Trainspotting, 1996 - ★★★★★

Trainspotting, 1996 - ★★★★★
REVIEWED

"Would sir care for a starter of some garlic bread perhaps?"

Swanney (Peter Mullan)

"No, thank you. I will proceed directly to the IV of hard drugs, please."

Renton (Ewan McGregor)

Just had the massive urge to rewatch this again over the weekend, with all the hype over the sequel finally getting the green light along with Boyle having a new movie out. Not sure what I think about the sequel, but if anyones going to make it glad its Boyle.

Choose... amazingly bleak humor (which remains immensely quotable).

Choose... fantastic music (which ranges from timeless rock, 90s Brit indie and often quirky incidental elevator music).

Choose... fine performances and direction (arguably the best picture entire cast and crew have ever made).

Choose... Kelly Mcdonalds T'n'A

Choose to wind up at the end of the 90 minutes feeling totally entertained.

[PRFR: Personal Reasons For Remembering]

The whole damn package is still amazing, little I didn't remember from last time I caught it (a good 2 or 3 years back). I had forgot how great Ewan McGregor used to be, I last caught him in that dull lifeless tsunami movie. And how much time both the characters of Tommy & Swanney got.

Originally taken from Letterboxd

Dusty and Sweets McGee, 1971 - ★★★★½

Dusty and Sweets McGee, 1971 - ★★★★½
REVIEWED

"I'm only a freak by the standards I accept."

Male Hustler

Maybe, just maybe 'Dusty and Sweets McGee' is the holy motherfucking lost grail of counter culture drugsploitation movies. It starts with the intention of fooling the audience into thinking they're watching a real documentary (I'll be honest I dived into it under the false pretense it was, but it didn't take long to realize its not), at the start it notifies us that all the characters are played by real people, using their real names. What follows is 100 minutes of screen gold (well kinda more brown). We follow a set of lowlife heroin addicts and hustlers, plus a new couple to the scene, dabbling in the might of the horse for the first time. The characters speak candidly sharing their life stories, while the film itself cuts between dramatic scenes and spoken ones randomly throughout.

How the hell have I never heard of, nor seen this 70's WB movie before (my only guess is somehow it got held up with copyright issues or something, can understand lesser companies movies going AWOL but not WB). Its like watching Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy & My Own Private Idaho rolled into one, with Reservoir Dogs 'K Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s' playing as its musical backdrop. I must confess beforehand they were all movies I greatly respected and deemed extremely original, after seeing this I'm not so sure I'll feel the same.

Speaking of the soundtrack its truly jaw dropping, the music choices are amazing covering 50's doo-wop through to 70's classic rock, it even features its own fabtastic DJ named Weird Beard. Visually the film looks aged slightly, but that raw 70s era holds up well (at least it does for me). Acting isn't perfect but its sufficient to the characters and their stories. The actors clearly stayed up a few nights to give them the appearance of being tired and drawn, or maybe they really dabbled a little in the old H, hehe kinda 'Taking drugs to make movies to take drugs to' to coin a phrase.

The stories and dialog are the key to it working, they're either true (say taken from dudes in twelve step programs) or they're extremely well researched. I've not seen a Floyd Mutrux directed movie before, but I plan on changing that sooner or later. Of his writing credits i've seen, they go from pretty drool worthy to very watchable.

Originally taken from Letterboxd