in the winter of 2000 my nephew A and i were both attending usu and we have a slight obsession with movies… we used to try to see all the movies that were nominated for academy awards and let’s face it, we were in logan ~ there is absolutely nothing to do, but there are LOTS of theaters…. there was an alternate cinema in the old main theater in smithfield, we had been there previously to see crouching tiger, hidden dragon so we knew that there was no heat in this theater. ellen burstyn was nominated for best actress that year, this is the saga of requiem for a dream.
to attend a movie at the alternative cinema you didn’t need much money i think it was $2.50 with the student discount, what you did need was to dress like you were going to a football game, a packers game in green bay in january in the snow. so we get our coats and hats and gloves and quilts and drive to smithfield. we go to the window and buy our tickets; gloves in hand, quilts under our arms. some folks were looking at us like we were nuts, but they obviously hadn’t been there before and didn’t know the secret. [you could literally see your breath inside this place]
the movie starts, it was probably the worst spiral into the depths of hell i have ever seen on the screen… dark, horrible, unnerving ~ did absolutely nothing to make drugs look fashionable or glamorous. MPAA Rating R – intense depiction of drug addiction, graphic sexuality, strong language, and some violence…. even that is an understatement!
i laugh now looking back on what happened next, but at the time i was almost too numb to realize how funny it was. the movie ends, we gather up our stuff and A has this wide-eyed, pained look on his face. as we exit the theater he screamed out loud [seriously] until we got into the car, then he screamed some more, but the people out on the sidewalk could still hear him…. he describes it: “This meant that I saw Requiem for a Dream which permanently scared me and had me screaming in the car afterward (just ask Fri-yet).” [for background material see mt dew and milk shakes blog entitled “oscar”]
i can’t remember if ellen burstyn won that year for best actress or not, but damn! she deserved it! [i am NOT HOWEVER recommending that you see this performance].
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