Structurally, the brief movie, “The One and Solely Herb McGwyer Performs Wallis Island,” is remarkably just like the function model. It is solely 20 minutes lengthy, however most of the story beats and even jokes and contours of dialogue are precisely the identical, so it is an enchanting factor to observe the story be expanded and see a brand new character (Carey Mulligan’s Nell) added to the narrative.
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I lately sat down over Zoom with Tim Key and Tom Basden, who wrote and star in each variations of this story, and requested them concerning the journey of bringing this undertaking to life all these years after the brief. Tom Basden defined how the story expanded within the intervening years:
“Once we made the brief, the script was in all probability solely about 10 or 12 pages, after which the brief itself got here out extra like half an hour. I keep in mind Tim and I kind of one another and going, ‘Huh, if we simply did {that a} couple extra occasions, we might in all probability have a function movie’ […] It sowed the seeds for us, that like, ‘OK, we actually received one thing from these characters and actually received fairly a particular dynamic there with that brief, so we should always positively come again to that.’ After which, fairly cleverly [sarcastically], we did not come again to it for one of the best a part of about 15 years.
Then in 2020, throughout lockdown — however I suppose we had been kind of speaking about it anyway — we revisited the notes that we might made once we completed the brief and had been enthusiastic about it as a function, and we began writing the script and come across this concept of Herb having a former bandmate that he was in a relationship with that Charles additionally invitations to attempt to reunite, to attempt to do one thing that is only a bit extra manipulative than simply manage a gig. All of the sudden, the movie opened up for us, I believe. We abruptly realized it was a chance not simply to inform a narrative of an artist and a fan who do not actually get on, however of misplaced love and nostalgia and eager for issues from the previous and shifting on. I believe as soon as we uncovered all of that, we had been actually excited by the size that we felt the movie might abruptly have.”
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The result’s stunning and humorous and charming and candy and melancholy, all swirling collectively to make up considered one of my favourite films of 2025 thus far. You’ll be able to hearken to my full interview with Basden and Key on right now’s episode of the /Movie Each day podcast:
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“The Ballad of Wallis Island” is presently in choose theaters and opens large on April 18, 2025.
