The Acid House
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. more..
Director: Paul McGuigan
Starring: Stephen McCole, Maurice Roeves, Kevin McKidd, Michelle Gomez, Gary McCormack
It's MTV meets Merchant-Ivory, at once manneristic, hallucinatory, and exhilarating.
A blast of manic energy in the form of a film.
The Acid House comes across as a shadow of "Trainspotting," albeit a vibrant, noisy, frantic shadow.
God moves in mysterious -- some might say positively spiteful -- ways in this trio of scabrous tales adapted from short stories by "Trainspotting's" Irvine Welsh.
A mess, albeit one with occasional flashes of brilliance.
Best Single Drama
BAFTA Awards (1998)
Paul McGuigan
Fantasporto (1999)
Fiction - Single Plays
Prix Italia (1998)
Paul McGuigan
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival (1999)
Competition
Stockholm Film Festival (1998)
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