Trainspotting
Trainspotting might not have been the film to win Danny Boyle his Best Director Oscar, but to many it remains his best film to date, an energetic, frightening, exhilarating, and superbly acted drama that remains one of the most beloved British films of both the 1990s and, indeed, of all time. Who can forget the opening scene in which Renton (Ewan McGregor) bounds along the pavement as Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" blares out? The film is aesthetically significant in as much as it helped define what has become the archetypal "drug movie", with loud music and frantic visuals, essentially reflecting the drug-taking experience - you need only look at films such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Requiem for a Dream to see the influence it has had on the genre. Culturally, the film reflects a certain milieu of the 90s, the disaffected, heroin-addicted youths of that time, tired of being fed what mainstream culture wants to throw at them, and in effect forging their own rebellious "rave culture". Though some might accuse the film of being flippant towards the consequences of drug use at times, there's no denying that it underlines the drug problem in Scotland - one which continues to soar - with a probing, brutal efficiency.