Review of T2 Trainspotting (2017) by Frame R — 03 Apr 2018

The awaited sequel is back to remind you of the time you tried drugs for the first time!

T2 TRAINSPOTTING.

I didn't watch Trainspotting back in 1996, it didn't grow with me as I became who I am. I watched it last year and I still had it fresh on my mind. And that film is a feat in modern British cinema, practically leading to a creation of a genre that overflowed to TV. Both movies' strongest suit is the innovative editing, who uses unusual cuts to maintain vivid, full-mouthed and quick paced films. The combination of this particular editing with a very distinct way of shooting every scene and combining it with stock footage and inconsequential cutaways, makes up for a definitive style of film. What may be more exotic, though, is that this style is exclusive to this saga, and not to the director's filmography, who includes such disparate movies as Slumdog Millionaire and Sunshine. Trainspotting's style is one crafted in accordance to the necessity of the movie's premise and point. It's refreshing to watch a movie that puts away all editing and direction rules to create its own! A voice is rare to find in one movie, and if that is seen in two of them, that should be praised. In the long run, some references in thiz new one are candid and enjoyable, but, unfortunately, some are misplaced, causing the film to sag in its own melancholy. Yeah, this new one is never quite daring or genuine and the dialogue is poor due to over exposition, but it has more focus. If maybe the first one didn't know why it was tilting the shot, this one knows how and when to do that. So in that sense, it's more accomplished but not necessarily more amusing. My lack of nostalgia actually helped me never feeling betrayed and it is an important film because we actually crave to know what happened to the characters and, most of all, it has a lot to say about growth and it sure knows how to construct a long character arch. It's a movie that, by comparison, tells us a lot of where have we gone as a society and how Spud, Rent, Sick Boy and Begbie ended up doing what we all should do: choose life!