Cemetery Junction
2010 · Directed by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
Original language: English
- drama
- comedy
The story
In 1970s England, three blue-collar friends spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing girls. Freddie wants to leave their working-class world but cool, charismatic Bruce and lovable loser Snork are happy with life the way it is. When Freddie gets a new job as a door-to-door salesman and bumps into his old school sweetheart Julie, the gang are forced to make choices that will change their lives for ever.
What it’s like
Warm, washed-out 1970s English browns and ochres, with the grit of a Reading-area industrial town rendered in drab factory greys and sodden pub carpets. The camera is mostly loose and unhurried, with plenty of medium two-shots and sideways glances across lounge tables and factory floors, and the period detail (flared trousers, Ford Cortinas, net curtains) sits in the frame without fuss. Music is pop and soft rock of the era, used to punctuate the easy rhythm of mates messing about. Mood is nostalgic and wistful with a nudge of cringe comedy, closer to cozy melancholy than sharp satire, and it moves at a leisurely, conversational pace suited to a lazy weekend afternoon or a comfort rewatch. The story follows three friends in the way their loyalties and ambitions drift apart, with a young man slowly realising he wants more than his town offers. Intensity is low to moderate: frequent swearing, crude banter, a few scuffles and bar fights, a little sexual talk and a brief, unglamorous sex scene, but no real gore and little lasting cruelty. It suits viewers who enjoy character-driven British comedy-drama about friendship, class and growing up, and who want something funny and bittersweet rather than tense.
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