Grotesquely Groovy

 Movies: Last Night in Soho

I'll just get right to it: Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho is a disappointment. I went into this film with high hopes because from the trailer it looked bomb as hell: a modern-day fashion student, Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), falls asleep and dreams that she's in swingin' 60s in London. She sees a beautiful young woman, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), trying to make it as a singer in the clubs, only for it to all go horribly wrong. The student (maybe?) sees the woman's murder. But what can she do about it? Visions from the past aren't admissible evidence. But the more the student sees in her dreams, the more she becomes obsessed with the mysterious woman in her waking life.

Last Night in Soho borrows heavily, both in plot and in style, from a number of classic films--I saw bits of Repulsion, Vertigo, and Suspiria in there--but still manages to have a unique premise. I loved the concept of a young woman who has supernatural abilities (it's established early on that Eloise has visions and can see the spirit of her dead mother) and also just doesn't fit in with the modern world, follow the journey of a woman from the past in her dreams. 

Ellie's dreams of Sandie start out sexy, fun, and exciting: Sandie shows up at the popular Cafe de Paris and tells the manager, Jack (Matt Smith, excellent as a slick but dangerous man) that she wants to become a singer. Jack sees that she has natural talent and the two begin a relationship, only for Jack to start pimping her out to other men. At first, Sandie protests, but when Jack tells her that this is just how show business works and also threatens her if she tries to run away, Sandie acquiesces to Jack's demand, becoming a cynical shadow of her former bubbly self. 

At first, Ellie is inspired by Sandie and begins to design a dress she saw Sandie wear in a dream. She also changes her hair and clothing style to match that of Sandie's. It seems that the shy young woman is coming into her own. However, as the dreams turn sour, they also begin to haunt Ellie in her waking life. She goes on a quest to learn all she can about Sandie and what happened to her.

Between the solid acting, the bangin' soundtrack, and the visual flair, Last Night in Soho should have been a home run for Edgar Wright. And yet something about it just didn't work. It reminded me A LOT of Baby Driver, a movie which was designed to be cool but ended up being forgettable. Basically, the whole of both movies turn out to be less than the sum of their parts, if that makes any sense.

Ellie has a love interest, John (Michael Ajao), that really was not necessary to the plot (similar to the character of Debora in Baby Driver). There are also mean girl tormentors at Ellie's school that, again, serve no purpose to the story. 

The end of the film was a bit of a convoluted mess. The "twist" was decent (even though it was pretty obvious to me early on), but the final third of the movie felt rushed, chaotic, and confusing. I think Wright had a lot of ideas and wanted to cram them all in, and what he should have done was let the movie breathe a little bit and show rather than tell.

This is not to say that Last Night in Soho is bad, just that it didn't live up to my expectations. Other moviegoers may absolutely love it. I definitely loved parts of it, I just left the theatre deflated. Part of that is because Wright's Cornetto trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End) is SO fucking good that it's a bummer when his follow ups are merely ok. Here's hoping he finds his way back.

Grade: B-