Director: Edgar Wright
Screenplay: Edgar Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Minutes: 116
Year: 2021
Score: 9.53
Release: Theatrical
Much like Ellie Turner, played by Thomasin McKenzie, I have not been able to shake the imagery from Edgar Wright’s LAST NIGHT IN SOHO. With my complicated film rating system, it is rare for a film to score in the 9s, let alone being assigned a very rare 5 star on Letterboxd.
About ninety percent of this synopsis is from the second trailer for the film, anything else will be kaleidoscopically danced around. LAST NIGHT IN SOHO tells the story of young Eloise who comes from a rural town in England to London for a fashion program. Before leaving for London Ellie is often visited by the memory of her dead mother, a condition which plays into the primary story. While in London Ellie starts to be haunted by lucid dreams of Sandie, Anya Taylor-Joy, a confident and young performer who is forced away from her dreams into nefarious employ by her manager, Jack, played by Matt Smith. Ellie becomes convinced that this dream girl needs justice as we watch her, Ellie, mentally deteriorate.
When we were driving home from the theater, out of nowhere, I told me my wife that there was a pretty good chance that Diana Rigg (Last Night in Soho, The Avengers) was friends with David McCullum (NCIS, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and they probably lived it up in the mod culture as big time TV stars. She asked me what that had to do with the movie. I said there was no connection, only that visions of a London in the 1960s, while imprisoned by my idiocy, danced through my head, constantly, after watching LAST NIGHT IN SOHO, both times.
My plan for my prime viewing was to just let the film wash over me, like I prefer any time I see a film for the first time. But there was something magical about this one. Even with the best intentions situations I often find myself sandblasting films to see the moving parts that make them a functioning machine. This did not happen watching Edgar Wrights film.
When watching LAST NIGHT IN SOHO I felt transported into the film like Morten Harket, the singer from A-Ha, in the Take on Me Video. No longer was I sitting in comfortable theater, but in the damp London of the film trying to suss out what is happening as facts are trickled to me. As the credits rolled my wife was telling me that she suspected the outcome while I was sitting there, stuck, trying to remember how to breathe again.
The second time we went to watch the film I had every intension to be present in the theater and look beyond the action to study the craft. Ten minutes in and once again I was blurred into the digital video file. Running through the rain next to Ellie, heart bursting from my chest, just trying to catch up to Sandie. This wasn’t a failure of my intent, but the power of the film. The last time this happened was when I watched Ozu’s TOKYO STORY back-to-back-to-back several years ago.
So, when I say it is rare for me to give a film a five it must pretty much force a physiological change and render me into a transcendental state. A high bar, to be sure. I have no doubt your experience will be different than mine. If a film maker would be able to hypnotize a full theater it would be some Batman villain level sorcery and we would have all had our wallets emptied. That isn’t a good business model for Wright, who only wants our money in dime bag amounts, a little at a time, when the shakes return.
If, somehow, this isn’t clear enough, I think LAST NIGHT IN SOHO is terrific and I want you all to see it several times. I am excited to add this to my collection and maybe be able to see it enough that I can finally look beyond the action, because I am certain that Wright hid some easter eggs in the costume party scene. I am fairly certain I recognized an Eric Binford in a blip of lucidity.
Director: 9 – Cinematography: 10 – Edit: 10 – Parity: 9 – Main performance: 10 – Else performance: 7 – Score: 10 – Sound: 10 – Story: 10 – Script: 9 – Effects: 9 – Design: 10 – Costumes: 10 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 10