Latest news with #TheBalladofWallisIsland
RTÉ News
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
10 life-affirming movies you may not have seen
With the lovely The Ballad of Wallis Island now in cinemas, here are 10 more movies with all the feels. 1) Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (2022) "We need our dreams - now more than ever." Never a truer word spoken - and never in a nicer film than this grown-up Cinderella, set in 1957 and thoroughly deserving of its place in the pantheon of timeless feelgood favourites. Lesley Manville shines brighter than the City of Light as Ada Harris, a widowed Londoner who comes into a bit of money, makes her way to Dior HQ, and informs the couturiers that she wants to buy a dress. As Ada's magic rubs off on the strangers she meets, she becomes younger by the minute. Watching, you'll be a few years to the good too. And as for that ending, well... it's truly the stuff that dreams are made of. 2) The Dish (2000) With Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Sam Neill was front and centre for one of the treasures of the past decade. He had form, mind, as he also headed the cast of this glorious Aussie gem from the Noughties; a trip back to July 1969 when the world watched as one. On the eve of the Apollo Moon Landing, the team at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales is tasked with bouncing the TV images from Lunar Module Eagle around the globe. That bit actually happened, but thankfully The Dish never lets the truth get in the way of a good gag. Led by the redoubtable Cliff Buxton (Neill at his avuncular best), the Parkes team battle climate chaos, cock-ups, and cultural differences to cement their place in history and hearts. The Dish is very sweet with just the kind of reach-for-the-stars inspiration that never gets old. "Failure is never quite so frightening as regret," says Cliff. Let's all keep that in mind. 3) Stand and Deliver (1988) Having delivered one of TV's most iconic characters as the brooding Lieutenant Castillo in Miami Vice, Edward James Olmos was almost unrecognisable - and Oscar-nominated - as real-life high school teacher Jaime Escalante in this "true story about a modern miracle". Escalante was a trailblazer who decided to teach his disillusioned students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles calculus so that they could sit exams for college credits. The kids thought he was mad, his colleagues madder still, but Escalante wouldn't take no for an answer - the life lessons here prove that every day is still a school day for us all. After 30-plus years (and countless repeat viewings), Stand and Deliver still feels fresh and urgent, the back-and-forth in the classroom scenes as special as anything we watch from the here and now. In 2011, the US Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry - arguably the ultimate endorsement of its power. You may well be adding it to your own Best Of list long before the closing credits. 4) Local Hero (1983) If it's unhurried charm you're after, then the Highlands are waiting in writer-director Bill Forsyth's glorious fish-out-of-water story. Peter Riegert plays Macintyre, the Houston oil executive who's the point man on the "acquisition of Scotland", or rather, "the bay in a million" fishing village of Ferness. Dispatched across the Atlantic by his eccentric boss (a wonderful Burt Lancaster), Mac discovers that the people of Ferness are well up on his big city ways and can run rings around him with their endearing quirkiness. He's barely unpacked when he falls in love with the place - and them. You will too. With the warmest glow of friendship, enough-is-plenty wisdom, and a strong ecological message, Local Hero encourages us all to live up to that title and leave the world in a better state than we found it. A comfort movie of the highest quality, this is a bolthole to better times. There's room for us all. 5) Love, Simon (2018) Dawson's Creek showrunner Greg Berlanti did the teenage state further service by directing this adaptation of Becky Albertalli's award-winning Young Adult book, Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda. Nick Robinson plays the high school senior with the Midas touch who comes to the rescue of a fellow student online, only for the saloon doors of fate to wallop him right in the face. Here, the spectre of public humiliation roams the corridors and blog posts, and with Simon scrambling to do the right thing by everyone, the risk increases that his last few weeks of high school will play out with him in the leading role of the loneliest guy on campus. Robinson is great and, wisely, Berlanti leaves Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel in the background for most of the story and allows his young cast to carry the film in style. If you have Simon down as a movie BFF by the closing credits, then there's also a spin-off series, Love, Victor, with Robinson reprising his role - this time as the narrator. 