'T2 Trainspotting': Indulgent Film Reunites Indulgent Characters, 20 Years Later
The sequel to Danny Boyle's blisteringly original 1997 movie lacks that film's structure and insight, but the cast can still generate fitful flashes of energy and charm.
The opening minutes of Danny Boyle's Trainspotting stand as a defining pop salvo in the movies, akin to The Beatles dashing away from screaming fans in A Hard Day's Night or Rosie Perez shadow-boxing her way through Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" in the opening credits of Do the Right Thing.
To the propulsive thump of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life," we're introduced to motley quintet of young Scottish heroin junkies, as two on "Choose Life" sloganeering, mocking the conformist expectations of family and big-screen televisions and "fixed interest mortgage repayments." He rejects those expectations, and for what reasons? "Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?"
