T2 Trainspotting Trailer Arrives: Better Late Than Never

I believe the expression is: 'there are no words'. The trailer for Trainspotting 2 has given me 'all the feels'. Finally, the sequel to one of the greatest movies of all time, and probably my favourite British movie ever, is here. And it's pretty much everything I could have hoped for.

T2 Trainspotting will be arriving at your cinematic station on January 27th 2017. Here's the poster and trailer:

Before Steve Jobs: A Danny Boyle Retrospective

Director Danny Boyle's latest film Steve Jobs (read my review here) may not have set the box office alight (currently sitting at a $24 million gross off a $30 million budget), but it has been a hit with the critics and should snaffle a few big awards over the coming months. You never know quite what you're going to get next from Danny Boyle, as a look back at his wonderfully varied career shows.

Starting out in TV movies, mini-series and episodes of Inspector Morse from 1987 to 1993, it took Danny Boyle’s gripping debut feature Shallow Grave in 1994 for anyone to take notice of the mild-mannered Northerner before he would go on to become a national treasure last year. His career has gone from the controversy baiting Trainspotting about a group of Scottish junkies to be being the pride of Britain with his stunning marvel, the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. With Trance about to hit cinemas, we take a look at just what it is that makes Danny Boyle the best of British.

Danny Boyle’s debut feature film arrived in 1994 with the frenetic, energetic and deeply dark Shallow Grave. Putting Boyle and McGregor close to being on the map rather than slap bang in the centre; it nevertheless introduces many of the themes, stylistic traits and collaborations that would colour Boyle’s career. From its opening voiceover (not nearly as cool as Trainspotting’s) to its mistrust between friends, betrayal over a suitcase full of money and its collaboration between director Boyle, writer John Hodge, producer Andrew Macdonald and star Ewan McGregor, there are many signs of great things to come.

Three friends sharing an apartment in Scotland find a new housemate to join them in their spare bedroom. After spending his first night there, the new guy drops dead leaving a suitcase stuffed with cash for the three friends to decide what to do with. When they decide to dump the body and keep the cash, things turn swiftly sour. Greed, betrayal and brutality soon follow as gangster types show up for the lost money and the three friends finally turn on each other. Boyle’s mobile camera is wonderful to watch, the soundtrack pulses and Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston bring two very different characters to the central triangle, leading to a thrilling and clever final act.

However 1996 was the year that Boyle really got noticed. Trainspotting is his masterpiece, based on the book by Irvine Welsh and telling the tale of Scottish junkies trying to kick the habit; failing, fucking and finally trying to go straight after one big score. Ewan McGregor stars as Renton but the ensemble cast of Ewan Bremner as loveable Spud, Robert Carlyle as psychopath Begbie, Johnny Lee Miller, Kelly Macdonald, Kevin McKidd and Peter Mullan are all on finest form. Working again with writer Hodge and producer Macdonald, the filmmaking triumvirate produce the most iconic and best British film of the 90s.

Renton and his ‘buddies’ should be despicable low lives but Boyle and his collaborators keep all these junkies believable and most importantly sympathetic… except maybe Robert Carlyle’s mini-madman Begbie. It was accused of promoting heroin chic, a fashionably scrawny look still modelled by Kate Moss, and of glamorising heroin use. It does neither, giving a brutally honest account of the degradation and danger of heroin addiction but still managing to give some character’s an almost happy Hollywood ending. The soundtrack, the ‘choose life’ monologue and the iconic marketing not only put Boyle on the map but also Britain and set McGregor off on his journey to Star Wars.

odge and Andrw Hodge

How can you follow a film like Trainspotting? Unfortunately it’s very difficult and some might say you just can’t. Boyle took the lure of Hollywood dollars with his next production; keeping McGregor, Hodges and Macdonald in tow but producing the ambitious, surreal but fatally flawed misstep that is A Life Less Ordinary. Released only a year after the success of Trainspotting it was bound to be a disappointment but even on its own terms this tale of angels and kidnapping fails to elicit much of a response, emotionally or intellectually. It feels rushed, miscast and too silly for its own good. Cameron Diaz joined the cast as a spoiled rich girl who allows herself to be kidnapped by Ewan McGregor’s loveable oaf, but the chemistry, the comedy and the supernatural interference of two of Heaven's angels fail to gel and offer a satisfying whole. If there is one film in Boyle’s career to avoid, this is it.

