Cemetery Junction, The High Cost of Living – 2 Decent Films

‘Tis true we’re sloshed every night.

But the truth is tonight we’re sloshed more than usual.

Can barely get fingers to move across keyboard.

Yet, we feel like we ought to, at least briefly, touch upon two fairly recent movies that we lately watched and enjoyed.

The first is the 2010 British movie Cemetery Junction featuring a bunch of mostly no-name young actors except for the ever-classy Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson, who have short roles in the film.

Set in the 1970s, Cemetery Junction is a coming-of-age movie (wateva that cliched shit means) centering around three young wayward lads from the lower classes or, to put it a little less crudely, from working class families.

Two of the youths end up in banal, dead-end jobs, one in a factory as a welder and the other as an announcer at a train station.

The third lad, Freddie (Christian Cooke) has big, upwardly ambitions.

Fella wants to have a nice Rolls, a big house and that kind of stuff. And to make it all happen, he joins as a salesman in a life insurance firm.

But Freddie is a misfit in the insurance business. Plain awful in fact, as he’s reminded one night by one of his buddies.

Felicity Jones plays Julie, daughter of the district insurance manager, fiancee of the upwardly mobile insurance sales boss Mike (Matthew Goode), an old classmate of Freddie and a feisty girl who dreams of becoming a National Geographic photographer one day.

Is the girl happy with her boyfriend?

So, whaddaya think happens next?

Well, all of the youngsters want to get away, far from Cemetery Junction.

But as with most things in life, few ultimately get to do what they say they want to do.

The movie is pretty humorous, well acted, tightly written and neatly directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

WTF more do you schmucks need in a movie.

We don’t know about you schmucks but we enjoyed it.

Hey, wait, did we tell you that we liked Jack Doolan (who plays Paul/Snork) best among the three lads.

* Our second nice find is a Canadian film, The High Cost of Living.

This 2011 film set in Montreal is written and directed by Deborah Chow (a Chinese immigrant to Canada from Australia).

Filmed on a tight schedule of just 20 days, the movie is about the aftermath of a hit-and-run car accident that causes a pregnant woman to lose her first child.

Losing a child at any age is never easy, but when it’s the first child that you’ve been eagerly looking forward to the ramifications can be severe.

The driver who caused the accident is a small-time drug dealer who turns remorseful after the accident.

A simple tale that’s neatly told.

But the last third of the movie could have been better. Were the actors tired? 😉

Isabelle Blais as the pregnant woman Nathalie and Zach Braff as Henry, the drug dealer do a fine job.

Neither Cemetery Junction nor The High Cost of Living are masterpieces but compared to the Bollywood drivel that rains down upon us week after week, these two movies are eminently watchable.

Both movies are available at Netflix on DVDs.

3 Responses to "Cemetery Junction, The High Cost of Living – 2 Decent Films"

  1. முனிAndy   October 9, 2011 at 10:03 am

    mostly no-name young actors except for the ever-classy Ralph Fiennes and Emily Watson
    Ricky Gervais is arguably a bigger name than Ralph and Emily because he has made more money than them through “Office”.

  2. Aswin_Kini   October 10, 2011 at 2:57 am

    Hi SI,

    I saw Cemetery Junction on Sony Pix day before yesterday.

    It was quite a lovely movie set in the 1970s.

    SearchIndia.com Responds:

    Hello Sweetie,

    We enjoyed Cemetery Junction so much that we plan to see it again one of these days.

    Wonder who recommended it?

  3. Aswin_Kini   October 11, 2011 at 7:51 am

    “We enjoyed Cemetery Junction so much that we plan to see it again one of these days.”

    The film is remarkabale because of the screenplay and the performances delivered by the lead actors (Christian Cooke, Tom Hughes, Jack Doolan and Felicity Jones).

    Btw, the actor Matthew Goode (Who played Ozymandias in the film Watchmen) has also played a small role in Cemetery Junction (He plays Mike Ramsay, Julie’s fiancee).

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