Occasionally, I go outside Hollywood to cover an influential film too interesting to ignore. Every year there are the lucky few films that make a cultural impact outside of cinema. You hang the poster on your dorm wall and everyone knows this guy is cool. That’s why it’s exciting to work on a Scarface or Sinners or Trainspotting. No matter how difficult the actual production is, there’s something more going on that will be talked about for years to come. Trainspotting has those credentials a couple of ways.
It was the breakout role for Ewan McGregor and it introduced Kelly Macdonald to the world. They’re supported by the now familiar faces of Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle, Peter Mullen and Ewen Bremmer, whose accent was so thick and performance so specific it was doubtful he would go on past this one film let alone have a lasting and successful career.
The film is more a collection of adventures, but Danny Boyle went all out to make these adventures memorable starting with the “Choose Life” monologue that opens the film set to Iggy Pop’s “Lust For Life” while our characters run from security guards. There’s the bar brawl that introduces the violent Begbie, Renton going cold turkey and his overdose scene, Spud giving the worst job interview ever and the most talked about scene, Renton’s trip to the Worst Toilet in Scotland.
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