Movies: Cemetery Junction & Wolves of Kromer

The other night I went to bed at some ridiculous hour of 11pm. As a result, I woke up at 3am wide awake and decided I would get up and attempt some sort of movie marathon with me and my sleepy time spirits. So, I dig two chocoloate croissants out of the bin and cook myself up some popcorn and sit down to watch two movies....

I have been umming and ahhing about watching this for so long and in my wide eyed faux delirium my over analytical brain had switched off and I was able to sit down and not talk myself out of it.
It's set in 1973 so instantly I'm into it, although, the tirade of glorious 70s fashion was not gratuitously thrown in my face which was disappointing. The movie was more focused on telling this story about three frunds who are all working class and the protagonist (Christian Cooke, who I was going to make a comment about being a bit of a teen crush until I just imdb'd him to discover he is some sort of block headed minger!) wants something more from life than continuing the cycle that most families find themselves trapped in. He gets a bigshot job as some life insurance selling jerk and soon learns that maybe he's feeling out of place? His boss is played by Ralph Fiennes which is delicious! Anyhow, no surprises that many of the plots were predictable and all (is anything original these days?) but it was generally enjoyable. In typical fashion, the highlight for me is always gonna be the veteraned female actress. Emily Watson plays the wife of Ralph Fiennes (do you love that I don't bother referring to them as the characters they play) and portrays the archetypal repressed wife who gets a tiny slither of come uppence and lives vicariously through her daughter. It's all about breaking cycles. I related.

The second movie I watched was Wolves of Kromer. It's some ridiculously low budget indie film from 1998 and is narrated by Boy George. One point I have to make about narrating/voiceovers, there really is no point to them if it's going to be used so inconsistently. In this case, he delivers a half-assed introduction and that's the end of it. Bam! Top Billing for Ol Georgie! Again, there was nothing inherently special about this film except for its gay themes. The writer has used this wolf as an allegory for gays. Oh, and they're not actually wolves they're babes wearing big fur coats and tattered pants and long toenails. So, the townsfolk are referring to the wolves as "diseased" and the like so I found myself sitting there smiling patronisingly and nodding in that 'I see what you've done there' way. There's this whole other subplot where these two old cray cray bitties named Fanny and Doreen are attempting to kill some woman so they can get all of her things (at least, that is what I gathered was going on). It's all very unclear and there were so many things going on. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it as much as I could. Especially the very last scene as the credits roll. I wouldn't rate it a howling success but perhaps just a bit of furry fun.