Based on a novel by Hubert Selby Jr, Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream is a shocking look at increasing dependence on drugs.

A phenomenal Ellen Burstyn stars as Sara, an elderly widow whose addiction goes from infomercials to amphetamines. Meanwhile, her son Harry (Jared Leto) becomes a drug dealer who finds a twisted soulmate in Marion (Jennifer Connelly). As the three lives take their own disturbing downward spirals, Aronofsky siezes you by the eyeball and doesn't let go.

It's a disturbing, fantastically made film, and here's a tiny sampler of its brilliance: The snorting of cocaine is shown in a magnificently macro scale. Fingers with black nails roll George Washington's face up into a tube, 'drops' of coke shatter onto black, are chopped into lines, and inhaled by the tube in a lovely side-angle shot.

Then we see coke entering the bloodstream, and, in an iconic tight shot, the pupils of the eye dilating. The action is frenetic, precise, anarchic, and there are variations for the scene for other drugs.

For now, check out the cocaine sequence video right here and prepare to rewatch Requiem. Wow.

Plus, the film had Clint Mansell's fantastically composed score played by the Kronos Quartet, music that has gone on to provide a soundtrack to virtually every cool trailer since then.

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