Three years later Boyle returned with another shot at the blockbuster; this time starring Leonardo DiCaprio in a role that was promised to Ewan McGregor but then snatched away due to studio interference. It caused a riff between Boyle and McGregor that is rumoured to have only recently been resolved. It’s also a huge shame as Boyle’s adaptation of Alex Garland’s incredible book The Beach feels like one big bucks compromise after another. Richard, the hero of the book, is British and would have been a better fit for McGregor and his unrequited love for the girl he couldn’t have is a high point of the novel. Instead the film makes the most of Leo’s heartthrob status and has him shagging his away around the beautiful, idyllic island hideaway of the title.

Lots of Boyle’s fun and funky stylistic traits are there and Leo isn’t bad as Richard but the film had a huge mountain to climb to be anywhere near as brilliant as the book. Shooting in Thailand and making the most of beautiful locations, the ending was also changed from the novel in an exciting direction. More interestingly, the collaboration between Boyle and McGregor came to a close, but it opened the door to a new collaboration.

After the critical shrug towards The Beach, Boyle retreated to television to complete a couple of television movies in 2001. Feeling refreshed and ready to take on a feature film again, Boyle resisted the studios and offers of big budgets and decided instead to film a zombie movie that would redefine the genre forever. 28 Days Later marked his second collaboration of sorts with writer Alex Garland. Whereas Garland wrote only The Beach novel with Hodges penning the screenplay, 28 Days Later was Garland’s first film script.

Featuring Cillian Murphy (who would later appear again in Sunshine), 28 Days Later is the story of a virus that spreads throughout Britain turning people into blood-spewing rage-filled savages, the Infected. Giving the zombie genre a vital shot in the arm by unleashing basically what amounted to sprinting, extra-terrifying zombies, its digitally shot, low budget thrills are just what the British horror film needed and also sent Boyle in a new direction, sticking with lower budgets to enhance his creative and bold visions. 28 Days Later feels like Boyle back to his roots; low budget, British characters and setting, gritty, brutal, but stylish and subtly commercial enough to attract the American audience. It also marked the start of his collaboration with director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle that would continue through Millions, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Trance and his collaboration with composer John Murphy that would make more music together through Millions and Sunshine.

Sticking to home turf, a small story and returning to a narrative that spins around an ill-gotten bag full of money (see also Shallow Grave and the final act of Trainspotting), Boyle’s next film introduced him to the wonders of working with children, which he would again do in Slumdog Millionaire. Millions feels a little like an anomaly in Boyle’s career though. It is the utterly charming and completely surreal tale of two little boys who come across a large amount of money as Britain prepares to convert to the Euro. It’s alt-universe where England has decided to go with the common currency is far from the strangest things about it. One of the little boys sees saints everywhere and even converses with them. There is a strong spiritual element throughout with stars in the sky, a pivotal nativity play and Jehovah’s Witnesses all featuring heavily.

Though that all might bring back unwelcome memories of A Life Less Ordinary and its not so heavenly angels, Millions is far smarter and more surreal, but also much more emotional than Boyle’s earlier misfire. Its ending is completely bonkers but Millions is worth a look to see Boyle at his weirdest. Incredibly, it manages to balance family drama and laughs and with smart scripting and intelligent themes.

In 2007, Boyle returned to Alex Garland for his next script, the science fiction scorcher Sunshine. Infinitely smarter than many examples of the genre, it’s not quite Danny Boyle’s 2001: A Space Odyssey but it is an outstandingly shot, edited, scored and special effects dependent intellectual blockbuster. Though it may sound more like Michael Bay than Stanley Kubrick with a crew of scientists sent to kick start the dying sun with a nuclear weapon, it is smarter than the average mission to save the Earth stupidity.

