So let me preface this by saying that I’m only twenty-four.
There are many movies that I still have not seen in my twenty-four years of living. Heck, I only just watched The Lord of the Rings movies for the first time, and that’s coming from someone who had seen so many other fantasy movies, such as the Harry Potter series, or Chronicles of Narnia.
A certain type of movie that I hadn’t been super aware of for a long time were black comedy-dramas, mainly because for a long time, the idea of watching those movies was not at the top of my list. But I decided to give it a shot and look into Trainspotting, a well-received movie released back in 1996 that many believe is one of the best films of the 1990s.
However, I looked at what the main film was about, and it was about addiction. Keep in mind, I’m not opposed to films diving into heavy topics, but it really hasn’t been that long since I watched Requiem for a Dream for the first time, and I was severely knocked out for a day after that. I didn’t think I’d ever be happy again.
Jokes aside, that movie was heavy, and I was a little wary to dive right into another film, this time labeled as a black comedy-drama, that followed the same topic. But I have to say… I enjoyed Trainspotting a lot more than I thought I would. And today, I’m going to talk about it.
I Can’t Get Over How Young Ewan McGregor Looks
He was so young, oh my God.
You have to understand me when I say this – I am so not used to young adult Ewan Mcgregor. I grew up watching him in the Star Wars prequel movies and every other film he was in after that. I watched him in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I loved him in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. I was obsessed with his other films like Angels and Demons and The Ghost Writer.
If you love Ewan McGregor, check out some of his best movies and TV shows.
But literally nothing could have prepared me for seeing McGregor in Trainspotting as such a young character.
It’s moments like this where I’m reminded that actors always end up starting somewhere, whether you’re in your later years or you’re younger, and for McGregor, this was where he really got started. While he was in a British series beforehand, called Lipstick on Your Collar, it was this film that really put his name on the map before Star Wars.
And he does a great job. For someone who was in his twenties at the time, he put on a brilliant performance, one that really should have been more recognized. I felt Mark Renton’s fear, his withdrawal, the whole nine yards throughout the film, and it was because of McGregor’s amazing acting. I have to give him a ton of props.
I Was Not Prepared For How Gross This Film Gets — Nor Was I Prepared For How Weird It Gets
Alright, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but this film jumps right into the weirdness, straight away.
When I tell you that my head felt like it was being thrown in different directions consistently, I mean it. One moment, our main character was pooping his brains out into a toilet because he was no longer constipated from heroin, but then seconds later, he is digging through the toilet in order to retrieve the suppositories that he had accidentally excreted.
And then all of a sudden, it’s like he submerges himself into the toilet and he is imagining that he is swimming through filthy water in order to get them back, before he emerges.
What?
It’s moments like this throughout the movie that made me scratch my head and genuinely wonder what the heck was going on, but I suppose that’s really what makes it good. I’ve seen some pretty weird movies, like recommended TikTok horror films or other strange flicks, but this one was all over the place at certain points.
But Hey, The Cinematography Is Really Neat
Even so, what I’ve noticed with films that might have deeper meanings or stranger circumstances is that the cinematography is usually clean and expertly done. I instantly think of Midsommar or Hereditary, two horror films with very dark themes, but the camera work is exceptional.
That’s the case with Trainspotting. For all its weird moments that make you scratch your head, it’s made up for with brilliant camerawork. There are many moments in this movie that look as if the frame could be hung up in a museum of cinema. My personal favorite shot was in the very beginning, when Renton was walking through the street, and we saw those colorful apartments all stacked up behind him.
That was so amazingly well-done, and I can’t get over how there are so many other awesome shots in this film, just like that. They knocked it out of the park.
The Film Helped Me Understand Relapse Better
As someone who has never personally gone through a relapse, I’ll never truly understand what drug rehabilitation is like. But I will say that Trainspotting made me understand it a lot more.
While Requiem for a Dream felt as if it was almost a warning to people, to not do drugs, Trainspotting tackles the heavy topic, alongside many other themes such as poverty and more, but it also isn’t afraid to show that you can come back from that. Requiem for a Dream felt as if it was just one horrible mistake after another and there was no coming back.
But with Trainspotting, we see Mark Renton start to slowly pick up his life, despite being forced into withdrawal by his parents after what happens to him with his heroin overdose. It shows that even if you made terrible mistakes in the past, you can still come back. It not only showed the realities of relapse, but how you can grow from it too.
It’s Also A Great Way To Show How Stepping Into The Unknown Can Lead To Something Better
We've all made friends and lost them in the past, so we all understand that it’s scary to step into the unknown, but Trainspotting actually gives a surprisingly good meaning behind that – what it feels like to abandon your comfort zone.
Mark Renton had a whole new life in London, one that he was good at, and when his buddies from the past suddenly showed up again, it was thrown around and he was at risk of losing it. But he knew what was better for him, and while he did help out one of his old friends because they never did anything to him, he booked out of there after their night of selling drugs.
I have to admit, I was extremely proud of him. Not only did he realize that his past comrades were really bad to be around, he willingly ran the heck out because he didn’t want to risk what he had built up, all for it to go crashing down.
While the people that we know from our past might be our comfort zone, sometimes we need to step out of it in order to become someone better, and that’s exactly what Renton did.
I’m genuinely surprised at how much I ended up liking Trainspotting. Yes, there were some dark, deep, depressing moments, such as the death of Dawn, Tommy’s funeral and more, but I felt a ton more hopeful after this movie than the last drug-related movie I viewed. It was almost like a detox to my movie-watcher brain.
While I don’t think I’ll be watching the movie again anytime soon, I can fully say that I would recommend it to someone else – if not just to see Ewan McGregor kill it in a pre-Star Wars role.