6) The Station Agent (2003) Before they made HBO their own in Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire, Peter Dinklage and Bobby Cannavale teamed up with Far from Heaven 's Patricia Clarkson and writer-director Tom McCarthy for this story of fresh starts and friendship. Dinklage plays Fin, a taciturn loner who inherits a disused train depot in New Jersey, turns the key in the door, and hopes he'll be left in peace. Life, however, has a better plan. As Fin pulls out all the stops to keep himself to himself, food truck driver Pete (Cannavale) and artist neighbour Olivia (Clarkson) wear down his defences, giving him a new understanding of a place to call home. The Station Agent doesn't pull any punches in its depiction of the messiness of relationships, but there are plenty of laughs too as three very different people bring out the best in each other - and us. A movie made for summer nights, but it'll feel warmer than any of them. 7) Kotch (1971) Jack Lemmon only directed the one film, but he made sure it was a treat. Of course, Walter Matthau just had to be involved. Piling on 23 years, Matthau plays Joseph P Kotcher, a retired salesman whose unshakeable determination to live life on his own terms leaves his son and daughter-in-law at their wits end. Befriending a pregnant teenager, Kotch has a series of (mis)adventures, realising that even he has underestimated the amount of gas left in the tank, reminding us to think like him. Sure, 50 years after its release Kotch has dated, but its never-say-die attitude never gets old and, if anything, Kotch as a character was ahead of his time. Back in 1971, Lemmon described the comedy-drama as "The kind of film, I think, that we need, and that the whole world can relate to." Over half a century later, he's still right. 8) Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too) (2001) Director Alfonso Cuarón headed home for this look at life and the class struggle in his native Mexico, delivering one of the great road movies of our times. Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal play Tenoch and Julio, teen slackers who set off in search of a mythical beach called Boca del Cielo (Heaven's Mouth). Joining them is Luisa (Maribel Verdú), the Spanish wife of Tenoch's cousin. Things will never be the same again for any of them. En route, Cuarón presents us with insights into the socio-political makeup of Mexico, a voice-over freezing the action as we're told about the world outside the car. In many cases, the travellers pass by incidents like police searches and arrests, blissfully unaware of what is going on around them - a ploy by Cuarón that draws the viewer deeper into the drama. Although Y Tu Mamá También packs a real emotional wallop, it's also a reminder to savour every day. Travel daydreams guaranteed. 9) The Girl from Paris (Une Hirondelle a Fait le Printemps) Bored with city life, IT worker Sandrine (Mathilde Seigner) signs up for a government scheme to take over a goat farm in the Rhône-Alpes from widower Adrien (Michel Serrault). He's none too happy about leaving his family's homestead and cuts a deal that he can stay on for 18 months, determined to watch her fail. One of them is in for a land... Leaving his job with France's Ministry of Agriculture to pursue his big screen dream, writer-director Christian Carion made his debut with this delight, capturing everyday life and the desire of the lonely to leave the past behind. Nothing too major happens here - there are changes of seasons and hearts - but the scenes between Serrault and Seigner are exquisite. Equal parts tetchy and tender, they raise the issues of the urban/rural divide with the lightest of touches. Carion, who grew up on a farm, makes lots of good points about farmers and officialdom too, but they never detract from the heart-warming nature of the story. No English trailer - you'll get the gist! 10) A Better Life (2011) This one is all about resilience and being thankful. In an Oscar-nominated performance, Demián Bichir plays Carlos Galindo, a Mexican gardener who has lived as an illegal in Los Angeles for over 15 years. An awkward relationship with his teenage son Luis (José Julián) is further challenged in an emergency, which sees man and boy embark on a cross-LA odyssey. Using a bilingual crew and testing his mettle with 69 different locations, About a Boy director Chris Weitz really captures the energy of the barrios and the challenges faced by its residents in this oh-so-wise movie. Channelling the power of good dads the world over, Bichir remains low-key throughout, bringing out the best in young co-star Julián and providing plenty of tough and touching moments as two different generations with wildly different life experiences have the opportunity to meet as equals. Don't expect to make it through A Better Life without something in your eye.
