baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Watched trainspotting 2, despite seeming dated by using the same tricks as the original (and Ally Mcbeal) did, and having a terrible soundtrack, Igloo apart, I liked it. As an affectionate indictment of a generation and as a moving reflection on ageing and time as a one way street, it works.
I was won over by the scene in the Protestant club. It was such good fun I dropped my defences after that.
Impossible, if you watched the first one when it was released, not to reflect on 20 wasted years, on an individual, a political, a cultural and a societal level. Hard not to feel sad about our pointless wastrel generation sloping towards middle age and death. Twenty years of non-achievement, wasted lives, wasted opportunities, wretched world that only gets worse, studded with small tragedies, acts of negligence, sins of omission, an averting of the eyes, an inability to act, comfort blanket of addiction pulled over the eyes.
An impotent generation suddenly crow footed, lined, creased, potbellied, halfway to death, dreams deferred indefinitely, mired in cynicism, hobbled by romanticism, dancing alone to a record you liked 20 years ago, parents dead perhaps, or unforgiven, the relationship stunted, stuck in amber, shot through with adolescent rage. Unable to go back, unable to go on, with neither the beauty and vigour of youth nor the attainments of age, seeing death in the dark corners, sick with guilt, haunted by the ghosts of our former selves.
And what memories would you hold onto? A few good nights on the lash with the boys? Nights when the drugs really worked and you got a glimpse of something better, but every time you open your eyes you’re right back where you started, just a little older and a little sadder.
As I turn 40 this week, I may not go to see this, just in case I accidentally brutally bludgeon myself to death afterwards with a hammer forged from my own resentment and broken dreams.
On the upside, Toni Erdmann is pretty good and it's out now.