Fetishizes Youth, Heroin Addiction, Degeneracy

Rating: 3/10 (13 August 2014)

Oh, it's well-crafted. I'll give it that. It weaves awful things like heroin addiction and its attendant horrors into a cutesy story that ultimately paints an irresponsibly rosy picture of being a young screw- up who's addicted to heroin.
The movie gets its sweet taste from two things: a) sexy and talented young actors, and b) those sexy young actors hooking up with other sexy young actors. That's how it sells the crap underneath it: the idea that heroin addiction is just another (acceptable) alternative lifestyle.
First of all yeah, young people are usually easy on the eyes. But talk to real-life drug-addicted youths, or just watch the VICE documentaries on young heroin or Krokodil addicts, and you'll see that their lifestyles not only typically render them even less visually appealing than that one guy in Trainspotting was just before he died. You'll see that real-life youth who have lifestyles like the kids in Trainspotting are flushing their budding little lives down the toilet, rendering them uglier than any physical trait could.
See, real junkies are just sad and scary because they're on a slippery slope to death or getting locked up somewhere. They're also not all witty and intelligent. Trainspotting presents sordid aspects of the junkie lifestyle, but at the same time intoxicates me with these pretty people, and with the impression that everything will turn out all right for them in the end. I also think that it ignores the possibility of permanent brain, body, and psychological damage that such a lifestyle can cause.