A shocking, painfully subjective trawl through the Edinburgh heroin culture of the 1980s, Irvine Welsh’s cult novel was hardly an obvious choice for the team who made Shallow Grave. Yet the film proved a smash hit, especially in the UK, where it seemed to herald a new era. Punching up the pitch-black comedy, juggling parallel character strands and juxtaposing image, music and voice-over with a virtuosity worthy of Scorsese on peak form, Trainspotting the movie captures precisely Welsh’s insolent, amoral intelligence.
Nihilism runs deep in this movie, emotion cannot be countenanced, only blocked off by another hit, another gag, but the anarchic, exhilarating rush of the highs can’t drown out the subsequent, devastating lows — these are two sides of the same desperation. Danny Boyle’s intuitive, vital, empathetic direction pushes so far, the movie flies on sheer momentum — that and bravura performances from Ewen Bremner’s gormless Spud, Robert Carlyle’s terrifying Begbie and, especially, Ewan McGregor’s Renton, who supplies a low-key, charismatic centre.
Content Considerations: Drug & alcohol abuse
It would be hard to imagine a movie about drugs, depravity, and all-around bad behavior more electrifying than Trainspotting.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Media Partner
Danny Boyle
Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle
UK
1996
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits
Producer
Andrew Macdonald
Screenwriter
John Hodge
Cinematography
Brian Tufano
Editor
Masahiro Hirakubo
Production Design
Kave Quinn
Art Director
Tracey Gallacher
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Lessons of Darkness
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Beau Travail
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Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they crisscross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
Election
Tracy Flick (Reece Witherspoon) is running for Student President, but Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas... This remarkably sour millennial comedy from Alexander Payne (The Holdovers; Sideways; The Descendents) hits twice as hard today.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is an assassin, but he's also an existential loner who adheres to his personal code. Despite the thriller trappings, this is really a lampoon of that genre, and a melancholy reverie for the cultural melting pot we call home.
The Straight Story
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90s Surprise Film
The 90s movie we have all been missing... Join us for a celebratory wake for this year's 90s, Baby series! What you will be seeing is top secret (no, not Top Secret!, that was 1984) but it will be at least 26 years old and it will be new to this series.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Kiarostami's dry comic masterpiece follows a Tehrani film team's thwarted attempts to document a traditional Kurdish funeral... Trouble being, there's no one to bury, and, worse, virtually no cell service...
Fight Club
1999 was a very good year for movies, but nothing captured millennial angst quite so vividly as David Fincher's bruising black comedy about what it means to be a man today. This modern classic does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction.