit... then another... and another.

Requiem for a Dream is an unparalleled and unrelenting look at the perils of addiction: from heroin, to caffeine, to television, even love. It's the harsh but healing story of four lives unraveled in the wake of achieving one's deepest passions. Ellen Burstyn's monumental performance as Sara Goldfarb is the stuff of cinematic legend: a mother and widow succumbing to her loneliness, seeking emotional and social connections while burrowing deeper and deeper into a hellish disconnect. "Purple in the morning, blue in the afternoon..." and complete mental breakdown in the evening. Harrowing, painful and ultimately unforgettable.

Sara: I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right.

What have I got Harry? Why should I even make the bed or wash the dishes? I do them... but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old--

Harry: You got friends, Ma.

Sara: Ah, it's not the same. They don't need me. I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress, and the television, and you and your father. Now when I get the sun, I smile!

Jennifer Connelly, also in one of her finest moments, similarly extracts every ounce of distraught decadence - allowing a fix to become the fixture that would replace the love of her life. Each of these characters use their addictions to temporarily disguise their true feelings, and the film, which is both devastating and wholly consuming, is just as raw as the emotions they're trying to subside.



Requiem for a Dream pulses and pounds like the best buzz you've ever had, pure visual and auditory bliss.... Before that moment of brutal clarity and consciousness of course - which taps into a truly dark place, yet somehow still draws us back - just one more time, I swear.

Sara: In the end it's all nice.

-- More I Thought Nought (Best of the Decade) entries here.

Diagnosing Jennifer

Jennifer Connelly has made a lifetime of depressing movies, for which I thank her. Those who think she needs to lighten up just haven't heard the whole story...

1985: Jennifer's depression was apparent from early on, as she was having trouble associating with other girls her age. This social block led her instead to form friendships with animals, including what she believed to be a profound telepathic connection with insects. This, combined with Jennifer's dangerous bouts of sleepwalking, led doctors to believe that Jennifer was showing the first signs of schizophrenia.


1986: Upon the alarming diagnosis, Jennifer began acting out. She would tell stories about a "Goblin King" she'd named Jareth and insisted that she complete elaborate puzzles in order to rescue a younger half-brother, whom she'd given the name Toby.


1987-1991: As a teenager, Jennifer's family grew concerned when she began spending nights away from home, failing to notify anyone of her whereabouts. In 1991 Jennifer was found inside a local Target department store, having passed out in one of the store's dressing rooms.


1992-1998: Around the same time, Jennifer began experimenting with her sexuality, confused by her feelings for both men and women. She was accepted at the prestigious Columbus University and was finally becoming more involved in social activities, even acting as a campus advocate for gender rights. In 1995 an unexpected outbreak of racism and violence erupted on the campus, finally giving Jennifer the push to seek a new path and pursue her passions for music and fashion in the city. While Jennifer's life was starting to take a positive turn, it was here that Jennifer experienced her first thoughts of suicide.


2000: In the summer Jennifer's creative side was blossoming as she started work on her own fashion line. The inspiration was quickly counteracted by a spiraling addiction to drugs. By the Fall of 2000, Jennifer's habit became so extreme that she was drawn into prostitution in order to support it. Once again Jennifer was finding herself on the edge.


2001: The man able to pull her back was a mathematician by the name of John Nash, whom Jennifer was instantly drawn to for his love of complicated puzzles and similar bouts with schizophrenia. The marriage also spawned a child for the couple, but John's deteriorating mental state was too much for Jennifer to handle.


2003: Jennifer began cleaning houses, earning enough with the aid of child support to buy herself a lovely beach front property. The divorce, drug recovery and minimum wage were taking their toll on Jennifer. It reached a dramatic peak during a property dispute in which the bank foreclosed on her beach front home, leaving Jennifer to take residence in a nearby storage unit. She was pushed over the edge, attempting several times to end her life.


2005: During the numerous custody battles, Jennifer was able to keep her daughter. She was also able to save up enough money for the move to an apartment on the outskirts of the city - but thankfully away from the pier. Her attempts to give her daughter a normal life were soon halted when signs of Jennifer's schizophrenia began to reappear, leading Jennifer to believe that her daughter was instead a child who'd died in the apartment building years prior.

2006-Present: To this day Jennifer still struggles with the disorder, often ruining dinner parties.

Picture montages are fun!

(And an excuse to remain uninspired and pillage other people's work!)



These captures are from the opening to Dario Argento's whacked-out fantasy-horror classic Phenomena, also known as Creepers.

I love this opening, one of the best in Argento's career, and one of the best locales he's had to work with. And I love this film.

It stars lil' Jennifer Connelly, pre-Labyrinth, before her dedication to playing characters on the verge of killing themselves. She plays Jennifer Corvino, an insect-schmoozing school girl who just happens to be sent to the school girl murder capital of Switzerland --the Swiss Transylvania! Donald 'Dr. Loomis' Pleasance is her older (but not in a weird way) entomologist friend who helps her get in touch with her own telekinetic bug powers so she can overcome bouts of sleepwalking, do battle with a mutant child dwarf, and befriend a chimpanzee!

It can be as moody as it is incoherent. Bat-shit crazy nonsense with awesome atmosphere, so goes my love for Argento.

Did I mention that I love this film?