Last Night in Soho
LAST NIGHT IN SOHOÂ (18)
D: Edgar Wright
Film4 / Perfect World / Working Title (Nira Park, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner & Edgar Wright)
UK 🇬🇧 2021
116 mins
Horror
W: Edgar Wright & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
DP:Â Chung-Hoon Chung
Ed: Paul Machliss
Mus: Steven Price
PD: Marcus Rowland
Cos:Â Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Thomasin McKenzie (Eloise ‘Ellie’ Turner), Anya Taylor-Joy (Sandie), Matt Smith (Jack), Michael Ajao (John), Diana Rigg (Ms Collins), Terence Stamp (The Silver Haired Gentleman)
Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy star in this psychological horror film with a time-travelling twist.
Ellie Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is an aspiring fashion designer from a rural Cornish village who enrols at a prestigious London college, but upon her arrival in the bustling city and experiencing a clash of personalities with the other girls at her student accommodation, moves into a Soho flat owned by the elderly Ms Collins.Â
Each night, Ellie has dream-like visions of the 1960’s and a nightclub singer called Sandie, whose aspirations of fame take a seedy turn and she is exploited by her manager, Jack, leading to a murder.
As the disturbing visions begin to affect Ellie in the present, she investigates further, losing her sense of reality and sanity.
Edgar Wright directs with great style, but the screenplay isn’t quite as honed as I’d have preferred it to be, and though it builds the mystery and tension effectively over the first two acts, there’s a forced romance to the story that needn’t have been there and it would have felt increasingly claustrophobic had Ellie’s character felt completely isolated from everyone else.  Nevertheless, it has captivating cinematography, stunning costumes and a pair of superb performances from the two principal actresses.
7/10
