Danny Boyle's greatest film - perhaps even the greatest of the 90's

Rating: 10/10 (27 February 2006)

I discovered the work of Danny Boyle when I watched Trainspotting (1996) with my friend in his apartment, about two years ago. We could relate to its themes (friendship, growing apart, heroin-addiction etc.), since my friend and I were in fact heroin-addicts ourselves back then (thank God, I'm clean now!). Film-critics have criticized Trainspotting for glamorizing drugs - I don't agree. Trainspotting is supposed to be almost a journey in the life of an addict, and although we do see the good times of heroin-use, we certainly also see the bad ones. Portraying heroin-addiction in any other way would be looking down upon the film's audience.
"People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that sh*t which is not to be ignored, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not f**king stupid. At least, we're not that f**king stupid." - Mark Renton, Trainspotting
Trainspotting is pure cinematic art. It has a unique visual style (play with distinctive colors red/green in rooms, several surrealistic scenes etc.), a great rock/80's-pop/classical/electronica score by artists such as Iggy Pop (with David Bowie), Lou Reed, Underworld and Mozart and fabulous method-acting (especially by Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner and Robert Carlyle). It's very artistic, avant garde-ish and at the same commercially. This in itself is one of Trainspotting's great strengths.
Trainspotting can't be described. Like for instance Lars Von Trier's Europa (1991) it's one of those movies that has to been seen - not discussed. This is pure cinematic art! 10/10