Beyond Trainspotting: Irvine’s Welsh World Review – A Uniquely Funny Writer Takes Trial | film

HThere is, in addition to Paul Singh’s recent documentary on Irvine Welsh, another film; It’s watchable enough, although it contains less original interview material. The extended shots of Welsh in conversation are certainly engaging, as he discusses his writing, the films he created, and his youth in Edinburgh.

However, some of the other interviewees aren’t quite as engaging, and the film is filled with a fair amount of superfluous anecdotes from people on the subject of getting hilariously lost in Irvine’s company – or at least his rough surroundings. As for a 1990s LaMage-style story about Irvine doing some sort of Marquis de Sade-themed photo shoot at a vintage club in Ibiza, which involved baring young women’s buttocks for the camera… well, maybe you should have been there.

Iggy Pop, whose Lust for Life appeared in Trainspotting, was interviewed, as was producer Andrew Macdonald, but interview footage with director Danny Boyle and the stars of Trainspotting appears to have been scrapped from junk videos they did in 2017 for the film’s sequel T2 Trainspotting (based on the Welsh porn book). Whatever the case, I would have liked to hear more from Wells about the cities he loves, other authors and the music he loves — and more from other authors about how he influenced them. But it’s always a pleasure to hear from this uniquely funny and articulate writer.