Final Rating: 4/5
In 1996, the English filmmaker Danny Boyle released his first massive hit: Trainspotting. Narrating the wounds of the youth in the United Kingdom. Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, it tells the story of Renton (Ewan McGregor), a Scottish man addicted to heroin. He spends most of his days in a messy apartment with his buddies Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and Begbie (Robert Carlyle). They use drugs and commit crimes such as shoplifting to pay for it. However, even when Renton decides to clean himself, he cannot stop using.
Thirty years later, Trainspotting continues as a quintessential component of the independent British filmmaking of the 1990s. At first, the most fascinating element of the film’s composition is the soundtrack filled with classical and contemporary songs by artists such as Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Blur, and Pulp. Hence, the songs are essential to determine an intrinsic part of the film: the kinetic nature. Boyle establishes, through the first moment, a media res action scene of Renton escaping the police.
From the first sequence, we comprehend the notion of speed and velocity inherent in those individuals’ lives. Interpreting the meaning of the film’s slang, which reads into the obsession with any activity, those men basically drive themselves into a brick wall every day, defying the dangers of the drugs and the health issues linked to the usage. Trainspotting is a tale of lost youth in the 1990s outskirts of Scotland, searching for the meaning of life.
Rather than a social drama, Boyle dives into the dark humor and absurdist territory to approach the idiocracies of heroin addiction. In the introduction, Renton swims into a toilet after a stomachache caused by the drug usage. Instead of the usual frame of the man in the bathroom cabin, he is swimming in the bowl. It is an example of the visual solutions the director uses to construct those characters, suggesting the effects the vice has on their lives. Similarly, the introduction to Diane (Kelly Macdonald) is equally creative: a fast-paced walk through a nightclub that leads to sarcastic dialogue as she opens the cab door for Renton to jump in.
Through the irony and the fast camera movements, the director clarifies the inconsistencies of the lives of those characters, leading to the juxtaposition between their vices and the consequences. Ironically, the lust after the nightclub leads to embarrassing moments between Spud and his girlfriend’s family, as well as Renton’s discovery of Diane’s age.
Between the montages with the popular songs and the creative sequences that present characters or behaviors, Boyle suffers from the vacancies in his approach. The small dramatic moments are not as fascinating as the scenes that present clever blocking and visual comedy. Throughout the content of the text, both Welsh’s novel and John Hodges’ adaptation, the director builds those characters through immorality, which observes the economic and personal problems as a reason for addiction.
In this sense, Trainspotting thrives as a portrayal of the erratic demeanor in the montages of the police chases and the execution of small robberies to sustain their vices. Promptly, Boyle presents the addiction cycle, nailing the narrative weight of their actions, and then the consequences of them.
Thirty years after its release and the label of a classic, regarded as one of the most crucial British films in history, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting remains a gem of the 1990s independent cinema. It has a boldness and visual imagination that prevent it from being a realistic drama about addiction, presenting the audience with a world of filth and moral corruption, and it is highly entertaining as a dark comedy.
Thank you to Mongrel Media and Star PR for the screener.
