Panik im Needle Park

This film is the complete opposite of what Aronofsky showed his viewers in his famous film Requiem for a Dream. Where Aronofsky is pretentious and tries to squeeze emotions from the audience, using cheap tricks of music video makers (yes, I have a deep-rooted aversion to his style :-)), The Panic in Needle Park is real, authentic, completely natural, almost documentary-like, and incredibly effective in its simplicity and sobriety. The gradual disintegration of personality, numbing of emotions, and reducing one's existence to seeking and consuming another dose are captured through precisely selected details, showing that the world of drug addicts is pathetic and trapped in a vicious circle with no way out. At the same time, it is a film about great love and artistic ambitions, which are drowned in a spoonful of cloudy fluid and a syringe. For me, this is one of the best and most impressive films set in the environment of drug addicts. Overall impression: 95%. (01.06.2011)