Requiem for a Dream (2000)

If you want to convince people not to do heroin, show them Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky’s brilliant but painful adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel about people who turn to drugs to escape reality — and end up in a much worse place than they started.

Things turn out especially horribly for Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly, above), whose despair culminates in a party scene you’ll wish you could forget.