DVD OF THE WEEK

CEMETERY JUNCTION ****
Dir: Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant. Starring: Tom Hughes, Christian Cooke, Jack Doolan

After starring in a couple of average American comedies (Ghost Town, The Invention of Lying) Ricky Gervais is back with Stephen Merchant, and the men behind The Office and Extras have written and directed their own film, an enjoyable coming-of-age tale set in 1970s working-class England.
Freddie, Bruce and Snork are three lads just out of school, negotiating the world of jobs, girls and clubs. Freddie is the ‘responsible' one and gets a job in life insurance. Bruce is the ladies' man with anger issues and a sad relationship with his father. Snork is the comic relief. Gervais himself plays Freddie's father, only a small role, but saving some of the film's best lines for himself. Merchant is on-screen even more briefly (and more funnily).
It's not an out and out comedy. There are laughs, but this is really a film more in keeping with Billy Liar and other such outing from ‘60s Britain, though with a warmth and vitality that makes it feel more contemporary than a period piece.
There is genuine camaraderie between the young leads which means we genuinely care about their dilemmas and the affectionate references to ‘70s' attitudes point up a more innocent time without seeming self-conscious. The rest of the cast, including cameos from Ralph Fiennes and Matthew Goode, are solid and the odd forced moment is easy to forgive in a film that is so warm-hearted and charming.

The follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has arrived quickly, but will baffle all but the initiated. The Girl Who Played with Fire (***) picks up the threads of Lisbeth Salander's backstory, just as a new journalist starts working on a human slavery story for Millennium magazine. Murders occur and Lisbeth is framed, leading Mikael Bloomkvist (now back with the magazine) to try and clear her name. As must be obvious, this will make no sense if you're new to it. It also suffers in comparison to the earlier film, with bland direction and cinematography and a meandering screenplay, but Noomi Rapace is again mesmerizing as Lisbeth. In Swedish.

Black Death (***) finds us in black plague-infected medieval England where a young novice monk is chosen as a guide by Sean Bean, the Bishop's emissary. They are in search of a village 'miraculously” saved from the plague, supposedly by the practice of black magic. There's a lot of grimy period detail here, and lashings of atmosphere, and what seems to be a supernatural thriller actually turns into a strange riff on religious intolerance and corruption of innocence.

Although it came across as irritating and even vaguely offensive on the big screen, Knight & Day (***) makes perfect home video viewing. It's a formula comedy thriller, with Tom Cruise's super-spy and Cameron Diaz' ditzy innocent on the run from baddies of many stripes, mixing spectacular action sequences with a full-on charm assault from the two stars. And they do it very well. Sure the plot twists are a little obvious and, peculiarly, the massive body count is almost entirely racked up by Cruise, but it's light and breezy, with the same sort of vibe as True Lies. Good enough for a Saturday night on the sofa.

Heartless (****) opens with a black screen. You hear sirens and city noises and a man shouts 'you're going to f****** die!” Then portentous music and aerial shots of night-time London. It feels good. We follow young photographer's assistant Jamie, scarred by a facial birthmark, living with his mum. He makes the alarming discovery that the local hooded gangs who wear demon masks are, in fact, demons. But UK writer/director Philip Ridley has much more in store, both in the surprising Faustian story and in his ability to pack emotional resonance and intelligent ideas into an expertly-made, extremely well acted horror thriller.