Fantastic Fest 2009

A classic sci-fi convention is turned on its cybernetic ear in Cost of Living's morose take on immortality. Though shot as a simple conversation, writer-director Jonathan Joffe constructs a brutal world set in the near-future where the terrifying cost of a man's new artificial body - to replace his current tumour-ridden vehicle - has never seemed so reasonable. William B. Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man, The X Files), in a role that could be seen as the logical end for that series' character, stars as a man suddenly faced with his own mortality and desperate to convince a salesman to sell him the healthy body he is nowhere near able to afford. Ingenious special effects, a clever screenplay and the sterile set design transform what could have been a cliched genre piece into an existential allegory on the chillingly possible world that awaits consumer cultures and a fate we probably all deserve.