Last Night in Soho (2021) – 3/5

Effectively haunting at times, but the film loses itself in prejudice and discrimination and there was potential for more

„Last Night in Soho“ is a British live action movie that premiered back in 2021 and took me quite some time to finally watch it, but I do not regret I did so last night at the open-air movie theater. Also worth the bucks. It’s been almost five years since Edgar Wright’s previous full feature release, but in 2021 he had a music documentary out that dealt with the Sparks Brothers and the film we have here. As pretty much always, he did not only direct, but was also in charge of the screenplay. Or story I should say because the specific screenplay then came from Krysty Wilson-Cairns, an Oscar-nominated writer for Sam Mendes‘ 1917. I must say I preferred her writing for that movie and so did the Academy because Last Night in Soho managed two BAFTA nominations, but came short at the Oscars where it did not get nominated for anything. I can live with that. I think this slightly under two-hour movie was okay all-around, but nothing really stood out. The cast does not include too many really famous actors, but maybe a quintet that regular movie-goers will recognize. The one and only lead here is Thomasin McKenzie from New Zealand. People probably mostly know her from the Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit and that one surely helped her score a lead role with Wright’s new movie here. The maybe more familiar face in terms of female cast members would be Anya Taylor-Joy because of her participation in a certain chess-themed series and for that portrayal she basically swept the entire awards season. There is always some kind of mystery to the characters she plays and this is also the case here without a doubt. The female characters are more dominant here and I did not even mention the one who is a bit of a main antagonist here to the protagonist. But I will mention Diana Rigg because this was the final performance of her life and career and most will remember her for Game of Thrones, but I will always remember her for her Bond girl performance. A bit of an irony that she did not star alongside Sean Connery back then as they both died in autumn 2020. May they rest in peace. Luckily still with us is Terence Stamp. He is always a nice inclusion, even if I must say I did not recognize him here. And finally, Matt Smith deserves a mention too. I am not sure if I like him, but fans of Doctor Who probably will.

I stated that the film came short at the Oscars, but it won other awards here and there and was also nominated for almost 70 awards in total according to imdb. That is fine I suppose. This film has its moments, but also some weaknesses I think. I myself was reminded of Woody Allen’s take on cities early on and it felt a bit like this, even if overall the film is not really a tribute to London, but if at all, then to Soho and the focus is clearly on the club and pub scene there. Not much on the entire city of London. Also, it is surely not depicted as a place you would happily want to live, even if of course the name London is such a great attraction and no surprise the young woman in here is over the moon when she is accepted and knows she can study there. But the darker moments included for example a depiction of a gigantic amount of terrible crimes that took place in London in the 1960s and on other occasions it is mentioned how London is really a city that can be too much for you and have a negative impact on your mental state. Also you do not exactly want to drive a lot of taxi from what you see here at the very start. I must say I did not like this at all. It is so 2020s mainstream honestly the way they showed it to us there and not creative at all. Old creepy White taxi driver hits on the very young protagonist, so she wants to get out of the car as fast as she can while there is a young Black man sitting at the entrance to her dorm and he is a true gentleman and offers to help her with the stuff she is carrying. It does go on like this for the rest of the film. All old White men are pretty much depicted as evil and the film with the huge twist has a great chance to redeem itself there, but misses to do so sadly. The only one who is kinda excused is Stamp’s character, but the other ones are still portrayed as evil and despicable for having sex with a prostitute back in the 1960s. I mean they probably did not pay or even paid Smith’s character, so if anything he is the one who deserves the blame, but the film is pretty much misandric from beginning to end, with the exception of the Black kid of course.

There are other struggles: The introduction scene of ATJ’s character was in theory interesting with the mirror reflections there, but it also felt a bit shallow, like it never really managed to decide if they wanted to depict the female protagonist as a reflection of ATJ’s character (the hickey moment) or just as somebody watching the action (ATJ’s dancer moment). It did feel clumsy at times for sure and lost in style without great creativity. Maybe Wright should have really worked on the screenplay all on his own. Apart from that, I also felt that the trailer gave away too much in terms of the fateful events happening one night. As a whole, I feel like maybe it would have been the wiser choice if this film had taken the route that it was really all in her head and that she was severely damaged from the mental perspective instead of showing these flashbacks and almost time travel sequences in a way where she was going through something that was as mysterious as it was real. But the film included a great deal of manipulation anyway. You are of course supposed to like the main character and feel for her when she is struggling, supposed to despise the other girl (okay the Kylie reference was funny) that makes life hard for McKenzie’s character, but let me be clear here: If a character is crazy enough to attack you with a pair of scissors it was I think, then she is really very crazy with her delusions and I found it difficult to accept her actions and what she does there and yet the other girl is supposed to be seen as the evil one when she screams for security. Oh well. Of course, the main character’s soon-to-be boyfriend also justifies her actions all the time. In general, I struggled with how the main character was depicted here, in the sense of how she is so different and talented and creative. Be it indeed the clothes she designed and wore herself, be it the praise she gets from a teacher and how said teacher says she hopes the others listened, be it the screaming about how she wishes she wasn’t different and so on.

I must say that the film sometimes entertained me more in the very brief comedic moments. I also liked the one when she says she would never leave her home in the middle of the night and then she does exactly that after finding a new apartment. Not many laughed or smiled there, but I thought it was fun and I think the film generally could have needed more subtlety. The revelations about the old man and Rigg’s character came with a great deal of drama and tragedy and everything. It was just too much sometimes and also not realistic. The film tried so hard to depict Rigg’s character in the end as a victim. Her creepy „I know“ moment was good though, but look at this old woman. Before that she tried to kill the protagonist and then with police approaching, she encourages her to get out quickly so she will not die in the fire. This was difficult to believe, but with a bit of effort, maybe one could accept it. What was really too absurd for me though was that the old woman then even said something that implied she wants the Black boy safe too and she really, really hated men, also this one with what happened one night when the boy was with up there with the girl in her room. No way the old woman suddenly approves of him too. Her earlier words that she would have killed him if she had gotten the chance to get a full new perspective though with what we find out in the end. Away from all this, there was also the idea of the protagonist being able to see her deceased mother. This made me wonder if maybe ATJ’s character could be her mother, especially with her granny asking if she sees her mom also in London and also with how we see ATJ’s character in the mirror in the end too, but obviously that was not the case. It also would have been difficult time-wise because then the film could not have played in the now, but in the 1980s maybe. I am not sure when exactly it is set.

What I liked about the film was the music. Some really cool songs included here. „Downtown“ is always a classic and ATJ does a lot with it. She is such a doll anyway. Still, her character suffers and never has a breakthrough. I liked that too. She met the wrong people and we do not know if her talent would have been enough, but her character is also an example of how the city can eat you up when she ends up as a minor dancer on some rather sleazy and probably low-quality stage show. Sad. Also a bit sad was how quickly McKenzie’s character changed her hair color here. I think she is pretty and I see why adapting to the character from her dreams makes sense, but I would have preferred her a little bit longer with darker hair. There are still more negative aspects I have to mention here: I find it difficult to imagine that the old woman was never caught in her younger years as she apparently killed dozens up there. Okay, they were surely not too talkative about where they were heading, but still. Let alone having to dispose of the bodies every time. Cleaning the mess. I really do believe that this film’s biggest problem is anti-male prejudice. The two cops are the best example too. The guy is superficial, just treats her like she is crazy. The female cop is caring and understanding and even investigates into the girl’s absurd theories. Which probably nobody would have in reality. It’s this film in a nutshell. I will not deny that I was nicely entertained occasionally, but it’s a really close call here. I still give it a thumbs-up. By no means a must-see.