A shocking, painfully subjective trawl through the Edinburgh heroin culture of the 1980s, Irvine Welsh’s cult novel was hardly an obvious choice for the team who made Shallow Grave. Yet the film proved a smash hit, especially in the UK, where it seemed to herald a new era. Punching up the pitch-black comedy, juggling parallel character strands and juxtaposing image, music and voice-over with a virtuosity worthy of Scorsese on peak form, Trainspotting the movie captures precisely Welsh’s insolent, amoral intelligence.
Nihilism runs deep in this movie, emotion cannot be countenanced, only blocked off by another hit, another gag, but the anarchic, exhilarating rush of the highs can’t drown out the subsequent, devastating lows — these are two sides of the same desperation. Danny Boyle’s intuitive, vital, empathetic direction pushes so far, the movie flies on sheer momentum — that and bravura performances from Ewen Bremner’s gormless Spud, Robert Carlyle’s terrifying Begbie and, especially, Ewan McGregor’s Renton, who supplies a low-key, charismatic centre.
Content Considerations: Drug & alcohol abuse
It would be hard to imagine a movie about drugs, depravity, and all-around bad behavior more electrifying than Trainspotting.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Danny Boyle
Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle
UK
1996
English
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Andrew Macdonald
Screenwriter
John Hodge
Cinematography
Brian Tufano
Editor
Masahiro Hirakubo
Production Design
Kave Quinn
Art Director
Tracey Gallacher
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
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Madonna: Truth or Dare
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Pulp Fiction + The ReViberators
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Reservoir Dogs
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Total Recall
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The Company of Strangers
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Boyz n the Hood
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