(2000) Director Darren Aronofsky took me to Coney Island for a crazy ride through author Hubert Selby Jr's funhouse of mirrors and hallucinations, stomach-turning rollercoaster of everymotion, woozy camera tricks simulating sensations, and recreational ickstasy. But it wasn't any fun and made me sick. If you dare … you can go there. Otherwise, just say no to drugs or to this movie.

In the summer on Brighton Beach, in blighted Brooklyn, Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) once again take his mother's TV and sell it to buy coke; later she buys it back. Harry's all Sara (Ellen Burstyn), a widow, has left.

A junkie to food and television, Sara receives a phone call from the Tappy Juice show - "You've already won!" - informing her she'll be a contestant on the program. Wanting to wear the red dress she wore to Harry's graduation, she needs to lose 50 pounds ("thinking thin"); she dyes her hair (orange, gradually darkening toward red) and begins taking diet pills (amphetamines and a different color to let her sleep) from a specialist recommended by a friend.

As well as getting high (pupil of an eye), Harry and Ty start (frames in acceleration) dealing (chemistry under a microscope), making money (dollars bills rolled into straws) hand over fist (flick of a lighter's flame). Harry wants to buy his girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), daughter of a wealthy family in the garment business, her own store to sell her own designs; they make love and score together.

Remembering his mother, Ty gets it on with Alice. Visiting his mother, Harry says he wants to make it up to her with a new TV from Macy's, make her happy (she wants him to get married and have a baby), make her (lots of irony here) quit taking pills ("You'll get strung out"). "I'm somebody now," she says with a clown's smile, soon to be a contestant on TV in her red dress: "It's a reason to get up in the morning." How depressing. "I'm lonely," she says: "I'm old."

With the arrival of fall things only get worse. Turf war between Italians and blacks shuts off supply for Harry and Ty - their business goes bust; unable to score, Harry (promising everything will turn out) sends Marion on a date with her therapist (do whatever you have to do) to get money. In Sara's apartment the refrigerator monster breaks loose.

With winter, everything gets even worse … There is no spring - none of these four characters and their dreams will see a better day (unappealing anyway) - only a new season for Tappy Juice.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .