So, I’m a big fan of Edgar Wright. Not because I think he is one of the best directors in movie making right now. I’m a big fan of his because in knowing him to be at the very least a very competent director, he stands out because he is certainly one of the boldest. He is an artist, he loves the art of making movies and he is very interested in exploring ideas, techniques, themes and synergies that haven’t been tried out before.
If one lists out the number of tropes that he is known for in his previous movies, you’ll end up with a vast array of elements he introduced and that have become trademarks of his style. And many of these choices are truly inspired and are part of the reasons why I respect Wright immensely. However, for all of his innovations, Edgar Wright has never made a movie quite like Last Night in Soho before. Horror/Thrillers aren’t really genres I’d expect to see coming out of an Edgar Wright movie. But of course, that only made me more curious to check this newest production out.
In short, I think Last Night in Soho is a mixed bag, but don’t get me wrong, it has far, far more good stuff in it than bad, and if you want a benchmark of some kind, I definitely enjoyed it far more than Dune. It is without a doubt, a very creative, thoughtful idea, one of the most original movies I saw this year, and I commend Wright for making and the studio for funding a movie like this.
Last Night in Soho tells the story of Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), a girl from Cornwall who is accepted into the London College of Fashion, moving from a small town to the big city, where she has trouble fitting in with her peers at her dorm and with the city in general. Thus, she moves to a single bedroom in an old building owned by an old lady called Ms Collins (Diana Rigg). On her first night at the new room, Ellie has a very vivid dream where she steps into the shoes of a girl called Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy), who lived in the same room she’s in, in the 1960’s. Sandy dreams of becoming a singer and to pursue that dream she makes contact with a talent manager named Jack (Matt Smith). However, what begins as a promising career opportunity between the two soon devolves into abuse, sexual exploitation and misery for Sandy, whose experiences reverberate into Ellie’s mental state in the present.
Now, this premise in itself is quite original and got me hooked from minute one. But beyond the premise, the initial execution of the idea is stellar. The way Ellie enters the past for the first time and the whole sequence at the club with mirror shots and clever camera cuts going back and forth between Sandy and Ellie experiencing the same thing is really well done. The production design and costumes are brilliantly put together and the score is just expertly integrated, as is traditional with Edgar Wright. To put it simply, the film oozes style, and it is enjoyable all the way through. It made me think to myself at a number of scenes “I don’t know the details of what Wright is doing here, but it has color, energy, intensity and I’m very much engaged”.
In addition to these elements, Last Night in Soho benefits from excellent on-screen talent. Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith are wonderful in their roles and play the transition from dream to nightmare very well. Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp are also very well cast and know how to add great elements of eeriness and tension when pivotal scenes require them. And the standout is definitely Thomasin McKenzie herself. She is able to navigate scenes of wonder, insecurity, dread, maniacal paranoia and happiness with great authenticity. It made me very much believe in the character of Ellie, making for a likeable and relatable protagonist.
However, for all of the good things in the movie, and they are aplenty, some lacking points must be addressed. Mainly, the story is leading towards a twist and a climactic action scene, of sorts, which is to be expected, but once it hits, it doesn’t pack as much weight as you would hope, because to be frank, the movie hasn’t been that scary up until that point, and the threat to Ellie is not as tangible as you might want to for a reveal to hit hard in the setting of a scary movie. In addition, the faceless spirits that haunt Ellie during the second act and third acts pop in a bit too recurrently, and again, don’t really do anything to her besides staring menacingly, so it doesn’t feel like things are escalating.
Ultimately, the point of the movie is not that compatible with the genre it’s trying to insert itself in. Which brings me to the overarching theme explored in Last Night in Soho, and in my opinion, an area where Edgar Wright very much succeeds, independently of the movie’s flaws.
The movie makes a point of delving into the sexual exploitation and objectification of young women by men in society, and this applies to both Sandy and Ellie. Sandy obviously represents the more straightforward exploitation one associates with the word. As she desperately tries to make it as a singer, she is forced to expose herself to men who only acknowledge her for her looks, not her talent, and with whom she is forced to carry out sexual acts in order to get ahead. Jack uses her for these ends, turning from Prince Charming in his introduction to maniacal homicidal pimp who tries to kill her when she wants to leave that life.
Ellie represents the more nuanced, but no less harmful objectification, as she feels insecure in a new city where men constantly look at her as nothing but a sexual object. A cab driver harasses Ellie, making inappropriate comments. Men in the street ogle at her, making her feel uncomfortable. And the same is true for some of her colleagues at the fashion school. It’s not new as far as social commentary is concerned, but it felt like a new perspective as I felt so bad, being a man, for how my gender really makes a young girl feel so afraid when she just wants to enjoy herself and be happy and safe in a new environment.
My favorite moment in the movie might be when it’s revealed that these predatory men all met very gruesome ends in the 1960s, and the still living perpetrator of those ends tells Ellie “They deserved it” and Ellie, still terrified, responds very honestly “I know”. And knowing what Ellie and Sandy had gone through up to that point, I couldn’t imagine Ellie or anyone else saying anything beyond that. Wright got me to condone, or at least understand, systematic mass murder, and that is proof of how he effectively got his point across, at least for me.
Another interesting underlying message of the film relates to the topic of nostalgia. So often in the present day we see people reminiscing about a golden age in the past they wish they could go back and live in, even if they’re too young to have ever experienced it. This nostalgia for certain decades of the 20th century is exacerbated in every sphere of contemporary society and artistic expression, be it fashion, cinema, sense of aesthetic, music, etc. Edgar Wright takes a jab at that notion by pointing out, through Sandy, that when people say they wish they lived in the 60s or 70s or 80s, they overlook the negative facts of those eras and fail to understand that, even if it’s in very small ways, things have improved over time since those days gone by. That, I think, is the point of the character John, a male support figure for Ellie, which is completely inexistent for Sandy, who has no one by her side to just be there for her in the 60s.
So, would I recommend Last Night in Soho to you? Most definitely, yes. I always like to watch movies that challenge pre-conceived notions of their genres, that try new things related to cinematic styles and that tell stories and explore themes that, despite their quality, are original and well thought out. Wright imperfectly checks all of these boxes with his latest feature, while pulling off the impeccable cinematic choices he is known for and guiding his actors towards flawless performances, in particular from his lead. Simply put, if you want to watch something good, that is different, check this one out for sure.