Buy Now, Pay Later

Rating: 10/10 (30 August 2003)

Set in Edinburgh in the last decades of the 20th century, the film is equally as relevant to any contemporary location. It most obviously comments on 'drug' culture, but also on the hypocrisy of more widely accepted substance use and the quick-fix-have-now-pay-later society that so willingly buys into the same ethos. Painful scenes portray the widespread superficial understanding of the depth of the issues surrounding substance abuse and the devastation, despair and lack of control felt by the abusers and by those around.
Consequences and matters of trust are demonstrated effectively, though there is no judgement and often the brutality of the subject is seated against tragic, tender and even funny moments.
The focus of most of the characters' efforts are singularly related to getting kicks - whether through substances, behaviour, or sex. Despite this, the British, mainly Scottish, cast still manage to portray the characters as multi-dimensional bound together in mistrusting common purpose...