Darren Aronofsky’s bittersweet drama about a washed-up pro wrestler trying to find meaning in the second act of his life—a sort of reimagining of Rod Serling’s Requiem for a Heavyweight—offers the role of a lifetime for Mickey Rourke, whose own fall from grace in 1980s Hollywood has unavoidable parallels with the fictional story on-screen. Rourke wears his scars (both physical and emotional) with such naked humanity that his performance becomes a kind of on-screen outpouring of his own grief and waylaid potential. Behind the camera, Aronofsky eschews his earlier hyperkinetic style for a stark, documentary-like approach that beautifully and powerfully fuses form and content. (DVD Awards Screener)