T2 Trainspotting.

Twenty years have passed since Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) run off with the proceeds of a drug deal that was meant to be divvied up between himself, Spud Murphy (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) and hard man Begbie (Robert Carlyle). The only person who did receive his share was Spud who wasted no time in shooting-up £4K of heroin. Now Renton has returned from Amsterdam where he has been living since leaving Edinburgh. His first task is saving Spud from suicide and then he teams back up with his best friend Simon repaying the 4K he owed him and offering to help him, and his beautiful East European girlfriend Veronica (Angela Nedyalkova), convert the pub his aunt left him into a brothel. Although his relationship with Simon is still not what it was before he left it’s when Begbie escapes from prison and discovers that he is back that his life expectancy starts to deteriorate.

 

Mark and Simon celebrate setting up a business with Veronica.

Reuniting the original cast with another great screenplay from John Hodge and with most of the filming taking place in Edinburgh, Boyle has succeeded in obtaining a believable 20-year gap between the two films. Scotland has changed since the time of the first film, with a diluted form devolution arriving since the original films release and a close run independence referendum taking place in 2014 (and another about to be announced). Its not the same country it was when Rent Boy and the others ran down Princes Street, even the movies premier took place in Edinburgh and not Leicester Square. But both the characters and Scotland are still victims of a system that neither like nor respect but both are working hard to change this. Even more so that we are being forced out of Europe against our will and being informed that we have to be grateful for scrapes from the table of a man that is the political version of Begbie.

 

Still as fit as ever - or are they?

This sequel to Danny Boyle's 1996 movie is absolutely cracking piece of adult entertainment and a credit to its predecessor. How anybody can fail to enjoy T2 Trainspotting (2017) is beyond me.

Trainspotting 1996.

21 years ago a very black comedy drama film was released that was said to have captured what it meant to be Scottish for a generation of twenty something’s which is summed up in Mark ‘Rent Boy’ Renton’s famous Rannoch Moor speech:

“It's shite being Scottish! We're the lowest of the low. The scum of the fucking Earth! The most wretched, miserable, servile, pathetic trash that was ever shat into civilization. Some hate the English. I don't. They're just wankers. We, on the other hand, are colonized by wankers. Can't even find a decent culture to be colonized by. We're ruled by effete arseholes. It's a shite state of affairs to be in, Tommy, and all the fresh air in the world won't make any fucking difference!”

 

The famous Rannoch Moor speech.

This movie could never be mistaken for anything other than a Scottish film and was adapted by John Hodges from the Irvine Welsh 1993 novel of the same name, never an easy task. Trainspotting (1996) is a starkly bleak warning about the drug culture at that time offering very little hope for the youth of Edinburgh let alone the rest of Scotland. At that time most of the rural small towns and villages were having problems with drug taking and in some instances serious addiction. You only had to glance at a local paper to see the results of drug related crime, possession and even the obituary column included the death of young people due to excess drug taking and related illnesses.   

The nightmare of drug addiction.

Unless you have been living on a far away planet for the past twenty plus years I’m sure your quite familiar with the story which revolves around various character’s involved in or on the periphery of Edinburgh’s 1980/90’s drug scene. The main man is Mark Renton known as Rent Boy (Ewan McGregor in what I still think is his best role) an addict who tries desperately to give up his habit, the problem is he shares his life with like minded people who will do anything for a hit. There’s casual dealer Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) and Spud (Ewen Bremner) a natural born loser.  Also involved is the psychopath and small time villain Begbie (Robert Carlyle) a man who gets his kicks from acts of violence. 

 

Can we really run away from our responsibilities? 

Never my favourite director Danny Boyle must be given credit for what was at the time angry cutting edge cinema with a soundtrack to match that included some grand pop tunes from the 1980’s and 90’s including Iggy Pops Lust for Life, Lou Reeds Perfect Day and the Underworld anthem Born Slippy.  It’s a cinematic experience that makes you bulk at the disgusting, ‘the worse toilet in Scotland’ and the ultra sad death of a baby at the same time as admiring the wit that eases out of Hodges non-judgemental script. It has a great supporting cast including Kevin McKidd, Peter Mullan, Shirley Henderson and Kelly Macdonald in her first film role. Now quite rightly regarded as one of the best British films of the nineties and certainly worth a revisit if for no other reason than to realise how the wankers are still treating the Scottish people. Hopefully the new film T2 is just as brilliant and gives us more hope?

