Category Archives: Trainspotting

Great Lou Reed Musical Moments in Movies

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On Sunday, rock ‘n roll pioneer Lou Reed passed away. It’s a testament to the genius of Lou Reed’s vision that a kid growing up in the 2000s could listen to “The Velvet Underground & Nico” for the first time and feel the same way somebody did when they first heard it in 1967.

I am proud to say that I still have a Velvet Underground poster hanging in my room, and that every time I give any album from either The Velvet Underground or just Lou Reed another listen, I hear something new every single time.

Besides being a multi-talented musician, Reed was an artist in many other forms. He made a few short films himself. He never got into feature acting, which is a shame, because I think he could have played a great, enigmatic villain or basically anybody who transfixes you with so few words.

Yet, one way Reed will live on is through the many movies that used the music that him and the greatest rock band ever created. Here I have just compiled a few of my favorites:

1. Trainspotting: Perfect Day

Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor), the heroin-loving hero of “Trainspotting,” idolizes Iggy Pop, but that doesn’t stop Danny Boyle from getting some Lou Reed in there. Given Reed’s reputation, I wouldn’t be surprised if “Perfect Day” has undertones of drug use. Either way, the misleadingly cheerful song is a perfect backdrop to Renton’s overdose: the exact thing that causes him so much pain also causes him so much joy. And that’s why he keeps coming back to it.


2. The Royal Tenenbaums: Stephanie Says

The word “angelic” has been used to describe The Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning,” but it also describes “Stephanie Says.” This beautiful tune comes at a transformative moment in the film, as a man (Luke Wilson) is reunited with the bird he thought had left him as a child. It perfectly highlights this nice little moment of possible closure.

3. Pale Blue Eyes, Adventureland

The characters of “Adventureland” worship at the feet of Lou Reed. I was tempted to go with “Satellite of Love,” mainly to highlight the scene where Ryan Reynolds commits the inexcusable crime of calling the song Shed a Light on Love. “Pale Blue Eyes” is one of The Velvet Underground’s best songs, and it illuminates this scene of quiet, budding love. Even Kristen Stewart’s constant lip biting can’t hurt it.

4. Killing Them Softly, Heroin

Okay, this one is a little too on the nose. “Heroin” didn’t need any visual representation; the drumming which represents the racing of the heart is more than enough. But “Killing Them Softly” did the best they could to visualize Lou Reed’s music. Overall, not bad.

5. Juno, I’m Sticking With You

In this song, Reed duets with Maureen Tucker. The Velvet Underground fits in perfectly with the eclectic “Juno” soundtrack. People liked to criticize “Juno” for being “hip” (because apparently that’s a bad thing). The fact that The Velvet Underground’s music could still be considered hip to today’s teenager shows that yes, Lou Reed is timeless.

Couldn’t find the original clip. Hopefully this’ll do. 

Movie Review: Trainspotting

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At this point, I should not be surprised to see a Danny Boyle film that starts and begins with action. Or, in the case of “Trainspotting,” begins in the middle of action. That’s the pace of the film, the mood of the film, and the setting of the film, all introduced in a few short seconds. If you can’t keep up, you were never meant to watch this film. If you can, be prepared for one of the most rewarding viewing experience you might ever have.

“Trainspotting” was the breakthrough film of the energized British mind of Danny Boyle, perhaps best known for “Slumdog Millionaire.” Here, the slums of Mumbai are replaced by the drug scene of Edinburgh, Scotland. Boyle focuses on a small group of heroin addicts, who live as a small, twisted, alternate family.
The circle of friends include the timid Spud (Ewen Bremner), honest Tommy (Kevin McKidd), almost pensive Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), borderline psychotic Begbie (Robert Carlyle), and Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor). Renton is the film’s central character. The film mainly follows his quest from junkie to ordinary man. His conflict is to make it to sobriety without being pulled back into the past.
“Trainspotting” proves that Boyle brings a level of energy and thrill to cinema that few directors nowadays can match. He can achieve this high level of energy simply by tilting a camera, or adding a little light to a room. It might just be a way to shine a little bit of hope into a hopeless world. However, this doesn’t mean Boyle is attempting to beautify horror. He never justifies his characters’ actions. The film is meant to portray the world inside the mind of a heroin addict, and maybe one person might just beauty in their own mind where others see trash.
Boyle will always remain in my mind a brilliant visual director. He just truly knows what a good image would look like. And while some visual directors opt forr long stretches of silence, Boyle can let soliloquies run long over stunning images with no sense of distraction. Both of these things make one of those combos that just inexplicably work so well together. Boyle is the rare director who can be in-your-face without being annoyingly intrusive.
While Boyle is overwhelmingly a visual director, he still can stay in touch with emotion. Through many odd, trippy sequences, Boyle explicitly shows the inner workings of a drug experience. Then, he shows how these experiences have the power to dehumanize and tear people apart.
Of all the characters in the large ensemble of “Trainspotting,” Renton is without a doubt the most important, and the most deep. He is the one character the audience can cling onto emotionally because he is the only one seems to have the ability to change. Renton is extremely dark; he rejects every aspect of materialism along with his own heritage. He doesn’t seem to do drugs out of addiction but rather out of the pure thrill of life. He definitely adheres to the quote that opens up “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”: “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
The inner pains of Renton are brought out by the outstanding performance of McGregor. He disappears into his role and never steps out of it. He shows an untrustworthy inner demon. Yet, his capacity to change is utterly believable.
Some might compare “Trainspotting” to a modern film about the effects of drugs such as “Requiem for a Dream.” However, I will instead compare it to one of cinema’s greatest masterworks: “A Clockwork Orange.” I am not saying “Trainspotting” is as good as “A Clockwork Orange,” but I can feel that Boyle was trying to emulate Kubrick’s classic and he does so well. The large white walls that engulf characters, the aloof parents, and the endless graffiti feels totally reminiscent of the world of Alex DeLarge.
Like “A Clockwork Orange,” “Trainspotting” is about the possibility or impossibility of change in a world that’s in a constant state of moral decay. This is a film that tells the typical anti-drug fable with a hip new eye. Sometimes that’s just what the greatest movies are, they ones that tell the stories we’ve heard millions of times before and makes them brand new. Oh, and in the case of “Trainspotting,” simply brilliant.