Metro
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
The Ballad of Wallis Island's Carey Mulligan 'forced' her way into inside jokes
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The Ballad of Wallis Island is the stealth hit-in-the-making British film that's finally been released in UK cinemas after gathering word-of-mouth praise since its Sundance Film Festival premiere in January. It's written by comedy duo Tim Key and Tom Basden as a feature-length expansion of a Bafta-nominated 2007 short film. The pair already enjoy a cult following thanks to over two decades working together across stage, screen and radio waves. You'll have heard or seen them, together or separately, across the likes of BBC Radio 4, Alan Partridge (Key is sidekick Simon), Plebs (Basden co-created it and played Aurelius), BBC sitcom Here We Go and Ricky Gervais' After Life – plus Key is appearing in upcoming spin-off of the US version of The Office, The Paper. There are also appearances in Inside No. 9, Peep Show, Taskmaster, Ghosts, The Armstrong & Miller Show… basically, Key and Basden's involvement can be found in nearly every corner of the UK comedy scene. The Ballad of Wallis Island is going to convert a whole new group of fans. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video But to shepherd short The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island to its full-length film destiny after 18 years – for which they also worked again with original director, James Griffiths – the group sprinkled extra star power over proceedings with the addition of Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan. In the film she plays alt-folk singer Nell Mortimer, one half of musical duo McGwyer-Mortimer with her ex, Herb McGwyer (Basden). Eccentric lottery winner Charles Heath (Key) invites them both to his remote island with the hopes of finally reuniting them for a private gig. Mulligan, coming off the back of her third Academy Award nod for Maestro opposite Bradley Cooper, was easily swayed into an immediate yes by the 'brilliant' script and a reference of 'what they were going for' with the original short. 'It was a really easy gut instinct thing, which I think is, ideally – I always want to operate [like that]. I loved it. I loved the whole script, I loved the story, I loved the part that I get to play in it, the idea of working with these guys,' she tells Metro in a joint interview with her castmates and director. 'You were very pregnant at the time as well, you probably weren't thinking straight,' chimes in Basden, to play off the compliments. While Mulligan, 40, agreed being 'hormonal' could have helped their case – and the film ended up shooting in Wales to allow the star's family to help with the mum-of-three's baby during the shoot – there was another reason too. 'My husband was big fan of these guys, so he was like, 'You have to do it' even before I read it. And so I was sort of in – before I knew what was happening, I signed on!' she added. Mulligan's husband is of course Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, who even ended up helping with his wife's musical parts in the film. It's no surprise that Mulligan was easily wooed by The Ballad of Wallis Island's script, given its deft balance of heart and humour and the relentless way it peppers you with puns and gags. Key, 48, and Basden, 44, actually wrote the film in chunks, separately, covering all characters, thanks to their long and fruitful professional partnership. 'Tim and I have known each other and worked together for a very long time, over 20 years, and we've written a lot of stuff for each other. In his radio show, he writes all my lines, and in TV shows that I've written, in which Tim has starred, I've written all his lines. We just understand each other's rhythm and have a very similar sense of humour,' Basden explains, simply, of the feat of Wallis Island's brilliant character work. 'It feels completely natural to write each other's dialogue when we're writing those bits of the film.' Of course, given their backgrounds, while they do make sure they've shot the script 'exactly' as written there is always chance to play around 'and see if we can find other rhythms and other jokes and unearth other things in the scene'. Mulligan was an outsider coming into a long and successful relationship between Key, Basden and Griffiths on the film. She says she wasn't intimidated as such, but keen to be included. 'When you work with anyone who's got a close partner, with people who've collaborated a lot, I think there's a natural sense of trepidation that you might not kind of get the gags. I sort of forced myself into all the inside jokes,' she shares, grinning. 'I was like, 'Explain them to me. Why do you call him that? And when did that start?' By about a week in, I was like, 'I get it, I was there, we went to university together'. So it was fine – but yes, of course, at the beginning, you just want to be in the gang. But they were so nice and I pretty immediately was.' 'Obviously from our point of view there's huge trepidation working with a genuine Hollywood star, as opposed to with each other,' points out Basden. 