Title: Last Night in Soho
Director: Edgar Wright
Language: English
Running time: 118’
“If you could go back in time, would you? […] Last Night in Soho is a cautionary tale for dreamers like myself who want to turn back the clock to a time, paradoxically, they themselves never lived in. The question should really be, if you could do go back in time, should you? (last cursive by me, ndr),” says director Edgar Wright when talking about his movie. And the question really works, as when watching this psychological thriller we really ask ourselves if we would really like to live in the London of the 1960s.
The movie follows two parallel stories. First, Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) is an aspiring fashion designer struggling with mental health and her first time away from home, changing her scenery from the countryside in Cornwall to the city centre in London. Her story isn’t too crazy: she gets bullied by her course and dorm mates, so she decides to move out and transfer into the top floor flat in the house of Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg). She has a strong connection with her lost mom, with whom she shares her love for the 1960s. It’s here that the second, parallel story begins: Ellie starts dreaming of Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), an aspiring singer in the Soho of 1966. At the beginning, we see Sandie as Ellie’s alter ego, but Ellie becomes addicted to her and then starts separating from her when things take a dangerous turn. In fact, Sandie gets close to Jack (Matt Smith), the guy who manages all the girls. She thinks that he’s the one who’s going to make her famous, but he turns out to be a pimp who forces her to sleep with men promising her a career that he never intended to give her. Ellie’s mental health starts to go down a dark spiral when she starts to see Sandie getting lost in this situation, apparently without doing anything to fix it, she’s trapped in it and Ellie becomes trapped in Sandie’s character.
The plot of the movie isn’t really too outstanding, and even the final plot twist could have been predicted by many in the audience. What really stands out about Last Night in Soho is the direction of photography. The aim of the movie was to really depict the sophistication of the London of the 1960s, especially in Soho, where the magic used to happen. The costumes and settings really capture the identity of the scene in which the movie takes place. What also bleeds through is the predatory atmosphere of the time, which is really concentrated around Sandie’s character. The switches between Ellie and Sandie are made with smooth camera movements and stylistic tricks. When Ellie becomes Sandie for the first time, she comes down a staircase as Sandie, but we can see Ellie in the mirrors that run along the wall. The creation of ambiguous space through mirrors is recurrent in the movie, especially when we want to see the two characters in the same scene but making sure that we realise their differences. In another scene, where they dance with Jack, the two characters trade places through seamless camera movements that spectators could really watch for hours.
Even though the story is not quite as amazing as it may seem at first impact, Last Night in Soho keeps the audience glued to the movie thanks to its perfectly timed plot twists and its astounding cinematography. However, I think that what this movie is really missing is a little more depth on Ellie’s mental illness, as her visions of Sandie seem only due to the place she’s living in rather than her damaged mental health caused by losing her mother at a young age. Still, the movie is definitely one not to miss in the theatre, as the photography and special effects would not be as overwhelming if watched on smaller screens.
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