Trainspotting

(Danny Boyle/1996/UK)

Following the travails of a handful of Edinburgh heroin addicts through the eyes of one Mark Renton, Trainspotting patches together episodes from Irvine Welsh’s non-linear book of the same name. This is loud, brash and unapologetic. Chastised in certain quarters for glorifying heroin use the film connected with a young audience not because it glorifies but because it’s honest and doesn’t patronize. Locating it in Edinburgh was clever by Welsh as it undercut the typical image of it being more cultural and upper class than Glasgow, a city more readily associated in people’s minds with junkies. Drug use and addiction happens everywhere. Boyle utilizes a hip parade of cool songs to further ingratiate with the yoof and it works. Albeit an at times horrific core subject it doesn’t sidestep showing the bleakness but delivers it with a wash of cathartic humour. It also ends on a high (sorry, I’ll get my coat) with a positive message full of hope and Zenish joy in the mundane.

(4/5)