'We know this water very well. And then Carey coming in, and us feeling like we actually need to do quite a good job here…' For Key, finally getting to the night before shooting, so many years after the film first took shape, felt 'kind of like Christmas Eve'. '[I was] excited about doing it, but then also petrified and [there was a] sort of a slight element of, should we be doing this? Probably a little element of we shouldn't go back – but I think we were all so excited to be doing it by then that that wasn't at the front of my mind.' Basden was grateful to the team, including director Griffiths, always being on hand in the run-up to the shoot, allowing for 'a forum where we really had a kind of battle plan with everything'. He says they didn't 'allow' themselves to feel emotional about the project until they got to Sundance and were experiencing other people watch it. 'Then we were all just really full of emotion, thinking I just can't believe we've done this!' he laughs. 'There was a moment I remember feeling very grateful to be there, that we'd got it together, and the people who supported us to get there, like Focus and Bankside and Baby Cow, had got us to that start line,' shares Griffiths. 'And then it's just about focusing on what's the first shot of the day – and how scary that is in its own right!' Key picks out the first scene of the film as his fondest memory because it allowed him to 'work out very quickly' that they should, in fact, be making a feature version of their short film. 'You're back in the rhythm of working, talking to Tom in character, and Griff directing it, and a crew there – and you do sort of think this is a really great thing. I mean, a lot of pressure; you don't want to ruin it over the next 18 days!' The cast and crew all lived together in hillside cabins while on the tight shoot, which Griffiths describes as 'pretty idyllic'. 'I mean, it was hard work and there's so much that the crew did to facilitate everything,' he continues. 'I remember those moments being pretty special where you're seeing people lugging cases, and everyone grabbing a lens box and hiking up a hill to get the shots.' Basden also loved all the shooting outside on location because 'it just fills you with joy when you go to work and it looks like that, you know?'. More Trending 'It's weird, it was 18 days, and I only shot 10,' remembers Mulligan. 'But it feels like we were all there for longer. I had a memory of us being there for the summer, which we weren't, but I think we really soaked up every minute of the loveliness of it all.' And she finishes with perhaps the highest compliment an actor can pay to a film set. 'There's so few jobs where every single scene you're like, 'Oh, I love this!' There are days on most jobs where you're a bit annoyed, or things aren't going the way you wanted to or something isn't working, but with this, every day was just so nice.' The Ballad of Wallis Island is in cinemas now. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 11 years on, I'm still mourning comedy legend Rik Mayall MORE: New BBC drama smashes records despite viewers 'switching off' after 5 minutes MORE: Don't expect another Lindsay Lohan rom-com on Netflix this Christmas
Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
The 18-year journey of new movie dubbed 'one of the greatest British films ever'
Today marks the release of one of the most quietly anticipated British films of 2025, one 18 years in the making which has been heaped with praise by critics. Rom-com extraordinaire Richard Curtis has proclaimed The Ballad of Wallis Island 'one of the 10 greatest British movies of all time' and it's currently sitting pretty at 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. The brainchild of actor-writers Tim Key and Tom Basden, alongside director James Griffiths, this feature-length film has been painstakingly cultivated from a 2007 short that was nominated for a Bafta. Expanding the story of eccentric lottery winner Charles (Key), who invites alt-folk singer Herb McGwyer (Basden) to play a gig on his remote island, by adding three-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan as Herb's musical and romantic ex, Nell Mortimer, has given the film an attention-grabbing Hollywood shine. But it hasn't in any way dimmed the comedic genius of Key and Basden's writing, as they negotiate the central trio's evolving relationship. Charles is thrilled to have McGwyer-Mortimer together again, while Nell, who finds Charles's wittering endearing, is trepidatious – and Herb, who knew nothing of his ex's invitation (and also finds Charles very annoying), is livid. It's the perfect set-up for a juicy drama, as well as providing an impressive barrage of one-liners and puns – mainly from Key's Charles, who just can't help himself, in a winning performance. