Described as the best British film of the 1990s, Danny Boyle's angry, visceral, irreverent Vodka shot of cinema is a towering, iconic achievement. It's one of those rare cases of where everything about a film is so perfect as to be flawless.
Irvine Welsh's novel is the perfect inspiration, firing off a dangerous narcotic or uncontrollable youths in a society blind drunk in the depression of late Tory Britain. An indictment on how low people have sunk as to abuse their bodies, but also, as Renton observes, that "the streets are awash with drugs", his only statement in the film that even he sounds disgusted at saying. Combine this explosive cocktail with Boyle's crunching evenergy and the result is searing, rampaging cinema.
Raw images puncture the screen: Ewan McGregor's skinny frame, the heroin hits knocking everyone flat, Begbie flickering into intense violence with all the rage of a wild tiger. Baraged with a soundtrack of pulsing, powering trance hits and sour, ironic… more »

Described as the best British film of the 1990s, Danny Boyle's angry, visceral, irreverent Vodka shot of cinema is a towering, iconic achievement. It's one of those rare cases of where everything about a film is so perfect as to be flawless.
Irvine Welsh's novel is the perfect inspiration, firing off a dangerous narcotic or uncontrollable youths in a society blind drunk in the depression of late Tory Britain. An indictment on how low people have sunk as to abuse their bodies, but also, as Renton observes, that "the streets are awash with drugs", his only statement in the film that even he sounds disgusted at saying. Combine this explosive cocktail with Boyle's crunching evenergy and the result is searing, rampaging cinema.
Raw images puncture the screen: Ewan McGregor's skinny frame, the heroin hits knocking everyone flat, Begbie flickering into intense violence with all the rage of a wild tiger. Baraged with a soundtrack of pulsing, powering trance hits and sour, ironic ballads, the whole is a huge dose of hyperactive energy. Boyle's style recalls Scorsese, but rather than rip him off he pays homage and takes Scorsese's with the corruption of the American soul and uses it to show the corruption of the British soul.
Many critics foolishly claimed the film glamourises drugs. Renton overdosing; Tommy dying; Alison's baby starving to death, all unmistakably and directly trsulting from heroin. That's glamour? Boyle sympathises with the young junkies but he also refuses to sugarcoat them. He fully captures how miserable and pathetic users become and how destructive it is in every sense. It may give you freedom from pain, but in itself it enslaves you far greater than anything else ever could. There's no glamour to be found anywhere.
The cast are astounding. You never doubt for a second these are real people, drinking, smoking, shagging and drugging themselves to death. It's almost scary to see such dedication and conviction, but then it goes one better by being laced with the blackest humour imagineable.
It's a shot of the sexiest Vodka, but it's spiked and leaves an unrelentingly bitter aftertaste.