Fresh
Trainspotting's saving grace is that there's a heck of a lot of entertainment value in this particular form of shallowness.
Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel
Overview
Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends --Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind as Begbie and Sick Boy come knocking.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
90%
Tomatometer
Fresh
Trainspotting, buoyed by a great Brit Pop soundtrack and Brian Tufano's agile cinematography, captures the stoned-out, gut-churning experience of hardcore addiction with hallucinogenic acuity.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Fresh
The characters are without recognizable virtues, and neither they nor the movie asks us to like them. But they are full of energy and underplayed wit, endlessly picking themselves up off the filthy floor.
Michael Wood, Slate
Fresh
Trainspotting is a searing pop-art portrait of a lost generation blowing out its brains. As they rail, chuckle, shout and dive into darkness, you're trapped yourself between a bellylaugh and a scream.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Fresh
The film is about joy -- in conniving and surviving, in connecting with audiences, in its own fizzy, jizzy style. And that's why, compared with it, most other films look zombified.
Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
More films
Snatch (2000)
Comedy · Crime · R
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookies, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.
- Runtime
- 1h 43m
- Director
- Guy Ritchie
- Cast
- Jason Statham, Alan Ford, Dennis Farina
IMDb
8.2
Rotten Tomatoes
74%
Metacritic
55
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Crime · Drama · R
Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
- Runtime
- 1h 42m
- Director
- Gus Van Sant
- Cast
- Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, James Remar
IMDb
7.2
Rotten Tomatoes
97%
Metacritic
82
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Crime · Drama · NC-17
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
- Runtime
- 1h 42m
- Director
- Darren Aronofsky
- Cast
- Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly
IMDb
8.3
Rotten Tomatoes
80%
Metacritic
71
Spun (2003)
Comedy · Crime · Drama · Unrated
Over the course of three days Ross, a college dropout addicted to crystal-meth, encounters a variety of oddball folks - including a stripper named Nikki and her boyfriend, the local meth producer, The Cook - but all he really wants to do is hook up with his old girlfriend, Amy.
- Runtime
- 1h 41m
- Director
- Jonas Åkerlund
- Cast
- Jason Schwartzman, Mickey Rourke, Brittany Murphy
IMDb
6.8
Rotten Tomatoes
37%
Metacritic
41
Comments
Talk about the film with other members