T2 Trainspotting

The Scottish have opposed Brexit and their parliament even voted for a new referendum on separation from England so that Edinburgh can remain part of the EU. Oddly enough the character of Mark (Ewan McGregor) in Danny Boyle’s T2 Trainspotting, a former heroin addict who comments “friends are just another class of victim,” after absconding with his buddies loot, might be viewed as an allegory for the new Scotland. He’s a one-time criminal who’s returned at least to make his fellows whole. He catches the first of his original crew, Spud (Ewen Bremner), a would be writer, in flagrante, that is in the middle of a suicide attempt. “You ruined my life,” is the only thing his old pal has to say after Mark pulls a vomit filled plastic bag off his head. “Now you're ruining my fucking death.” The other two Simon (Johnny Lee Miller) and Begbie (Robert Carlyle) have a more murderous response. And then there's the lovely Veronica (Anjela Nedyalkova), a Bulgerian prostitute who shows little sympathy for the mixture of violence and memory in which Boyle’s characters wallow, “Where I come from, the past is something to forget,” she says. If Trainspotting was about chasing the high, the sequel which takes place 20 years later is more sobering. Even if its characters still haven’t entirely given up their edgy lives, they’re now grownups having to deal with a new world of data, gadgets and a changing economy. Signifiantly, the plot, which centers around Mark and Simon’s scheme to build an upscale brothel, ends with a successful pitch to the EU for a small business loan.