I just want to leave a quick addendum I forgot to include. While I do appreciate Wright\'s attempt to imitate the aesthetic of classic Giallo films (especially Suspiria, which I love), the film lacks the pervasive uneasiness and shocking violence that makes that genre so beloved.
I really enjoyed it, but I\'ve also never seen one of his previous works, so I wouldn\'t be able to say how it compares. A lot of the movie is spectacle and flash and surreal imagery which did keep me entertained even if it was relatively shallow. I tend to turn my brain off when I\'m watching movies, though, so pretty much anything that\'s well produced will keep me invested.
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I\'m really glad to hear that you enjoyed it! Having knowledge of a director\'s past work can be a burden in some ways, but I definitely recommend his other movies + Spaced. Almost all of them are exactly as spectacular and well-produced as this one.
One other thing I wish I\'d have conveyed in my review is that the first half hour or so were completely enthralling. I was totally into it. But then things started to go off the rails a bit and my view was well and truly tainted by the end.
That\'s fair. I\'m sure if I ever have the chance to watch it again I\'ll be able to look with a more critical eye, but my theatre experience was pretty positive.
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Didn't quite live up to expectations (mild spoilers)
As a huge fan of Edgar Wright's earlier work, I was highly anticipating Last Night in Soho. It's an undeniably well-made film full of his particular stylistic affectations, which complement the more serious tone of the movie well for the most part. However, I left the movie slightly underwhelmed.
Thomsin McKenzie, one of my favourite up-and-coming actresses, stars as Eloise, a sheltered fashion student enamoured with the culture of 1960s London. Thrilled to move to London to study and finally live out her vicariously nostalgic fantasies, she is understandably disappointed that reality does not match her expectations. As she decides to move out of her student digs to avoid her bitchy roommates, she rents out a room owned by Diana Rigg's character and begins experiencing vivid hallucinations of the time period she always dreamed of, though the glitz and glamour of the past disguise dark secrets of its own. Through these visions, she forms an intense symbiotic relationship with Sandy (Anya Taylor-Joy), a rising and falling starlet with the world at her feet.
We get the expected amount of slick editing, stylish cinematography and catchy period tunes from Wright. The film's premise is purpose-built for wacky psychedelic visuals, but Wright doesn't go as mad as you might expect. While the atmosphere is suitably uncomfortable and paranoia-inducing at points, the actual scares are very lacklustre. And as much as McKenzie sells the performance as a sheltered young woman caving to anxiety and delusions, the film has a repetitive structure of having her encounter ghosts — horny ghosts (gives a new meaning to the word "stiffs") — in various locations, having a very public freakout, then running away through the streets of Soho. It gets predictable and tiresome after the first couple times.
Eloise herself isn't exactly the most engaging protagonist, especially compared to Wright's roster of iconic anti-heroes. Her character feels more suited to a dark kids' film in which her sudden loss of innocence when faced with a world full of moral corruption would feel more fittingly tragic. It's bizarre that Wright seems to expect the naive audience to be equally shocked and disgusted that moral corruption does, in fact, exist. Despite being a uni student and presumably having some clue of what that lifestyle entails, Eloise hates parties, barely ever hangs out with anyone her own age, and gets bullied for liking the '60s aesthetic (in an inner city fashion school? There should be likeminded hipsters out the 'Aris!) Her introverted personality can be relatable in some ways, but her dogged "not like the other girls" schtick feels rote and frankly boring for this kind of movie. Her love interest, John (Michael Ajao), is also severely underdeveloped; his whole personality is just being unfailingly nice and understanding, even during Eloise's psychotic fits.
The film is blatantly feminist, which certainly isn't a dirty word as far as I'm concerned, but the messages of the film get slightly muddled as it goes on. The aforementioned Horny Ghosts, revealed to be Sandy's many male clients, are given a humanising moment towards the end, but we are ultimately not supposed to sympathise with them too much. In the current social climate, legal sex work is being destigmatised around the world, so the premise that all these men were equally abusive and deserving to die feels tone-deaf and lacking in nuance. Sandy, meanwhile, would have been a perfectly sympathetic "woman scorned" Anti-Villain if she didn't go full Psycho (complete with scare chords!) at the end and gleefully attempt to kill Eloise for no real reason.
Overall, Last Night in Soho is a skilful outing for Wright and will certainly please his diehard fans, but compared to his past filmography, it may leave something to be desired.