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2021
18
director: Edgar Wright
starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor Joy, Matt Smith, Dianna Rig, Michael Ajao, Synnove Karlson, Terence Stamp etc
Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker. What a fantastic and unique film this was.
My first few positives would be the fantastic performances and chemistry between the cast. As well as the amazing cinematography and editing. As well as some interesting and unique elements. and a strongly connected plot. The Whole cast here did a fantastic job. Anya Taylor Joy is such a fantastic actress. She stole every scene she was in with her charm and charisma and delivered an intense and very likeable performance. Thomasin McKenzie also delivered a very strong performance. Also showing a lot of charisma and delivered an intense and unnerving performance. She held her own with the bigger stars. The whole cast also had brilliant chemistry with each other, and this just added to the enjoyment of the film and making it as unnerving as it was. This film had some of the strongest cinematography and Editing I have seen all year. The colour palette of the film was so beautiful and vibrant the film really stood out visually, it felt unique and different to anything I have seen particularly with the dream sequences. And I must applaud the editor of the film. The match cuts and graphic matches were stunning. And how they executed both Thomasin and Anya being in the same scene was incredibly creative and amazing to watch. There were also some really interesting and unique elements to the film. Having Eloise be able to communicate with the dead was a fascinating element to her character and connected it with being able to go back to the past really well. The film in general just felt unique. Whether it was visually, or stylistically this film managed to have a lot of originality to it. Finally, I thought the plot was so cleverly connected. Having Eloise be so influenced by the past and nostalgia and become obsessed with the past. The film cleverly increased the tension and uncomfortable atmosphere with the past slowly becoming a part of the present as Eloise morphed into Sandy and used the same time period as her influence.
My next few positives would be the fantastic uncomfortable tone and themes. As well as the fantastic set pieces and bringing the 60’s to life. Whilst also having a fantastic script. The film managed to achieve an amazing uncomfortable tone mostly due to its dark but relevant themes on the mistreatment of women both in the past and the present. Eloise was a very shy and reserved character, so it was understandable that she was terrified of going to London by herself. How men mistreated her was very uncomfortable and then the reflection of this in the past and the correlation between her character and Sandy’s especially with the use of the ghosts made the film very unsettling. The films set locations were beautiful, Soho was such a fantastic and beautiful place to film in, and the locations of the 60’s and bringing that era to life was done excellently and It made me want to go back in time. I also thought the films script was fantastic. The subtle but impactful messages it had about the treatment of women will connect with a lot of people and it was so cleverly written.
I only had one issue with the film. The final act was slightly messy with its themes and execution. I thought the final act was slightly messy with its themes and tone. The twist was excellent; however, the film took a very campy tone, which worked in some scenes and didn’t in others. And the film made it unclear who to align and sympathise with the ghosts or Sandy. So therefore, the impact of the films themes was lost slightly.
My final few positives would be the fantastic Soundtrack and development to the plot. As well as the building of tension and use of gore. And finally, the fantastic plot twists. This film had one of the strongest soundtracks of the year. The inclusion of 60’s music and bringing that era to life was incredible, I also loved that the film put a modern twist on it with the creativity of the scenes and Anya Taylor Joy providing excellent vocals to downtown which was one of the highlights of the film. I also thought the development to the plot and mystery was excellent. The film built its mystery around Jack and Sandy and what truly happened in the past, as well as Eloise getting slowly taken over by everything was done so excellently and fluently, I was very impressed at how the film flowed so smoothly. I also thought the film-built tension really well, the sense of threat and danger slowly increased as Eloise slowly broke down and it was very uncomfortable and well executed as the themes and sense of danger increased. I also thought the use of gore with the insane plot twists was very good. I didn’t see the films plot twists coming at all, it was shocking, clever, and so well executed. I didn’t expect the intense gore and where and the film went in a very dark direction, and it was excellently crafted.
Overall, despite the final act not fully matching the intensity of the first two thirds. Last night in Soho is a visually stunning, bold, and creative film. That stands out from the crowd with its visual style and messages. This is Edgar Wright at his most ambitious and creative.
