There are few universal human experiences more demeaning than a job interview. First dates, maybe. An MRI with bad jazz playing in your headphones, sure. Watching your parents try to use those eggplant emojis, possibly. But nothing quite matches the particular flavor of existential dread that comes from being asked: “So tell us, what would you say is your biggest weakness?”
But alas, we lie. We pivot. We say “I care too much,” or “I work too hard,” or “I’ve been known to lose myself in a spreadsheet.” We perform. And it’s a performance no one wants to watch, not even ourselves. It’s an improvised episode of Succession, if Kendall were sweating through a Marshalls dress shirt and trying to explain synergy to a panel of oatmeal.
That’s why today’s BEST CINEMATIC MOMENTS; a new addition to the Boomstick lineup; is dedicated to the one man who did what we’ve all fantasized about doing in that sterile conference room with its unconvincing fake plant and HR reps whose smiles could be carbon-dated.
Ladies and gentlemen: Spud, from Trainspotting.
Yes, Danny Boyle’s 1996 heroin-chic fever dream gave us many things: a young Ewan McGregor sprinting through Edinburgh in a stolen hoodie, the greatest toilet scene in cinematic history, and a soundtrack so good it made Iggy Pop hip again. But nestled in its collage of beautiful squalor is perhaps the finest job interview ever committed to film.
In the scene, our beloved Spud (played with jittery brilliance by Ewen Bremner) is preparing for his interview with the trembling nerves of a man about to undergo emergency dental surgery without anesthesia. His mate, Renton, ever the helpful enabler, suggests a little pick-me-up: a hit of speed to calm the nerves, obviously. (Because in Scotland, the only thing worse than bombing an interview is not bombing it hard enough.)
What follows is Boyle at his finest: a kinetic, drug-addled montage in which Spud barrels through his interview like a raccoon with a microphone. The camera jitters. The cuts come fast and disorienting. Spud’s words are a frenzied word salad of nonsense and politeness, wrapped in a Scottish brogue so thick it might require subtitles even in Glasgow. The interviewers look on, confused but polite, as if unsure whether they’re being pranked or preached to by an avant-garde performance artist.
And it’s glorious.
“He fucked it up good and proper,” Renton says afterward, beaming. And we beam with him. Because for once, someone didn’t try to contort themselves into a human LinkedIn profile. Spud didn’t fake enthusiasm for team collaboration. He didn’t list “PowerPoint” under his list of passions. He showed up, tweaked out of his mind, and he let it rip.
It’s different than being asked “What’s your favorite movie?”; which is a dangerous question, like choosing your favorite child, or your favorite flavor of Blue Bell Ice Cream when you know they all taste like sweet ghosts from a cow teet. Asking someone to name their favorite scene, though? That’s magic. It’s a portal. It’s specificity. It’s the stuff you remember; the lines you quote, the shots you mimic when no one’s watching, the moment that lingers like smoke in a vintage movie theater lobby.
Keanu Reeves once answered this question in an interview with the kind of joyful sincerity only Keanu could muster. (I won’t spoil his answer, but let’s just say it involved a Musketeer and some poetic bloodletting. Naturally.)
So welcome to BEST CINEMATIC MOMENTS. Think of it as a curated shrine to the moments that hit like Spud’s upper. The ones that stick. The ones that, frankly, fuck it up good and proper, in the best possible way. Today belongs to Spud. Long may he interview.
