Drug fueled fantasy meets Fight Club style madness

Rating: 8/10 (24 March 2014)

Danny Boyle is definitely one of the more interesting directors in Hollywood; most of his filmography suggests a man struggling to deal with some kind of perverse relationship with suffering.
And of all his films, Trainspotting is the one which best exemplifies this strange need. Without a doubt Boyle's magnum-opus, this drug infested romp through the underbelly of Scotland takes us on a wild ride that is equal parts black comedy and plain strange and disturbing.
Renton (Ewan McGregor) is an Edinburgh lowlife scumbag trying desperately to throw off the rags of heroin addiction. But no matter how hard he tries, there seems to be no getting rid of the syringe.
McGregor gives the performance of a lifetime - he grabs us by the balls and refuses to let go until the final frame has disappeared. Trainspotting launched the actor straight up into the big time, and it isn't difficult to see why. One only wonders why there can't be more actors with the intense need to please the audience in such an intensely perverse way.
Trainspotting is a film that must be seen in one sitting, and that you will want to see again. The problem is that it is so disturbing, you won't really be able to watch it again.
And that is what makes it such an exciting film.