Overall score 93/100
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Last Night in Soho is a fantastic horror film in every way the screenplay is done beautifully, showing the skill and the vision of Edgar Wright. The film is set in London in a place called Soho and takes you back in time to the '60s. The main character of the film Eloise is a girl going to university to study art; played by Thomasin McKenzie as she starts to see the past life of a glamorous girl called Sandy played by Anya Taylor-Joy every time she falls asleep in the very room Sandy was in all those years ago. Life starts going downhill for Eloise as the visions start to affect her reality and cause her to suffer from schizophrenia. From what started as innocent and nostalgic music the story takes a turn as Jack played by Matt Smith becomes Sandys pimp and takes advantage of her. Quickly becoming something more of a horror genre, the story starts to come to light as Eloise does everything she can to figure out what happened to Sandy and the men taking control of her life.
By @arproductions17
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2.5/5
Horror/Thriller
Aspiring fashion designer Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) moves to London and starts taking solace in her dreams of another life as promising 1960s singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), before her tragic story begins to unravel.
If I was to be concise, Last Night in Soho is a movie and Edgar Wright has done better. With the major delays to this long-awaited film, expectations had been brewing for quite a while but I don’t even think that it’s fair to blame the pandemic for this one. The nicest thing I can say is that I was consistently entertained, as Wright would have to be sabotaging his own film to make one of his typically creative execution boring but, other than that, Last Night in Soho is pretty disappointing and a very mixed bag. It is essentially Edgar Wright’s first venture into horror (Shaun of the Dead was horror-comedy) and his style doesn’t appear to mesh well with it. The film demands you to take it seriously but there were points where I couldn’t prevent laughing, for a various manner of reasons. While there is quite a lot of brutal violence, it’s shown in a strange fashion that feels reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which could have suitably tied into the prevalent theme of the 1960s if Wright was just sticking to his typical comedic style. Instead, the film begins to contradict itself, as we are presented with jarring juxtaposition between what’s meant to be a dark tone and the almost cartoonish violence put onscreen.
Towards the end, Last Night in Soho becomes such a misconceived mess of unconvincing visuals and nonsensical logic that the only way to enjoy this film is as an accidental comedy. I find it baffling that Terence Stamp’s performance wasn’t actually meant to be funny, as his character unintentionally felt like he’d been taken from the tongue-in-cheek cult of the elderly residents of Sandford in Hot Fuzz. By contrast, part of what makes the Cornetto trilogy work so well is that Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost demonstrate an understanding of and can presumably connect to the standard, middle-class, 30s/early 40s British experience, so those films were grounded by just the right amount of relatability, while also being hilarious and fresh as genre hybrids. Without Pegg and Frost’s heart and wit, Wright shows little scriptwriting promise here, as Last Night fails to show an accurate understanding of its main character going through her teenage girlhood. That’s not to say that creatives can’t centre stories around protagonists of a race, gender, sex, age etc. that don’t directly relate to them, but this film displays a pretty incompetent representation of modern, young people. Eloise’s nasty flatmate Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen) comes off as a surface-level caricature, who seems like a supporting character from the 2004 film Mean Girls that mistakenly stumbled onto the set of this ‘horror-thriller’. I feel a little bad for Michael Ajao, who sweetly plays Eloise’s friend John but is given a cringe-inducing script, as McKenzie’s character is going crazy yet he continues to tag along with her through London and remind her that she can talk to him if something’s up, even though they hardly know each other and she’s showing major signs of being a potential danger to others and herself. As for Eloise, her adoration of 1960s lifestyle and culture is her primary character trait, which isn’t a particularly expansive or clever opportunity for exploration of the young protagonist. The film also seemed to be teetering on the edge of an emotionally rich subplot about Eloise’s traumatic past with her mother (Aimee Cassettari), as the memories initially seem to haunt our protagonist before she appeared relevant so sporadically that it gave the impression that the writers lazily assumed that simply addressing this storyline would be enough to solidify it as powerful.
