Another exceptional Danny Boyle movie!

Rating: 9/10 (12 August 2000)

Danny Boyle has made some of the best movies of the 90's with great movies like Shallow Grave, A Life Less Ordinary and this one. Trainspotting is a movie about drugs and drug-users. This is a difficult subject, mostly because it's hard to talk about it without moralizing, but this movie achieves it with class. First of all, Ewan McGregor is excellent as Rent-Boy. But the rest of the cast also shines. Robert Carlyle is great as the deranged Begbie, Jonny Lee Miller, an actor which I had never heard of before, is excellent as Sick-Boy and Ewan Bremner(another actor I had never heard of before) is perfect for the role of Spuds. And let's not forget Kevin McKidd(yet another actor I had never heard from) which gives a very sensible performance as Tommy. The dialogue is always believable(although I lost a little bit of it when I first head Begbie's accent). The movie has found the perfect balance between harsh realism and fantasy, but also the perfect balance between drama and comedy. Because, even if this movie could have been a potential downer, it is not one. It takes it subject seriously, but at the same time, who could find a movie where a man plunges into a toilet and finds himself swimming in it can be absolutely depressing? Boyle's directing is a pure pleasure, creative and dynamic, but it never goes into MTV territories, which many less talented directors would have been to with this subject and such an... amazing soundtrack. Yes, even the soundtrack is excellent(which is not really a surprise, since this is a Danny Boyle movie) and includes music by Underworld, Iggy Pop, Blur and many others. One of the few problems this movie has is that I find that it doesn't talk enough about Renton's relationship with Diane. Apart from that it's a twisted, well-acted, intelligent, sensible and at the same time energizing movie. I highly recommend it(along with Shallow Grave and A Life Less Ordinary).
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