Fear and Loathing vs Scanner Darkly vs Requiem For a Dream
Which is the best?
shareA Scanner Darkly - 7/10
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas - 8/10
Requiem for a Dream - 7/10
My single favorite drug movie is probably Trainspotting.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was great, it came a lot closer to the book than most Hollywood movies do and was wildly entertaining from start to finish. A Scanner Darkly is also a good movie and one of the best PKD adaptations ever to hit the screen. My only complaint is that much like Fear & Loathing, it tended to sacrifice substance for style in some parts.
I thought Requiem for a Dream was a well-directed and pretty well-written film. However, as a drug movie it simply sucks, the utter lack of realism and the laughably exaggerated portrayal of drugs ruins that aspect of the film for me. What greatly makes up for it is the quality of the performances, the appealing artistic style of the film, and the emotionally gripping delivery of the story.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I never thought that the drug usage was supposed to be realistic. It took everything to extremes, even a little past that, but all those things were based on something realistic. Amphetamine addicts are CRAZY AS *beep*, god they're the worst when they get all psychotic, and they just turned that into something that would work for a movie like this, with it taken to the extreme. Realistically it would have been more depressing and less entertaining.
If you thought the movie was supposed to portray things realistically, how did you get past Harry selling the same TV to the same guy everyday, and then his mother buying it back? And the ridiculous orange truck heroin deals? And prisoners making mashed potatoes as a sort of work duty?
Anyway, A Scanner Darkly does have a lot of things under the surface, especially the left brain/right brain issues. People on these forums have written some cool stuff about it, check it out.
I thought Fear and Loathing was entertaining, but not even in the same genre as the other two. And Trainspotting is one of my favorites but it also can't be compared to ASD or RFAD. I just wish Jared Leto had kept acting and never formed that *beep* awful band (30 Seconds To Mars)