To balance out this review, I’ll take a break from my rant to say what I did like. Firstly, the lack of depth to Eloise doesn’t change how impressively McKenzie holds her own in this role that I can only imagine was gruelling for the 21-year-old actor. Putting lapses in logic aside, she effectively conveys the character’s rising anxiety and paranoia, as well as a looming, claustrophobic feeling of no escape from the horror. Despite the major flaws of this film, McKenzie’s performance managed to keep me engaged the whole time and admittedly carried it through some of the rougher edges. I won’t pretend that it’s a surprise that Anya Taylor-Joy, playing Sandie, excels, as the provenly talented actor continues to thrive in psychologically intense, cinematic environments (after The Witch and Split). Taylor-Joy also exercises some previously unheard vocal talent, during an audition scene, further demonstrating her range and role commitment. For about 45 minutes, Last Night in Soho introduces interesting ideas and seems well-directed. The 1960s sequences initially ooze of style, and Wright does some clever in-camera tricks that add a layer of authenticity to the film and his craft (e.g. when Sandie is dancing in the club and Eloise takes her place before going back again in a cycle, I read that there was only cut, with the actors literally moving around on the set to control whether they were in view of the camera, when switching around). This film also packs a classy soundtrack up to typical Edgar Wright standards, which continued the trend of positives that had me hopeful for the rest of the film. Wright also maintains his visual flair for the most part, and 1960s London vs. modern London each pack distinct and vibrant cinematography. However, Last Night in Soho begins to fail when you realise that the writers loved the time-jumping concept but left character and effective storytelling second. If you watch the trailer, you’ve already seen most of the things that work and the film simply doesn’t have much more to offer. Unfortunately, this is the point where I have to return to the significant negatives.
At the beginning of her story, Taylor-Joy’s Sandie dazzlingly channels the characteristics of a star before she’s dragged down into a depressed state as she is constantly mistreated and manipulated by sleazy pimp Jack (a detestable Matt Smith). It’s here that Last Night in Soho hints at becoming an intriguing social commentary on how men in positions of power abused women in the 1960s, despite the main things remembered from that era consisting largely of Eloise’s superficial interests, such as those in music and fashion. Therefore, nostalgia is flipped on its head for Eloise and the audience, and Wright suggests that the film is about remembering the victims of the disgusting, wealthy white men of the time, for an overall message of female empowerment. However, Wright’s message later becomes grossly confused, as a victim turns into a victimiser with no significant repercussions or vilification, as they are instead presented to be tragically misunderstood. This is an extremely problematic way to idealise feminism, as beliefs of equality shouldn’t come down to anybody deciding that a person deserves to come to harm for whatever reason, and it also suggests the incorrect idea that the massively important, peaceful movement would settle for retribution to call justice. It also wrongly suggests that it’s acceptable for victims to project how they’ve been hurt onto someone else and cause more victims. I highly doubt that Wright considered the aforementioned victimiser to be in the right but the theme of female empowerment clearly wasn’t given enough attention, and the director should’ve realised that his trademark, hyperbolic violence didn’t fit with the sentiment at all. In comparison, Emerald Fennell’s razor-sharp directorial debut Promising Young Woman from earlier this year (in the UK, at least) presents a heady perspective on a woman seizing back agency after a horrifying case of abuse by men but perfectly walks the tightrope to avoid all of the mistakes that Last Night in Soho makes – though self-defence is unquestionably justified, breaking the cycle of violence and hurt is more important than revenge.
A conglomeration of issues with the writing seriously lets this film down and undermines the limited positive elements present. I would say that the twist at the end is the only one, out of Wright’s whole career, that’s ineffective on pretty much every level (my specific thoughts on it are tied into the previous paragraph, if you want to know more about why). It doesn’t help that the writers signpost clues and then treat the viewer like they’re stupid, by acting as if certain events in the plot are actually surprising and smart. As alluded to earlier, the dialogue feels contrived and clunky, with most lines lacking depth and genuine importance, which kind of sum up the purpose that they’re intended for. Something that bugged me was that Eloise has blue and red neon lights flashing when she’s going to sleep (no, I have no idea why either) but the colours didn’t actually have any significance or rational reason to be there; it just seemed to be a cheap gimmick that Wright used to make scenes look stylish. After about halfway through, the story loses steam and clearly lacks direction so the film becomes tediously repetitive: Eloise begins to be tormented by strange supernatural or psychic forces, that are chasing after her in reality or in her head (I’m honestly not sure which), and that’s how we spend the next roughly 30 minutes of the film. Eloise may get away briefly but they’ll reappear, don’t you worry. And then she’ll escape again but they’ll reappear, and the cycle continues, as the surviving glimmers of a chance for a consistently intriguing plot fade into the background. What’s particularly frustrating is that, because Edgar Wright is a beloved, talented director, this lazy writing manages to be masked by decent visuals and disturbed performances that provoke many critics to praise ‘a constant sense of tension and inevitability, that could only be upheld by such a creative auteur’. Also, everything wraps up in an unrealistically neat and optimistic fashion that felt very tonally dissonant from the chaotic hellscape that Eloise metaphorically spent so much of the movie in. By the end, Eloise’s relationships with those closest to her have hardly changed, and she demonstrates no struggles with mental health and/or recovery (side note: there is no way that she wouldn’t be severely traumatised from the events in Soho), so I naturally began to question what the point of the film even was. Some of my criticisms may seem unnecessarily fastidious but these kinds of issues build up to harmfully detract from a film until you’re left with a pretty mediocre and empty experience… insert sigh.
