1996 drug movieRating: 14/20
Plot: The youths of Scotland waste their lives away, spending their hours diving into filthy toilets and screaming at gray babies. Renton tries to kick a heroin habit and make a new life for himself but can't help being yanked back into the squalid same-old-same-old--too-short t-shirts, peeling walls, dilapidated floors, sagging carpets, sickly and lonely halls, and illegal sexual escapades. He probably needs better friends.
Hey! I made it all the way through the movie this time! Funny that I just watched Clockwork before seeing this one. There are a lot of similarities. That film's language, bombastic soundtrack, voice-over narration, and subversive ideas works completely. This one only sort of works and seems to be one of those examples of style over substance. Really, it's hard for me to find a point in all this. It's an exercise in pushing the shock buttons, like an nine year old walking up to you while you're shopping for croutons and shouting "Shit!" just to get a reaction. And actually, you weren't even sure you wanted croutons. You were just going to buy them if they were on sale. I didn't think the characters were fully realized. There was angry spontaneous guy, dumb guy, nice guy, and mother. Watching Trainspotting is entertaining as hell though, and not just because Obi Wan exposes himself yet again. Or maybe that is the sole reason it's entertaining? If this were any longer, however, I would have felt as if my senses had been brutally attacked and would have likely vomited on the carpet only to have my face shoved into my own puke by Danny Boyle. Unfortunately for me, a guy who sort of appreciates Trainspotting but doesn't really like it, this is something you definitely have to watch more than once since so much of the dialogue is unintelligible.
Recommended by Cory.
When this came out we were what, like 23? I remember seeing the trailer for this and then someone had the book and I read the book really fast I thought in a strange Scottish brogue for like 3 weeks because that is the way it was written so when I saw the movie I could understand it a lot better (I did end up reading Clockwork years after I saw the movie and I cheated with one of the later editions that had the glossary...)
ReplyDeleteI remember trying to watch it like 2 years later when i was recreationally doing a bunch of prescription speed, and you think they would go hand in hand but I was unimpressed...
anyway... this is one of my favorite lines from your reviews this far:
"It's an exercise in pushing the shock buttons, like an nine year old walking up to you while you're shopping for croutons and shouting "Shit!" just to get a reaction. And actually, you weren't even sure you wanted croutons. You were just going to buy them if they were on sale."
Yeah, I guess about 22 or 23. I tried to watch it soon after the video release but it just didn't connect. I did have the soundtrack at one time (I worked at Columbia House and got free stuff and cheap stuff). I've never read the book, but I did read 'Clockwork,' I think even before I saw the movie. My copy also has the glossary, and I guess I just always figured all editions had 'em. But yeah, after you've read ten or fifteen pages, the glossary isn't really necessary.
ReplyDeleteI just find it hard to like these drug movies that everybody else seems to like. This is better than 'Requiem for a Dream' at least. I really despised that one.
I was reminded of 'Gravity's Rainbow' while watching this...that scene with Slothrop diving into the toilet to find his harmonica (right?) is one of the most memorable ones in the book.
yeah when i read that in the book i'm "hello thomas pynchon" shit....
ReplyDeletei went to see requiem for a dream alone after a bad fight with jen and was thinking it was that bjork film, when i left i said i never wanted to see another heroin movie again, i mean sid and nancy was enough cos i saw that in 8th grade, too many times... ... i mean god how many times can one hammer in a point...and in that movie it was hammered HARD...heroin = jail, gang rape, loss of limbs... thank god i didn't see that bjork von triers movie after our fight, i'd have been suicidal...
i saw trainspotting in the theatre and as i always mention it boosts my enjoyment...
on a completely different not i'm listening to "give it back" by the BJM for the first time in like 10 years and wow is it good...
Synchronicity! I've got that documentary on the Brian Jonestown Massacre waiting for me at the library...just saw that in the email prior to yours. My brother recommended it. The movie...not that I check my email.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like that Bjork movie. I almost always want to hate von Trier's movies but at the same time think they're pretty good...if that makes sense.
This may be like "Raising Arizona". When I ask people if they like it, half love it, half can't stand it, and half wish that I would stop bothering them.
ReplyDeleteFrom the first words of the "choose life" speech to the the end of the movie, I love every bit of dialogue (while rarely resorting to subtitles). You can generalize by labeling the characters of almost any film, i.e. "the shy one", "the funny one", etc., but I think these characters are as well drawn as those in any comedy/ horror film. Many scenes are difficult to take, but it is the charisma of the characters, their relationship to each other, and the hilarious screenplay that make this one of the funiest movies that I have seen. I love the soundtrack and I love the energetic film style. While not realistic, "Trainspotting" takes a horrific subject and humanizes it.
I saw this in a theatre on a date, and I was the only one of about 20 that seemed to like it. It may have cut short that relationship. Maybe only a depraved mind can love this movie.
Like "Pulp Fiction", "Trainspotting" is an electric and brilliantly funny take on the seedier side of life. A 20.
funniest
ReplyDeleteYeah, I gotta say (and I might be pigeonholing you here) that although I'm not surprised you like this movie, I am a little surprised that it ranks so high on your list. And I can definitely see it as a love it or hate it sort of movie. Usually those are the best movies! But I doubt I'd criticize anybody for giving this movie a 3 or for giving this movie a 19. Maybe a 20 though...
ReplyDeleteAnd that relationship was only cut short because you refused to buy her Raisinets on "moral grounds"