I just have one more thing to say about an Aronofsky film, specifically Requiem for a Dream, and then I'll move on. Brandon, I appreciate that you mentioned how the film has done much to "dissuade a lot of my friends who like drugs to stay the fuck away from the brown sugar." I'm sure that your group of friends are not the only people this film affected in that way. The story of the young addicts is haunting.
However, and this is not in any way an argument against what you've said, I think that the even more powerful and chilling narrative (and often less talked about) is that of the mother who becomes addicted to the "diet" pills. I think that it's something much more common and, in a way, tragic because of all the societal pressures, body image issues, etc. that plague women in our culture and drive this addiction. The fact that the pills are "legal" is all the more frightening.
However, and this is not in any way an argument against what you've said, I think that the even more powerful and chilling narrative (and often less talked about) is that of the mother who becomes addicted to the "diet" pills. I think that it's something much more common and, in a way, tragic because of all the societal pressures, body image issues, etc. that plague women in our culture and drive this addiction. The fact that the pills are "legal" is all the more frightening.
I was thinking about this while I was out walking the dogs this evening and I remembered a great movie that deals with addiction in a very complicated and non-compromising way. Have you seen Half Nelson? It got a bit of press around the area when it first came out because the young actress, Shareeka Epps, lives in Binghamton and - I was unaware of this until reading her wikipedia page just now - currently attends Broome Community College.
Epps stars alongside Ryan Gosling. He is absolutely brilliant in this movie. His performance is so nuanced and affecting that it brings a whole new dimension to how addicts are usually portrayed. Similarly, the film also looks at the "inner-city school drama" in a way completely different than other films that approach the topic. The movie feels so gritty and realistic (pretty sure it was shot with mostly hand-held cams) that I find it hard to not imagine that I could very well have been Dan (Gosling) had my life taken just a few different turns. This isn't a judgement. The film doesn't really allow for judgements anyway. Just a lot of difficult circumstances and decisions.
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I'm not sure if Shareeka still goes to BCC...she was there when Myriah and I were, and we saw her around quite a bit. She even had a spot in BCC's (and supposedly the world's) first ever reality podcast, "On The Quad".
I think she might be at some art school now...
Oh, I just saw that on her wiki page when I wrote this the other day. She was really good in this movie. I'd like to see her in some other stuff soon.
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