Trainspotting (1996)

The Plot

It focuses on the addiction to drugs particularly heroin, that a gang of buddies have. It is set in Scotland. Mark Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, Tommy and Begbie are the buddies in focus. Mark and Spud are big time into drugs and they commit a crime for which Spud is sent to prison and Mark is put into continued rehab.

Mark gets out of his addiction with great difficulty overcoming some intense withdrawal trips. Tommy is ditched by his girlfriend and he later contracts a virus through cat shit called toxoplasmosis.  Begbie isn’t into drugs but he is a real jerk who hurts people according to his whims and fancies. Sick Boy loses his baby due to his negligence and he is a pimp.

Mark has a girlfriend Diane who is a school girl. He feels guilty for screwing a schoolgirl. Mark gets back to a normal life post his rehab and he settles in life as a real estate broker. But his jobless junkie mates come back to him with a drug deal in London with some Russians, that fetches them a cool 16000 pounds

In the end Mark ditches Begbie and Sick Boy without any regret and leaves Spud’s share and escapes with the rest of the money to lead a normal materialistic life like other citizens. Begbie is jailed for a previous crime as well and Spud happily takes his share.

                                                                                 

Hits

• Ewan McGregor as Mark literally lives the role of the drugged junkie. Particularly the scenes where he is desperate for a shot, the way he enjoys his trips, the way he is haunted by the withdrawal symptoms  etc. etc. the getup is also very apt for this 'yoyo' type junkie who doesn’t care to live by the rules until the very end.


• Some of the scenes are plain crazy and never seen before. The way Mark dives into the ugliest toilet seat in Scotland to get the heroin that he just excreted and the way the imaginary baby crawls on the ceiling while Mark is withdrawing from drugs. Creepy and utter disdain for normal cinematic norms. Hats off to Danny Boyle.


• Among the other junkies, the guy who comes as Spud has a real weird getup and he acts and behaves like a real drug addict. His interview scene where he is doped and answers all the questions hyper-actively is a riot.


• The soundtrack is pure 'yoyo' and has many dance beats. Particularly for the withdrawal symptoms scene, it is kick-ass.


• The dialogs at the very start and end of the movie about how materialistic most of the population is, and how the same dialogs are used to explain Mark’s change in mindset is a nice directorial touch.

VERDICT

A pioneering movie for the presentation, style and the way drug effects are portrayed. Guy Ritchie must have been inspired by this movie’s style, as all his movies have a similar style to this movie. Cheers to Danny Boyle

127 hours movie review

The Plot

It is a true life depiction of how avid mountain climber and adventure freak Aron Ralston, gets trapped in the Blue John Canyon for 127 hours.

He goes off without leaving a note and no one knows his whereabouts during these 127 hours. He initially frantically tries to set his arm free, but later realizes that it is not going to help and slowly he uses all his memories of his past, his family, friends, his lady love and he even hallucinates about a talk show where he has a conversation with himself and he really repents his state.

He finally does the unthinkable after surviving with bare minimum water, food and protection. He even drinks his own urine to survive. He cuts his arm off in a moment of sheer desperation to survive. He leaves the place in a rescue chopper after he finally finds help through some other fellow climbers.

The film is quite intense and might not suit the faint hearted.

                                                                         
Hits

• James Franco literally lives the role. We can feel the pain through him.
• A.R. Rahman provides some soul lifting BGM for the scenes when Aron is in the process of severing his arm and also in the final sequences when he shouts for help after escaping the canyon. Fills us with tears and goose bumps.
• The cinematography is imposing particularly in the sequence when the camera moves top angle to show us the extent of the depth of the crack that Aron is stuck in
• The dialogues are quite brilliant and emotional particularly the final dialogue by Aron after his escape “I need help. I need water. I got stuck in a crack. I cut my arm”. When complemented by ARR’s BGM, it is time to get overwhelmed by a swirl of emotions. 

VERDICT

Sheer triumph of the human spirit and the will to survive. Great cinema by Danny Boyle to bring to the silver screens the life of a great adventurer and survivor, Aron Ralston.