This Movie Bucketlist list is my longest that I’ve done so far, although it’s basically just every movie that’s on my Watchlist and on Netflix. Trainspotting has been recommended to me on Netflix for years, and at 94 minutes it’s a cake walk compared to some of my other films.
Ewan McGregor stars as Renton in this British dark comedy drama about a group of heroin addicts living on the fringe of society. They are con artists, burglars, and drug dealers trying to get by, constantly forcing us to question the habits of both established society as well as counterculture.
The film opens with Renton trying to cut himself off from heroine, locking himself in a hotel room and preparing for the worst. This plan eventually fails, and he becomes entangled with a teenage school girl named Diana, played by Kelly MacDonald (the voice of Merida in Brave).
Renton and his friends enjoy their vices, and regularly get themselves in trouble trying to get them. When Renton is caught stealing from a bookstore, he enters a drug rehabilitation program to avoid jail time and ends up locked in his childhood bedroom and forced to experience all of the withdrawal symptoms. But it actually works!
Renton moves to London, but his criminally-inclined friends follow him there and things get a little crazy.
The story is certainly dark, with HIV plots, death, and serious explorations of the difficulties of drug addition. Renton reiterates that he wants to be a “good person,” but his situation and even his decisions rarely reinforce that attitude. He straddles the line between staying loyal to his friends and keeping himself safe from destructive behaviors.
The style of the film is also very entertaining, regularly dipping into the surreal in order to uniquely portray the absurd lifestyle of a heroin addict.
The film is worth a watch, as many people consider it to be one of the greatest Scottish films of all time (and yes, it is incredibly difficult to understand what the characters are saying a majority of the time). The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar, and IMDb 250 ranks it at #156. It was also directed by Danny Boyle, who went on to win the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire.
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