Trainspotting

In ash-grey Edinburgh, this is the portrait of five addicted guys: more junkie than rebel. This first major film by Danny Boyle (*Slumdog Millionaire*) is Cool Britannia at its best. *Trainspotting* is the story of the unemployed Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) who, together with his mates, tries to add color to the dull Edinburgh of the 90s. Their life consists mainly of drinking beer, going out, drugs, and playing football. Mark does his best to choose a new life and break free from his drug past. He moves to London, but his friends and past continue to haunt him. To the beats of Underworld's 'Born Slippy', Iggy Pop's 'Lust for Life', and songs by Blur and Pulp, the viewer is drawn into the darkly hilarious drug world of Renton, Begbie, Spud, and Sick Boy, only to pop out again via the 'dirtiest toilet in Scotland'. *Trainspotting* marked, despite a number of intensely sad scenes, the arrival of Tony Blair's upbeat neoliberal 'Cool Britannia', where grab what you can get became the moral.