Trainspotting (1996)

If one film stands for the era, it is this. Boyle and Hodge took Irvine Welsh's novel about Edinburgh heroin users and made something that moves like a music video without losing its bleakness. It took around £48 million against a budget of about £1.5 million, proof that a hard British subject could be a hit. The soundtrack is a period document in its own right: it opens on Iggy Pop and runs through Blur, Pulp, Primal Scream and Underworld. Some of the shock now plays as swagger, but the pace, the voiceover and the ensemble still land. If you only watch one film from this list, make it this one.