Fun depravity

Rating: 9/10 (8 April 2006)

Cinema has had its fair share of morally questionable heroes, but Ewan McGregor's character is probably the most fun we've ever seen. What do we take from a guy who feels very despicable about sleeping with a minor yet steals money from his friends because, "Well, the truth is I'm a bad person?" We get an interesting character, that's what. One surrounded by references to other nonconformist or antiheroic characters of visual past... the Beatles' Abbey Road cover, a bar set to look (somewhat obviously) like the milk bar from Clockwork Orange, the amusingly cheeky art of Andy Warhol... all to provide a background for a guy who takes drugs, quits, steals, and each time does it with different results and to different levels and with no really strict 3/5 act story design.
This is a movie that simultaneously has a very disturbing death and a very cute one. It's a movie that has winners and losers, though we're never fully sure which are which. It has a guy who hates junkies and spends all of his free time befriending them, that flippantly rejects mainstream ideas of life and material happiness but chooses to end that way, and gets blamed for glorifying drugs while still containing scenes creepy enough to make anybody swear of junk forever... like they do a hundred times...
What more could you ask for? Well, I guess it's worth noting that this is done by the same guy who's done 28 Days Later... and Millions. Everyone already knows that, but come on... Danny Boyle definitely has something going for him, and I think he still has a lot more to offer us. I personally can't wait.
--PolarisDiB