With its beautiful and haunting score from John Murphy, incredible special effects and gorgeous cinematography, it is worlds away from anything Boyle had directed before, despite the presence of Cillian Murphy, returning after their collaboration on 28 Days Later.

Danny Boyle’s next two films were both written by Simon Beaufoy, the writer who until then had been best known for The Full Monty. Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours were both adaptations of books, something Boyle had not attempted since the success of Trainspotting and the relative disappointment of The Beach. Slumdog Millionaire gained Boyle real international recognition and acceptance as it scooped eight Academy Awards. Its success not only reflected Boyle’s incredible directing talent but also the spot on selection of his collaborators from Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography to Beaufoy’s screenplay to his editing and music teams.

Slumdog Millionaire also confirmed Boyle as a director at his best working with budgetary constraints and with a vibrant culture to capture and put up on screen. His work with the young Indian non-professional actors recalls his eliciting of wonderful performances from the boys in Millions.

Boyle then took restraints to new limits with his adaptation of Aron Ralston’s incredible survival tale Between a Rock and Hard Place. Sticking James Franco down a canyon and trapping him under a rock for 127 Hours meant the real star of the film was not just Franco and his desperate, determined performance but also Boyle’s signature kinetic style. For a film so limited to one location (and a claustrophobic one at that), 127 Hours is a speedy, zippy, film-making tour de force with whizzing camerawork, split screens and choppy editing all amounting to a highly emotional and cathartic cinematic journey.

It is not only a great tale of survival, like a real-life Saw film, but 127 Hours also brings together many of the themes of Boyle's film career to date. From Trainspotting’s opening sprint through the Edinburgh streets set to Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, Danny Boyle has created memorable characters whose life-affirming stories really do show a strong desire to survive from Renton kicking heroin to Ralston cutting his own arm off. There are elements of the spiritual present with Franco’s hero finding hope in premonitions of his future son. Angels, saints, hope and visions of paradise have all featured in Boyle’s films of the past and Ralston is forced to question his morals and values while trapped in the canyon. Danny Boyle’s films have always questioned moral choices over money, drugs and the value of human life.

He is a director who has traversed genres like few others. Not content with this, Boyle recently directed his own version of Frankenstein at the National Theatre and quickly and conscientiously silenced the cynics by putting on one of the greatest Olympic Opening Ceremonies the world has ever seen.

Trance sees him work with James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel for the first time in a trippy art-heist thriller that also sees him reunite with writer John Hodge and director of photography Anthony Dod Mantle. With the news that the long-awaited sequel to Trainspotting will now be arriving in 2017 with the original cast intact, it looks as though Danny Boyle’s lust for a life in filmmaking is set to continue long into the future. 

Filth Review

If you thought Trainspotting’s collection of junkie scumbags were the lowest of the low, get ready to wallow around in a stinking pit of depravity that would make even Francis Begbie blush. Meet reeking cesspool of a copper Bruce Robertson (James McAvoy) and then be very, very glad you only had to see him on the big screen in Filth and not knocking at your front door with his badge in his hand.

Filth is the unsanitary and unsavoury depiction of bent Scottish cop Bruce Robertson (a never better James McAvoy), created by Irvine Welsh and adapted for the screen by writer/director Jon S. Baird. Taking tips from the mother of all Welsh adaptations, Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, Baird has crafted a surreal and squalid trawl through Edinburgh’s underbelly starting with one of the sick scumbags who is supposed to police it.

Little piggies will squeal with delight at the whiskey guzzling, coke hoofing, sexually depraved antics of Scotland’s finest while the rest will take comfort in watching the decline of Bruce Robertson’s sordid existence as he struggles to catch a killer, gain a promotion and mess with the minds of everyone unfortunate enough to be close to him.