Trance.

Danny Boyle is certainly a man of principal. When he won awards and plaudits for Slumdog Millionaire (2008) he resisted a call to work in America and then he turned down a gong offered to him after masterminding the opening ceremony of the Olympic games that took place last year in East London.

The Auctioneer.

 On leaving the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre following a screening of Trance (2013) I was asked if I liked the film and my answer was that I didn’t know? Its convoluted story was something I would have to think about, all I could say was that it took along time to get where it was going! In a recent interview the director said ‘all the dark stuff that we could not put in the Olympics has ended up here’[1]

 

The Gangster.

It’s the sort of film where the less you know about the plot, the more chance you have of enjoying it. Set in modern day London, Simon an art auctioneer colludes with a gangster Franck, in the theft of a painting by Goya only to develop amnesia after hiding the work of art. His only hope of retrieving his memory and hence the painting, is to engage a hypnotherapist Dr Elizabeth Lamb. The real subject of this psychological thriller is not finding the painting but recovering the stolen memories that Elizabeth Lamb finds in Simons subconscious. Actually most of the films action seems to take place in people’s heads, and it’s left to the audience to decide if what we see is really happening.

 

The Hypnotherapist.

This twist-laden story, described by Boyle as a cruel film, is inspired by Nicolas Roeg and brings to mind Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010). It was based on a little known 2001 British television film of the same name. The three central characters are played by, James McAvoy (Simon) who also narrates the story, French actor Vincent Cassel plays the brutal Franck and Rosario Dawson plays the sexy American femme fatale Elizabeth Lamb. So have I made my mind up if I like the film? Well I’m afraid the answer is locked up in my subconscious so you’ll just have to see the film and make your own mind up!  

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[1] Interview Sight &Sound April 2013.

127 Hours

The 54 year-old Irish Catholic Danny Boyle, whose mother wanted him to become a priest, is a British film director that tells international stories, a director that sits out-with modern British film directors like Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Shane Meadows and Andrea Arnold who generally work within the British convention of social realism, a style that normally deals with serious social issues, it’s a great shame that Boyle is not part of this tradition.

Film Poster.

A large audience at the RBC Film Club were witness to Mr Boyle’s latest offering 127 Hours (2010) adapted for the screen by Boyle and Simon Beaufroy (The Full Monty, Slumdog Millionaire). The consensus of opinion on Monday night was I believe, that the film was great and that most people enjoyed it. But there were one or two that did have reservations, me included. The movie, as most people are aware, is based on a real life incident involving 27 year-old engineer and part time mountaineer Aron Ralston, a man whom I think it can be generally agreed is full of him-self, a man whose more than happy with his own company, but a man who, when he goes off on one of his trips into the barren but beautiful Utah dessert, does not leave a note or tell a living sole where he is going. It was this attitude that very nearly leads to his demise when his arm got trapped behind a large unmovable boulder. Again it common knowledge to most viewers that he spent 5 days attached to this large lump of rock and eventually with a jolly blunt knife cut off the lower section of his right arm.

James Franco as Aron Ralston.

The movie certainly has its good points: a fantastic opening sequence involving overlapping shots of sports crowds, subway passengers and financial markets to differentiate the forthcoming isolation of the remote Blue John Canyon, a very commendable performance from James Franco as Ralston who is almost alone through out the length of the film. Its well made and has a good conclusion, some superb editing and the soundtrack is very well interwoven into the humour of this unnerving story.

So, what didn’t I like? Well the film, claustrophobic and unsettling as it was lacked excitement and did not grip, you can only watch a man stuck to a large boulder for so long with out loosing interest, especially when you’re quite aware of the outcome. There’s a great quote I found in one of the reviews, talking about Ralston’s adventure states “taking on the desert single-handed and to leave the desert single-handed” well I thought it was funny!! Similar films, other than the Saw franchise! would be Kevin MacDonald’s Touching the Void (2003) and Sean Penn’s film about the equally unlikable real life character Christopher McCandless Into The Wild (2007). Anyway let’s hope Danny Boyle can make a good job of his role as artistic director of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the whole world will be watching.