A Versatile, Explosive Creation That Made Me Laugh, Cry, Jump and Think

Rating: 9/10 (19 March 2012)

It's amazing to think this was vilified for glamorizing drug use at the time of its release, because it's as stirring an anti-drug sentiment as I've ever seen. Ewan McGregor gets his breakout role as the weak-willed heroin-addicted poster boy Mark Renton, who constantly surrounds himself with a gaggle of the worst friends money can buy. It's a thousand different emotions all rolled into one concise package, with a dozen scenes that had me laughing out loud, an equal number of gut punches, a few manic spurts of action, a load of excellent off-the-cuff conversations and one giant, trainwrecked final score. A nonstop, chaotic adventure with a well-rounded cast of characters and a knack for extreme moods, it's occasionally tough to discern the dialog thanks to the abundance of thick Scottish accents. Several outstanding selections on the soundtrack unify the scattered emotions very nicely.