Checking out the wild life of Robertson as he plays his nefarious games with colleagues, their wives and his freemason friend takes up the majority of Filth’s first hour. A pivotal scene in which Imogen Poot’s more-than-simply-posh-totty colleague gets under his terrible skin reveals the layers beneath the dirt with McAvoy’s performance becoming increasingly mesmerising as his character starts to really unravel in the final third.

As Robertson’s sad little life spins increasingly out of control, his wild life leads to wildlife haunting his hallucinations. Faces of those around him turn to pigs, witches and all manner of horrors as Bruce sinks faster into addiction and loses his grip on reality.

McAvoy makes an almost sympathetic anti-hero out of Bruce by the end with Baird’s script and slight alterations to the source novel making Filth a far more appealing ride than the book ever was. As Bruce flits between fun and filthy, there is plenty to laugh, wince and gasp at while some of the secondary characters such as Eddie Marsan’s Clifford Blades are the ones that should be tugging at the heart strings. However with a performance as demented, ferocious, feral and frequently fun as McAvoy’s the likes of Jamie Bell and Marsan barely get any scenes to shine out of the muck.

The supporting cast add touches of humour with buckled down Marsan particularly getting one stand out scene while raving on ecstasy but Jim Broadbent takes weird to the next level when he pops up as Bruce’s Australian shrink in increasingly surreal episodes that hammer home exposition while reminding of the superior nightmarish moments of Trainspotting.

THE VERDICT With a sensational soundtrack and putrid performance from McAvoy, Filth is far more fun than it should be. Wallow in it…                  

Certificate 18 Director John S. Baird Starring James McAvoy, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Shirley Henderson Screenplay John S. Baird Distributor Lionsgate Running time 97 mins       

Watch the trailer:

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Remembering Roger Ebert

Beloved film critic Roger Ebert died on April 4th 2013 at the age of 70 after a long battle with cancer. I have written an In Memoriam piece on the late, great critic Roger Ebert over at Filmoria.

President Barack Obama said 'Roger was the movies'.

His wife Chaz said 'the world has lost a visionary and a creative and generous spirit who touched so many people all over the world'.

He had just announced the day before his death his intention to slow down after writing '306 movie reviews, a blog post or two a week, and assorted other articles' in 2012 alone.

I didn't grow up reading Roger Ebert's reviews like so many others. I was well aware of Siskel and Ebert, if not just because The Bloodhound Gang had that lyric 'Yes I'm Siskel, yes I'm Ebert and you're getting two thimbs up'. Check it out:



But I did occasionally check out his reviews and most often enjoyed them. I didn't always agree with them obviously but when he got it right, he really nailed it. I'm going to share a couple of my favourites:

On Titanic: 'Movies like this are not merely difficult to make at all, but almost impossible to make well. The technical difficulties are so daunting that it's a wonder when the filmmakers are also able to bring the drama and history into proportion. I found myself convinced by both the story and the saga.'

On City of God: It 'does not exploit or condescend, does not pump up its stories for contrived effect, does not contain silly and reassuring romantic sidebars, but simply looks, with a passionately knowing eye, at what it knows.'

On Trainspotting: 'It uses a colorful vocabulary, it contains a lot of energy, it elevates its miserable heroes to the status of icons (in their own eyes, that is), and it does evoke the Edinburgh drug landscape with a conviction that seems born of close observation.'

 On Terminator 2: 'T1000, as played by Patrick, is a splendid villain, with compact good lucks and a bland expression. His most fearsome quality is his implacability; no matter what you do to him, he doesn't get disturbed and he doesn't get discouraged. He just pulls himself together and keeps on coming.'

On Schindler's List: 'What is most amazing about this film is how completely Spielberg serves his story. The movie is brilliantly acted, written, directed and seen. Individual scenes are masterpieces of art direction, cinematography, special effects, crowd control. Yet Spielberg, the stylist whose films often have gloried in shots we are intended to notice and remember, disappears into his work. Neeson, Kingsley and the other actors are devoid of acting flourishes. There is a single-mindedness to the enterprise that is awesome.'