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'You just commit to these characters, however bizarre and observed they feel at the time. And Tim's really good at finding the truth in those moments; even though he's playing an eccentric character, you still have to believe that he's a real person,' director Griffiths tells me of the film's impressive ability to expertly shape characters. We're speaking at Sands International Film Festival, held in St Andrews, at the end of April. The Ballad of Wallis Island screened as the opening film to a raucous reception; I don't remember the last time I had such a joyous experience at the cinema. Despite the impressive rhythm and patter of the gags, Griffiths says that there wasn't much improvisation on set – rather Key and Basden started 'with a very clear observation of people'. They have been a writing and performing partnership, on and off, for years on radio and the stage, as well as enjoying individual success – Key is recognisable as Alan Partridge's Sidekick Simon, while Basden has been in Ricky Gervais's After Life and is the co-creator of Plebs. Griffiths first met Key and Basden in the noughties while they were performing their slapdash double-act sketch show Freeze!, later collaborating with them on their short, The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island. They've been in it for the long haul together since then, guiding Wallis Island carefully through to its feature-length destiny. For Griffiths, who is fittingly wearing a McGwyer-Mortimer tour T-shirt for our chat, he's clear on what he needs to bring to the table as the unofficial third member of the duo: capturing Key and Basden's dynamic. 'My job is to make sure that I've got the camera in a place that allows them to do that and not interfere with that process. So often I'm cross-shooting, or I'm putting both of them in the frame, just so we can capture the natural rhythm that they have, the natural music.' As he points out: 'A lot of it is these very small interferences with what the other person is saying, so that's a delicate kind of musical balance to get right so it doesn't feel annoying or jarring but just keeps the pace moving along.' This, in a nutshell, is what The Ballad of Wallis Island manages to do so supremely well, and the group's longstanding friendship likely has a lot to do with that – Griffiths also notes that his role is to 'set them up for success'. 'I'm really passionate about seeing my friends shine – I love them, and I know I wanted to capture their magic,' he adds. 'But also there's a discipline to that, and they're very good at staying in their lanes, and hopefully I am in mine, and we all respect each other on set.' I'm really passionate about seeing my friends shine I quiz Griffiths on how on earth they were able to exercise restraint in their approach to the film's near-relentless humour to find that balance. The director agrees that they could have 'gone forever' trying new puns (you may perhaps wish they did). 'But you have to call it at some point – and that's hard because I'm enjoying myself like they are. But there's a thing with comedy, and I think we're all quite allergic to it, when you can feel actors over-indulging that style of improvisation, and it kind of loses track and story.' Griffiths admits that he still finds it really hard not to laugh while on set watching Key and Basden as the characters of Charles and Herb, after so many years. And Maestro star Mulligan was the same, although it helped that her character Nell warms to Charles immediately. 'The laughter in the scene is real,' Griffiths says of the Suffragette actress's reactions. '[Tim] genuinely tickles her, so that was a constant thing, having to kind of stay in character but also allow herself to laugh when genuinely the character would.' Mulligan's casting was 'crucial' for the film's success Griffiths insists, with him, Basden and Key agreed on the direction to take. 'We've obviously got a lot of friends in that comedy world who we talked about playing that role, but we were all keen to introduce a voice that wouldn't necessarily play the same instrument as those two. And all of our comedian friends, you feel like a lot of them would assimilate to that rhythm, and then that becomes, I think, too much.' In Mulligan, they found someone who could come in 'with their own very strong point of view', which for Griffiths 'grounded' the film. She also became a producer on The Ballad of Wallis Island and had the handy addition of her Mumford & Sons frontman husband Marcus, who helped with the harmonies Nell would perform during the film. Griffiths shares that the couple were big fans of Key's Late Night Poetry Programme on BBC Radio 4, so much so that Mulligan had previously asked Key to do something for her charity, War Child. He had said no – 'he doesn't do that stuff' – but it meant they had an in when they wrote their list of actors who could play Nell, and Mulligan 'was absolutely number one'. 'And [Tim] said, 'Oh, I know Carey.' We're like, 'Yeah, bulls**t, of course you know her.' And he wrote her the most important email he could have written, and she said yes immediately. It was a lovely moment when Marcus and he met and they swapped and signed each other's albums.' While many have described The Ballad of Wallis Island as a rom-com, Griffiths is hesitant to lump it in that category, the same as he and Key and Basden didn't want it to be a spoof either. 