A shot in the arm for UK cinema

Rating: 9/10 (19 November 2009)

The biggie: the one that made the world sit up and take notice (if only of the box office receipts). Trainspotting proved a real shot in the arm, not only for the UK film biz but also the music, fashion and advertising industries - a huge coup for Film4 and an early example of modern 'packaged' cinema.
Sporting outlandish visuals and an achingly trendy soundtrack, it colluded with its target audience in a way few British films had done before, utilising already established scenes - such as those surrounding Britpop (then privately mired in smack habits), ecstasy culture, and heroin chic - to add a synthetic veneer of cultish cred. Not bad going for an adaptation of a novel encompassing urban sectarianism and smack, and written in the broadest of brogues.
But Trainspotting the film was a very different beast from the book: it was selling a lifestyle. Controversy has dogged Boyle from The Beach to Slumdog Millionaire, but until the latter's release, it would remain Boyle's most talked-about and scandalised achievement.