Trainspotting

Since I watched Requiem for a Dream again the other day, I thought I might as well catch Trainspotting (1996), too, finally. I can’t tell why I never did before... Anyway, the film opens with a profound question: why choose all the conventional comfortable con- veniences of commercialized com- modities, of capitalist consumerism? Why be like everybody else? Don’t be. Why? There are no reasons. Now that’s deep; that’s me, in a nutshell: a non- conformist. But beyond that, don’t worry, I’m not a heroin addict, nor do I look like Ewan McGregor. So the similarities end right there.

Through the eyes of McGregor’s character “Rent Boy,” we follow a group of friends in 80s recession Edinburgh, some of whom are heroin addicts, while others are openly critical about doing drugs. Soon, Rent Boy tries to quit cold turkey. Later, when they’re hanging out at a bar, his sociopathic buddy Begbie causes a violent brawl. Then they go clubbing, Rent Boy falls in love, and whaddaya know, Blondie’s on the soundtrack. (Oh, the irony, but don’t worry if you didn’t catch that one – inside joke.)

Conventional life quickly becomes boring. So, Rent Boy and his friends start using again – anything they can get their hands on. And even clean kid Tommy (actor Keven McKidd, who we now know and love as Lucius Vorenus) starts using, because his girlfriend dumped him. Things start to unravel fast. A baby dies of neglect – one of the guys, Sick Boy, was probably the father. Rent Boy and his buddy Spud get arrested. Spud has to go to prison, Rent Boy goes into a rehabilitation program. But not for long, because he overdoes. His parents decide to lock him up in his room where he suffers from severe hallucinations. And (another insider) right when Rent Boy hit rock bottom, Lou Reed plays “A Perfect Day”! (Man, did they make this movie especially for me? Great soundtrack: Iggy Pop, Eno, New Order, Blur, Pulp, sheez!)

Meanwhile, Tommy has contracted HIV. Rent Boy tries to leave his mates behind and moves to a yuppie real estate gig in London. But before he knows it his friends catch up with him. Begbie shows up hiding from the police for robbing a bank. Sick Boy arrives, too, living off Rent Boy. Then Tommy passes away. Back in Scotland, the remaining friends decide to buy two kilos of heroin and sell it in London for a huge profit. Begbie spoils the party with yet another violent brawl. Rent Boy steals the money off Begbie, leaving some for Spud in a locker, and decides to opt for the conventional life he derided at the onset of the film.

While the film grabs the viewer’s attention with coarsely humorous and criminally violent scenes, dismally horrifying and repulsively disgusting scenes – sometimes all at once – what gives it emotional depth is the bond among the friends. They’re partners in crime. It’s a buddy flick – about guys who happen to be substance abusers. There’s an open ending, but it’s not a Hollywood Happy Ending. From Rent Boy’s previous attempts, we know he will come full circle again. He will fall back into his habit. That seems, to me at least, the message of the episodic and fragmentary narrative, that there are ups and downs, moments of clarity in the drug-infused haze, attempts to stay clean, but eventually the addiction will take over again – all it takes is one shot. This isn’t an anti-drug movie by any stretch of the imagination, but neither is it a pro-drug movie. Set among crime-infested urban poverty, this is social criticism. The heroin high is the one thing that makes them feel fine for a while, until they feel even worse – and then the buddies are there to go out and score some more, until they die.

Requiem for a Dream

I don’t care what you say, I think Requiem for a Dream (2000) is a terrific film – a terrible trip into drug-induced nightmares, but a good movie. True, I don’t care much for the cinematography, the split-screens, extreme close-ups, time-lapse scenes, and body-cam shots, or the quick-cut montage shots of drug use (dilation of pupils, pill swallowing, heroin cooking, etc. etc.). I understand that the style is meant to visualize the character’s isolation, alienation, to draw us into their subjective experience, but in my view the film would have done better without. At any rate, the story is about Harry (Jared Leto), his mother Sara (Ellen Burstyn), his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly) and his best friend Tyron (Marlon Wayans). They all live in Brighton Beach, N.Y. Harry and his friends are heroin addicts who start pushing drugs on the street, hoping to help Marion open her own fashion store. Harry’s mother is a TV junkie addicted to infomercials. All alone, her life regains new meaning when she receives an invitation to participate on a game show. She goes on a diet, taking weight-loss pills, uppers and downers, gradually losing grip on reality. She begins hallucinating about food, the fridge starts moving, pastry starts flowing around the house.

Months pass and Sara never hears another word about the game show. In her desperation she increases her dosage, soon taking pills randomly. She believes Harry has found well-paying employment and will soon marry Marion; he gives her a new TV set; and soon she believes she’s the central character in her favorite infomercial. Tyron gets arrested in the middle of a gang assassination and Harry needs to use most of their earnings to bail him out. Drugs become scarce because of the gang violence. Marion is pushed into prostituting herself to make at least enough money to support their addictions. If things appeared to be fine in the summer but started to go badly by the fall, when winter hits they really descend into a nightmarish abyss. Sara completely loses it and ends up wondering the streets until she arrives at the TV studio. She ends up in a mental hospital, where they eventually resort to electric shock therapy when all else fails to get her better. Harry and Tyron drive away toward Florida hoping to score enough dope to sell back in New York, but on the way Harry’s arm gets more and more infected from shooting up. When Tyron takes Harry to a hospital to have his arm treated, they get arrested instead. Marion slides deeper into prostitution, performing perverse acts at an orgy full of men in suits. Tyron faces racism and forced labor in prison. Harry’s arm has to be amputated to save his life. The film ends with scenes of all four characters falling asleep in fetal position.

“Requiem for a Dream” is a beautiful title. A “requiem” is normally an elegy or ode sang at the funeral of a deceased. The deceased in this case being the dreams of the four characters. – Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine (“Grant them eternal rest, O Lord”) – While we’re given some impression of these American Dreams, the movie rather depicts the character’s plunge into the nightmare, their descent into the abyss. The film is actually more critical of American consumerism than of drug use; it doesn’t scream: “Drugs Are Bad!” Nor would I judge anyone giving in to the temptations of food and drink, sex and drugs, or rock and roll – the pursuit of happiness. It’s when the addiction takes over, when we lose control, that we run the risk of losing ourselves and our minds. What director Darren Aronofsky illustrates admirably with this story (based on the novel by Hubert Selby jr.) is that the descent is so gradual it’s indiscernible – it’s impossible to tell at what point they have lost grip, when the rot has set in, and the fall has become inevitable. Because the story is so compelling, the dialogue and acting so enthralling, that I found this nightmare such a rush to watch. I recall when I first walked out of the cinema ten years ago, the experience left me shocked and repulsed, fascinated and high.