Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996), follows a group of heroin addicts living in Edinburgh in the 1990s, specifically Renton, who falls in and out of addiction, withdrawal, petit crime and redemption.

The film is highly surreal, following a group of characters whom frequently communicate directly to the audience, such as Renton, who makes ironic commentaries on society and heroin through an internal monologue. The film also uses abstract imagery to evoke the horror of drug addictions, such as the horrors that Renton hallucinated while experiencing withdrawal, and the characters will often swap between places and times at unrealistic paces to convey a sense of lost time and wasted adulthood. The film also uses this abstract imagery and poetic, social realism to convey the experience of a heroin addiction in scenes to immerse the viewer in then position of the characters.

The narrative is told in a unique way, as the beginning scene takes place chronologically about a third of the way into the film, and events happen in quick succession, the periods of time between them sometimes minuscule when it was a long time chronologically.

I personally loved the film’s fluid pace, gripping characters and harrowing but immersive sequences. I rate Trainspotting 5 stars!!!