Trainspotting (1996)

Elevator Pitch: A group of friends, Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie inhabit the detritus and squats of Edinburgh, looking no further than their next fix, and in Begbie’s case not much futher than his next rumble. Renton meets Diane and has sex with her, only to find that she is 14. Spud is sent to prison, Renton is put on a programme and amidst the general level of distress the child of a woman they associate with dies. Renton begins to turn his life around but will he survive his friendships.

Content: There is an instance of sex and both male and female nudity, and a lot of drug taking and injecting, some of it looking pretty unpleasant. The environment the guys can be found in is horrible, and Renton during his withdrawal sees the dead baby crawling across the ceiling. There is the “Worst Toilet in Scotland” scene which is by turns nauseating and wonderful (I don’t choose to describe it). At the times when they are not either looking for their next fix, or finding a way of financing it they are drinking heavily in low level Scottish boozers.

A View:  It is No 160 on the IMDb top movie list, was nominated for one Oscar and got a 90% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. I was intrigued that the IMDb Content Advisory seemed to think nothing of sex between Renton and a 14 year old girl, does that say something about the contributors? I have seen it more than once and have thought it was great every time. Robert Carlyle as Begbie is incredible. If you have not seen Trainspotting 2 download this before that! Definitely worth the time and money.

Additional Info: Oasis (the band) were sked to contribute the soundtrack but Noel Gallagher declined, as he thought the film was actually about trainspotting.