The film that made it cool to be Scottish. Trainspotting is more than a great film, it has transcended that to become (along with the novel before it) a cultural phenomenon and part of the iconography of the decade every bit as much as Blow-Up was in the 60s. It is a near perfect film, so completely of its era but timeless enough to become a modern classic. Danny Boyle's sophomore effort demonstrated irrefutably that Shallow Grave was no flash-in-the pan, and Boyle along with his co-writer John Hodge and producer Andrew McDonald performed a miracle locating the perfect cinematic beats in their excavation of Irvine Welsh's book - essentially a series of interlinking vignettes that formed a novel. Trainspotting was often described as 'unfilmable' but Boyle and co found the film to make within the multitude of narrative possibilities and in the process conjured a masterpiece.
As well as the odd article, I apply my "special mind" to scriptwriting for Comics, Films and Games... Oh and I cut down trees, I skip and jump, I like to press wild flow'rs, I put on women's clothing, and hang around in bars.
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