We certainly didn't agree on Fight Club which Ebert called 'the most frankly and cheerfully fascist big-star movie since Death Wish' and a 'a celebration of violence'but his review is a brilliant teaching tool and I'm sure to always read it with my students when we discuss the film.

Anyway please go check out my proper In Memoriam piece on the late, great film critic Roger Ebert over at Filmoria.

What was your favourite Roger Ebert review?

You're Next Trailer Offers a Perfect Day

The trailer for upcoming horror You're Next features the second best use of Lou Reed's Perfect Day I've ever enjoyed. The use of the song is arguably more appropriate in Trainspotting, particularly as the scene it is used in when Renton overdoses on heroin actually takes place during the day. However it seems to complement this thrilling new trailer with the same kind of irony that Lou Reed hopefully intended of the lyrics that many suggest were about his own addiction.

So the perfect day featured in the You're Next trailer looks like a family reunion rudely interrupted by animal mask wearing hunter types, intent on killing their prey. Crossbows, axes, knives and all manner of weaponry look to be doled out in an excruciating horror that may not look overly original but still seems to have plenty of gore and thrills to offer. Check out the trailer below:



It reminds me of Switchblade Romance (aka High Tension), the French film that is possibly the last film to have genuinely scared me. That opened with a family under attack from a ruthless killer in a rural, isolated setting. The animal masks also remind me of the recent episode of Black Mirror called White Bear that is one of my favourite bits of TV ever. Whether You're Next can live up to the expectations created by these comparisons will remain to be seen. It isn't out until August in the UK, despite being screened at the Toronto Film Festival in 2011. All signs look good with many critics describing it as a superior home invasion horror.

Just for fun, I though I'd post this snippet of Trainspotting that featured Lou Reed's Perfect Day accompanying Renton's descent into over dose. It's also a nice timely reminder that plans are afoot for the follw-up to Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh's book Porno. Let's hope Danny Boyle and the team can bottle lightning once again.

Director Retrospectives: Part 2 Danny Boyle

In the continuing series of director retrospectives over at Filmoria, my latest is on the career of British director Danny Boyle, ahead of the release of his new film Trance. I'm seeing Trance tomorrow at a preview screening and cannot wait! It's got James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassell and looks like it might be a hypnotic blast. Early reviews are looking very good, no surprise after Danny Boyle wowed the world with the London Olympics Opening Ceremony last year!

 In advance of some of the biggest and best film releases of 2013, Filmoria writers are all contributing retrospectives of many directors' work. We have all chosen six directors who have films being released in 2013 and the idea is that in the week leading up to the new film, we will write and publish a retrospective look at that director's body of work.



The six directors I picked are some of my very favourites and others that have significant films to make their body of work worth revisiting. I take tasks like this very seriously and would like to get through all the films of each particular director before I write the pieces. I started out with Quentin Tarantino as my first director and that retrospective was published back in January ahead of the release of Django Unchained.


In the meantime other Filmoria writers have been tackling the likes of:


Sam Raimi

Pedro Almodovar
Steven Soderbergh
Walter Hill
Kathryn Bigelow
Judd Apatow
Robert Zemeckis

and many more!

I've been re-watching all of Boyle's films over the last couple of months in order to reappraise them and give this retrospective of the great director's work the respect it deserves. You can check out my Danny Boyle retrospective at Filmoria here. In case you didn't know this is the guy who gave us the likes of Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. He's easily one of my favourite directors and definitely my favourite British director, responsible for two of the greatest British films of all time in my opinion. Please go check out the retrospective to find out more about the man and his films.

If you aren't uncontrollably dribbling and desperate to see Trance by the end then I will consider myself a failure and hang my head in shame. Choose Life! Choose reading my retrospective!

