| Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd, Martin
Clunes, Jemma Redgrave, Maurice Roeves
This adaptation of three stories from Irvine Welsh's short-story
collection of the same name reunites Annie Louise Ross, Kevin McKidd,
and Ewen Bremner from the author's previous cinematic success, Trainspotting,
which was also set in the author's native North Edinburgh. In the
Kafka-esque "The Granton Star Cause," a lazy amateur footballer
(Stephen McCole) has a very, very bad day that culminates in God
(Maurice Roeves) turning him into an insect. In "A Soft Touch,"
a young husband and father (McKidd) finds his life disrupted when
a psychotic neighbor (Gary McCormack) takes up with his wife (Michelle
Gomez) and invades his wretched tenement. And in "The Acid
House," a druggie low-life (Bremner) experiences a Freaky Friday-style
body switch with the infant son of a pair of self-involved yuppies.
After "The Granton Star Cause" was screened separately
at the Edinburgh Film Festival, the completed film was shown at
Cannes in 1998. The title is a play on the term "acid house,"
a form of sinister dance music that emerged in Chicago in the mid-'80s
and helped fuel the formative years of England's rave culture. Former
Doctor Who actor Maurice Roeves, who plays God in "The Granton
Star Cause," also has cameos in the other two segments. Jemma
Redgrave, niece of Lynn and Vanessa Redgrave and cousin of Natasha
and Joely Richardon, appears in the title segment and lends her
Bjork-haired visage to the film's poster. |