Director: Danny Boyle
Year Released: 1996
Rating: 3.0
I wanted to revisit this after so many years to make sure it holds up to some extent, and to my surprise it actually does (story wise, the film is a lot slighter than I remembered). It's safe to say that it is absolutely not a glorification of drug use - rather, it understands the pleasure of the moments on heroin, but also fully realizes exactly how it destroys your life - and tries to be neutral in weighing out the "Drug Life" and its own sarcastic "Choose Life" declaration, understanding that the "normal life" of debt and appliances and a 9-to-5 job and that of being an addict and a mess are both problematic and unsatisfying (this ambiguity may have set off the U.S., because we know that anything that offers shades of gray isn't always eagerly accepted by black-and-white American minds). What does surprise me, close to a decade later, is how funny it still is, with plenty of edgy black humor and great timing (Robert Carlyle as Begbie is a riot). Still boasts one of the best soundtracks of the 90's, and Underworld's "Born Slippy" is a perfect fit to end the film (like Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" was to start it).
