Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more

 

The Acid House (1998)

Director: Paul McGuigan

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

The Irvine Welsh bandwagon rolls on with this triptych of short stories. We're back in the scrag-end of Edinburgh where, in 'The Granton Star Cause', God (Roëves) turns up as a local drinker to reprimand laddish Boab (McCole) for wasting his life. He turns him into a fly: cue close-up of shit-eating. 'A Soft Touch' is hardly more savoury, as retiring Johnny (McKidd) bides his time while his promiscuous missus (Gomez) and neighbour-from-hell (McCormack) make his life a misery. In the third tale, a rogue tab of acid sees Coco (Bremner) miraculously swap personalities with the baby just born to yuppie scum Rory and Jenny (Clunes and Redgrave), transforming the infant into a rampaging Hibs fan and Coco into even more of a dimwit than he was already. The presence in the last section of the most pitiful animatronic baby in cinema history wins the film its small niche in movie infamy. Overall, it's simply depressing to watch a capable cast devote themselves to such an irredeemably juvenile collection of banal insights and pathetic shock tactics.

Author: TJ 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Related articles




Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.