Trainspotting (1996)

A sodding bore. I don't know what Danny Boyle thinks he's doing, but his choice of tone is all off. This really needed the snarling bleak-humored outlook of someone like, say, Alex Cox, not this jolly-good-show gross-out laddishness. The film's too concerned with being cheeky and flashy that it kind of forgets to be interesting. And yes, I know the then-this-happened-then-we-forgot-about-it-then-something-else-happened construction is intentional, as a reflection of the heroin mindset. But while it's successful in that respect, it shortcircuits another and (in my eyes) more important concern -- whether or not I should give a shit about what happens next. Kelly Macdonald is the best thing in this film, and she's not in it nearly enough.

Grade: C