Rating of
3/4
"T2 Trainspotting" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 02/27/18
After a 20 year absence, Renton returns from Amsterdam after a near-death experience and falls in with the old crowd to continue their dysfunctional friendship.
Attempting a sequel to a zeitgeist film will always be a risky business but to those who grew up with the original, T2 provides an interesting insight into the cultural differences between the tension between the raw energy and optimism of the 1990's and the nostalgia-obsessed present. Essentially the film is the story of people who feel that all of their potential has somehow passed them by and are now cast adrift in Brexit Britain, and Danny Boyle uses the no-nonsense, "live in the now" pragmatism of young Bulgarian Veronica to throw this into sharp relief. T2 is not as laugh-out -loud funny as Trainspotting as it misses Irvine Walsh's razor-sharp dialogue but it does cleverly use pathos to temper even the most unsympathetic of characters.
A younger audience may not "get it", but to those of a certain age this well observed sequel to such a lightning rod of the feelings and anxieties of the 1990's feels very much like catching up with old friends.