'I wanted the film to be a kind of fairy tale, to have a kind of magical realism – the setting of the island, and the sense of it being slightly timeless or placeless was intentional. Tonally, I wanted it to feel slightly other. I wanted it to be funny – obviously – entertaining, musical, and have a lot of heart.' Griffiths isn't a credited writer on the film, but he still considers the story a 'very personal' one – 'that grief of a relationship lost and trying to get back to it but never realising you can't get back to something'. The Ballad of Wallis Island has been steadily building hype since it premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January, which led to its inclusion at Sands, hosted by St Andrews' film studies department and lead sponsor AGBO, Marvel filmmakers Anthony and Joe Russo's studio. For Griffiths, his film is an ideal example of Sands' concept and mirrors the advice he would give to aspiring filmmakers. 'Stick with your peers that you grow up with, find those creative relationships that you really love, that you gut will tell you that you have an alignment with, and just cling to them – like Tom, Tim and I. 'Because however long that journey is, that's the thing you'll keep returning to. Don't think about making the next Hollywood movie, think about making something with your friends and building your voice and your peer group into a bunch of really fun, good filmmakers.' Considering the rapturous response The Ballad of Wallis Island has received so far, it seems sensible to take Griffiths' advice. With such a fairy tale end – finally – for this long-gestating film, I have to ask if he, Key and Basden have anything else in the works? More Trending 'I think we've all been slightly surprised by it. I had a feeling that we'd need to get Tom and Tim working, because they take their time, so I was trying to get ahead of it a bit,' he reveals. 'But there's conversations being had about the next thing, and there's a few projects that we're talking about. But it's mostly starting with characters. What dynamic do we want to create? '[We'll] make sure that we give it as much time and love as this one – not 18 years, but a few!' he laughs. 'So we're not in a hurry, but we do want to ride the wave a little bit, and while audiences are enjoying it see if we can give them something else.' The Ballad of Wallis Island is in cinemas from today. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: 11 years on, I'm still mourning comedy legend Rik Mayall MORE: New BBC drama smashes records despite viewers 'switching off' after 5 minutes MORE: Don't expect another Lindsay Lohan rom-com on Netflix this Christmas
RTÉ News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Carey Mulligan 'checked by medic' during freezing Welsh summer filming
A medic was called on set to assess if The Ballad of Wallis Island star Carey Mulligan and the cast were not getting too cold while they filmed the movie in coastal Wales during the summer, the director has said. Watch: The trailer for The Ballad of Wallis Island In the upcoming comedy-drama, Mulligan - who is married to singer Marcus Mumford - plays one half of a disbanded folk duo opposite Plebs star Tom Basden as her ex-boyfriend. The movie, which has had critical acclaim in the US, sees a fan - portrayed by comedian Tim Key - pay for them to reunite and perform a gig on an island, called Wallis. At the gala screening at the Ham Yard Hotel, London, on Wednesday, director James Griffiths told the PA news agency: "Tom especially was going blue through most of the takes. "I think there was a medic going in, and you too, right [Carey]? We had a medic sort of checking your temperature for the cold stuff. It was freezing." When asked if it was filmed during the summer, Oscar-nominated actress Mulligan said: "It's Wales." Basden, who co-wrote the film with Key, said the rural location, believed to be in and around Pembrokeshire, was "beautiful and it was unpredictable, weather-wise, and it was challenging". Key said: "We shot the short film [version] 18 years ago, and we're kind of very eager to get back to Wales. Feels like it's a big part of the film. Weirdly." Mulligan also recalled that the filming over a few weeks felt like a "summer camp together". London-born Mulligan, whose mother is originally from Llandeilo, Wales, also said: "I had such a little baby when we were filming, it's just attached to all these, like, gorgeous memories of my baby being little. "And you guys were all around, and everyone was cuddling her, and we were all sort of together for a bit. So it's very precious to me." The original short film, The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island, was nominated for a 2008 BAFTA short film prize, and saw Key and Basden in the main roles and Griffiths directing. Mulligan has been nominated three times for the Best Actress Oscar, for the coming-of-age hit An Education, revenge thriller Promising Young Woman, and the biopic Maestro. In April 2012, Mulligan married Mumford - lead singer of Mumford & Sons - and the couple now have three children. She has previously appeared on soundtracks released for movies she has starred in, including Maestro, Inside Llewyn Davis, about a fictional folk singer, and the period drama .
