Film Review: Adam & Paul

If Trainspotting is accused of glamourising heroin addiction and creating heroin chic, then Adam & Paul  is its grim, socio-realist counterpart, but there is nothing chic about this film. On any given day hooded scagheads lurch around the streets of Dublin city centre. They either have a look of desperation to score their next fix or they are spaced out in heroin heaven. Figures of hate, derision, fear or pity, they are the untouchables of Irish society. Adam & Paul charts the day in the life of two such addicts. It is an intensely funny and tragic film. It is a very Irish film that juxtaposes humour with pathos. Originally released in 2004 and written by Mark O’Halloran, the film is set during the height of the Celtic Tiger boom with Dublin as its epicenter. The life of Adam and Paul is contrasted sharply against this bright new consumerist world.