On a less rant-y note, it was nice to see Dame Diana Rigg in what I’m assuming was her final role. While it would be a grave understatement to say the writing doesn’t fail her character towards the end, she still carried a warm screen presence for most of the film, and continued to prove herself as a fantastic actor, even so late into her life. R.I.P. Diana Rigg and thank you for your impressive contributions to film and TV throughout your life.
Overall, Last Night in Soho is mostly entertaining but massively flawed. Since this review involved so much Edgar Wright slander, I’d like to clarify that I genuinely love most of his other films, meaning that I’m being harsh on him because I know that he can do so much better, therefore leading to me being largely let down by this one. Fans of Edgar Wright may still find some enjoyment in Last Night in Soho but I’d recommend to general viewers to save your money by either giving this film a miss or catching it cheap on digital. Sadly, this latest Wright is a so-no.
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Wow. Once again, Edgar Wright with all of his outstanding cast and crew, including cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, has amazed me with the carefully crafted scenes, effortless editing techniques and exquisite soundtrack! Wright’s idiosyncratic style and ability to explore every single genre you could imagine, allows you to experience the unexpected.
Combined with the very energetic storyline, the film showcases a phenomenal use of colour, costume design, set design, and Edgar Wright’s classic rapid and comic dialogue which never fails to impress me.
The choreography and music… This film will have you swimming in the desire to want to go back in time to the 60’s. You are bound to be singing Downtown by Petula Clark for days with Taylor-Joy delivering a haunting yet beautiful rendition of the piece. The original motion picture orchestration and score by Steven Price is what will make you sit on the edge of your cinema seat. This combined with Edgar Wright’s iconic use of camera, was the real showstopper for me.
Anya-Taylor Joy and Thomasin McKenzie deliver a mesmerising performance, always leaving you wanting more. Matt Smith, Michael Ajao, Diana Rigg and Terrence Stamp were absolutely perfect, bringing their own particular charm to the film and taking it to the next level!
To be honest, it did feel quite repetitive throughout the development and the main downfall for me was that the resolution was quite a shock in it’s calm nature, after a wild establishment and development, however I absolutely loved the playfulness in the final shot.
Definitely a film I could re watch like all of Edgar Wright’s films.
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The film follows Ellie, a young girl who moves to London to study fashion at a college. She struggles to fit in and adjust to the new lifestyle. She also loves everything about the 1960s. Fashion, music, etc. Ellie experiences the 1960s first hand and has a great time with it for a bit, but things start to turn for the worse. She starts to see and/or experience some terrible things that happened. Last Night in Soho had me guessing which way it was going and what exactly it was trying to say. From what I can gather, this film explores the idolization of another time and the desire to live in a past generation. This film is similar to another film called "Midnight in Paris" but less pedantic.
This film shows us that every generation has had it's own fair share of struggles and issues. Some of those issues still happen to this day. A lot of times whenever somebody thinks of the past, they tend to think of all the good things that that time period had. Like music, fashion, way of life, etc. A lot of the time, they don't think of or talk about the bad things that happened, so we tend to think that they didn't have hard times. Like Ellie, we tend to think they're great at first, but once we look a little closer, we begin to see all the errors and faults that occurred. And realize that some things never change. I'm not saying that liking or enjoying things from the past is a bad thing. I enjoy a lot of older things myself. I'm just saying that we shouldn't feel like we were born in the wrong generation. Desiring to live in another time can make you miss everything today, and is ultimately pointless. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." We shouldn't only remember the good things of the past, but also the negative things, so we can learn from them and be better.
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