Catching Up with Old Friends

Anyone else feel like film characters are friends?  Don't leave me hanging here.  With the immense satisfaction that I'm getting from Shane Meadow's latest TV series This is England 88, comes a realisation that I want to see these characters; Lol, Woody, Shaun, Smell and even Combo grow old.  After the unrelenting despair of the previous series, This is England 86, the two episodes of '88 screened so far have been bleak but with many more moments of lightness, not least from Joe Gilgun's fantastic comic/tragic performance as Woody.

Last night's episode had two standout scenes though.  Both featured exceptional acting from Bafta winning Vicky McClure as poor old Lol, still struggling to deal with her harsh past.  But in both scenes, McClure was brilliantly supported by other fine actors.  In the first scene, Lol broke down and opened up to a nurse perfectly played by Helen Behan.  It was truly hard to believe she is not a real nurse Meadows plucked off the street.  In the second scene, Lol visits Combo in prison and Stephen Graham's performance is another example of heart breaking perfection.  From film to '86, Combo has transformed from racist messed up bastard to a truly sympathetic character.  Both scenes made my eyes do this strange watering thing.  It is a testament to Meadows that there are so many outstanding performances in the film and the series.  I look forward to the final episode tonight with bated breath and hope that This is England 90 materialises on our screens in the not-too-distant future.

With no sign of my good friends, the This is England gang, disappearing from screens anytime soon then, I began wondering what other films I'd love to see get a TV series follow-up catching up with the characters 5, 10, 20 years later.  It's been amazing watching the characters (and actors) grow, particularly Thomas Turgoose as Shaun who has gone from boy to young man on screen.  I have heard that the Tomorrow When The war Began series will begin with three films and turn into a TV series, a format which I have to agree will work best for these book adaptations.  So here's a selection of films I'd love to see a TV series follow-up of:

1. Mallrats (Kevin Smith, 1995) One of my favourite films of the 90s, I'd love to catch up with Brodie and T.S. and see that they are still hanging out at the mall causing trouble with Jay and Silent Bob.  Smith gave us Clerks 2 and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back so we've seen the further adventures of many of his Jersey characters, but Brodie's always been my favourite and Jason Lee is no stanger to TV now with My Name is Earl.  Ok so the actors are now sixteen years older (and they already looked a bit old for hanging out in malls in 95) but I'd still be curious to see if Brodie stuck with Rene (Shannen Doherty) and has grown out of videogames and settled down with a job and kids.  Could be depressing though.

2. La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) Ending with a bang, we know what happened to Vinz but the future of Hubert is uncertain from the final shot of the film.  And Said, poor old Said always caught in the middle.  What would he be doing years down the line?  He may have lost both his best friends.  Would he be in jail?  Still stuck on the estate?  Or would he be campaigning for justice for his friend/s?  I'd love to find out.

3. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) So many characters I feel close to after just spending the one night in their company.  What would this lot be doing after finishing school?  They discussed their futures in the film but their destinies are uncertain.  Is Slater still a stoner?  Is Wooderson still picking up high school girls?  What would be going on with these characters in the 80s?  It's time for new TV series Dazed and Confused 86 to check in with these characters ten years on from the film.

4. The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985)  Ok it might be a bit late for a follow-up to this one.  I'm not really sure I want to see what the characters would be doing approaching their forties.  But imagine if the Goonies had gotten back together for a series of adventures in their twenties.  It could have been cool.  Perhaps they became activists against golf course developments and travel the world going up against greedy developers, stealing from the rich to help the poor save their houses.  Or perhaps this is a bad idea.

5. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)  Irvine Welsh wrote a sequel to his book and rumours persist that Boyle might get the cast back together (when they look old enough) for a reunion.  Perhaps when they do put Welsh's sequel, titled Porno, on screen they could consider a short TV series.  Boyle started in TV so perhaps he'd be willing to make a return.  It would be great to see Renton and the gang ten years on from the events of the film.  With Begbie released from prison, will Renton have to keep running? 

Anyone else want to see their favourite film characters return in a TV series or is this a really bad idea?  Anyone else loving This is England 88?  Speak freely...