Metrograph

Aronofsky’s sophomore feature, an ultra-adrenalized adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.’s 1978 classic of underground literature with a screenplay co-written by the author himself, is one of cinema’s most gripping and harrowing portrayals of addiction, here seen consuming the waking lives of a quartet of New Yorkers: hustling junky pals Harry and Tyrone (Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans); Harry’s girlfriend, Marion (Jennifer Connelly), who starts turning tricks to pay for her fix; and Harry’s diet pill-popping, game show-obsessed mother, Sara (Ellen Burstyn). “[An] agonising and unflinchingly grim portrait of drug abuse… Like a gruesome yet compelling vivisectional experiment… Chilling, and diamond-hard.” —The Guardian

Distributor: Lionsgate