Scotsman
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Film reviews: The Ballad of Wallis Island The Salt Path
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Ballad of Wallis Island (12A) ★★☆☆☆ The Salt Path (12A) ★★☆☆☆ Bogancloch (U) ★★☆☆☆ A film about a lonely lottery winner who lures his favourite musician to his isolated home for a private gig, The Ballad of Wallis Island has a premise full of creepy possibilities. Sadly, this vehicle for British comedians Tim Key and Tom Basden (who co-wrote it together) exploits none of them, trotting out instead the increasingly tired hits of the British cringe-comedy playbook that have been in constant rotation since the heyday of The Office 20 years ago. Tom Basden and Tim Key in The Ballad of Wallis Island | Courtesy of Focus Features © 20 That's not entirely surprising. The film has been expanded from a BAFTA-nominated short film Key, Basden and director James Griffiths made back in 2007 and a lot of the jokes have been transposed verbatim, with Key ― a cult mainstay of the British comedy scene who broke through on Alan Partridge ― especially grating as the film's overbearing and over-sharing super-fan, Charles Heath, whose scheme to reunite his favourite folk duo, McGwyer and Mortimer, masks a cliché-ridden backstory straight out of a screenwriting book. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad But it's not just Key's sweetened-up David Brent energy that's the problem; Basden's songs might be passable enough for the movie's vaguely defined take on Britain's alternative music scene, but as a folk-rock star undergoing something of a mid-life crisis after losing his way as a solo artist, he doesn't really have the requisite leading man charisma to transcend his character Herb McGwyer's own self-pitying, low-level narcissism. Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan in The Ballad of Wallis Island | Courtesy of Focus Features © Like the broken tap in Charles' home, he's a constant drip ― a fact reinforced by the casting of Carey Mulligan as Nell Mortimer, the former bandmate and romantic partner he ditched to go it alone. Her arrival on the island with her new American husband (Akemnji Ndifornyen ― conveniently dispatched on a bird-watching expedition almost the moment he gets there) stirs up all kinds of awkward and unresolved history, but Mulligan's own star-wattage and vocal talents (last put to good use in the Coen brothers' folk-themed Inside Llewyn Davis) just make it harder to buy into a conceit that imagines Herb having an ongoing solo career and her toiling away in obscurity making chutney for a living. A cloying last-act lurch into sentimentality wraps everything up neatly, ending proceedings on a predictably contrived note that feels as false as the exaggerated sops to mainstream success Herb is repeatedly mocked throughout the film for embracing. The Salt Path | Steve Tanner / Black Bear Crippled by debt, terminal illness and the intensifying ravages of middle age, the characters of The Salt Path ― a bland adaptation of the best-selling memoir of the same name ― follow a predictable road to salvation as they walk and wild camp along the Cornish coastline after losing their house and all their money in a dodgy investment. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Respectively played by Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson, the newly unhoused Moth and Raynor Winn stoically power-through their misfortunes, achieving a kind of serenity of the dispossessed as they encounter random strangers, furtively try to hide their newfound poverty, and get repeatedly mistaken for poet laureate Simon Armitage and his wife. But as the film clunkily drip-feeds backstory revealing flashbacks into their journey, what could have been a nuanced, Nomadland-esque take on the economic insecurity of life in Britain for all ages and class demographics recalls, instead, the similarly wan 2023 Brit walking film The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry — with National Theatre director Marianne Elliott struggling to coax naturalistic performances out of anyone on screen. With Bogancloch, artist filmmaker Ben Rivers returns to the Highlands locale of his 2011 film Two Years at Sea to catch up with its subject, Jake Williams, a hermit living somewhat off-the-grid amid the ramshackle squalor of his titular farm. Shot once more on appealingly scratchy 16mm celluloid that's been manipulated and processed to create a kind of dreamy, elliptical ambiance, it is, like the earlier film, another abstract, black-and-white portrait of a man at ease with his largely solitary existence. Alas, also like the first film, it's debatable whether it amounts to anything more than artful naval-gazing. Long scenes of Williams snoozing in his caravan, snoozing in the woods, preparing roadkill for his cat, or bathing in a makeshift hot-tub don't really build to anything particularly revealing or profound ― and though Rivers' decision to intercut these sequences with decaying colour photographs gives us an intriguing, all-too-brief glimpse into the life Williams left behind as a former sailor, the film struggles to convey why we're supposed to find him as fascinating as Rivers clearly does. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A contrived sequence midway through shows Williams in a classroom using a ratty beer garden parasol with cut-outs of the moon and sun dangling off it to explain ― badly ― the celestial sphere to some bewildered students, all of whom bolt for the door the moment the bell goes. By the time the end credits roll, it's hard not to sympathise with them.
