The Ballad of Wallis Island
Director James Griffiths and stars/writers Tom Basden and Tim Key previously made a version of The Ballad of Wallis Island as a short film in 2007. Waiting nearly two decades to turn the concept into a feature proved apropos for the wistful dramedy. While on the one hand this movie works as a satire of many a creative’s worst fear—being trapped on an isolated island with a worshipful fan—on the other it is a far more deliberate meditation on the music and cultural touchstones that shape us… and how those touchstones can become anchors dragging at our feet.
Such is the alternating lifestyles of both folk singer Herb McGwyer (Basden) and eccentric millionaire Charles Heath (Key). Charles has invited Herb to play an intimate concert of old 2000s hits for longtime fans on a hard-to-get-to island. Only when Herb arrives though does he discover the intimate audience consists of one lonely fan: Charles. Also Charlie invited Herb’s ex-girlfriend and achingly missed collaborator, the now married Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) too. It’s a setup that can go many ways, and yet all of the collaborators, including a warmly elegiac Mulligan, take it to a place that is never anything less than amusing and cozy. Still, even warmth can burn. Sometimes you can’t go home, but if you do make sure there’s an exit strategy that is not dependent on the ebbing of the tide.
Black Bag
More than one cynic has observed that marriages can be cold wars. Few though actually come with literal government surveillance equipment and the potential for a body count. If that sounds extreme, then you absolutely must meet George Woodhouse and Kathryn St. Jean, Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett’s fascinating MI6 power couple in Steven Soderbergh’s slippery Black Bag. Benefitting from an erudite and underhanded screenplay by David Koepp (who hasn’t been this playful in years), Black Bag is a throwback to a time when sharp thrillers could be seen as date night entertainment for adults who like their thrills served in a frosted glass.
Black Bag even begins with the dinner party from hell where the divinely played George and Kathryn invite all their coworkers in espionage, including a showy ensemble with Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke, and Marisa Abela, to dinner. Unbeknownst to the guests though is that George slipped some truth serum into the roast. It certainly makes for lively table conversation. It also acts as an opening salvo for a story about risks that come with trust, loyalty, and knowing your partner, even in a setting where the stakes are no less high than treason and summary execution.
Bring Her Back
If you ever have the pleasure to meet Danny and Michael Philippou, Australian twin brothers who are also known by their YouTube handle of RackaRacka, you’ll likely be charmed by their sunny optimism and joie de vivre. Which makes their two incredibly nihilistic horror movies to date, Talk to Me and now Bring Her Back, all the more curiously bleak. Like their feature debut, Bring Her Back uses horror tropes and demonic imagery to dive into the most despairing corners of doubt and grief, and in this case as it relates to a parent and child.
Take Sally Hawkins’ Laura for instance, a gregarious and extroverted foster mother who seems to take sincere interest in Andy (Billy Barrett) and Piper (Sora Wong). Andy and Piper are step-siblings turned orphans. They also genuinely look after one another, with Piper and the actor playing her both being visually impaired. So that makes the horror they’re about to be put through by a guardian who is herself unable to let go of the memory of a child she lost all the more insidious, even before demonology and ritualistic incantations emerge. Beyond horror trappings, it’s the naked vulnerability on display in the Philippous’ screenplay, as well as a ferocious turn by Hawkins, who in turn channels Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, that makes Bring Her Back immersive to the point of asphyxiation.
