Last Night In Soho

UK Release Date. 29 October 2021
Certification. 18
Running Time. 1 hour 56 mins
Director. Edgar Wright
Cast. Synnøve Karlsen, Thomasin McKenzie, Diana Rigg, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Anya Taylor-Joy.
Rating. 62%

Review.

Early in Edgar Wright's Last Night In Soho, there's a marvellous sequence where Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), a young fashion design student who has recently arrived in London, experiences what appears to be a vivid dream. Eloise is transported to a busy Soho street in the 1960s, given the period fashion, cars and cinema marquee [Sean Connery in Thunderball]. When she enters a nightclub, Cafe de Paris accompanied by Cilla Black’s epically aching 1964 hit, You’re My World, she becomes entranced by a gorgeous young singer named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy, a vision in pink chiffon and blonde bouffant). As the two women descend the stairs to the glamorous nightclub below they become mirror images and their stories irrevocably fuse. From the subtle changes of pulsating neon lights to the mirrored performance of the two principal actresses, it is an impressive piece of cinema.

It is a wonderful set up. Eloise is obsessed with the 1960s, and when she receives place at the London College of Fashion, the fashion school of her dreams, she moves to the nation's capital in search of the London she's heard of in her favourite songs. But Eloise soon becomes disillusioned by the ugly side of modern-day London and moves out of the student accommodation. She finds a bedsit in Fitzrovia seemingly of the period and each night in her dreams, Eloise travels back in time to the 1960s. Soon the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, and Eloise’s dreams become nightmares.

Edgar Wright's technical skills are clear, as he and his team painstakingly recreate the riot of colours, sounds and textures of London in the 1960s. It is no coincidence that 1960s London has a distinct giallo feel to it. Last Night In Soho boasts an unashamedly brilliant soundtrack of the time. The film is littered with sharp needle drops from female icons of the period, the likes of Dusty Springfield, Sandie Shaw, Petula Clark and the aforementioned Cilia Black. In amongst it all, Edgar Wright still finds time to seamlessly place Siouxsie and the Banshees, Happy House. Heavenly.

Anya Taylor-Joy is exquisite throughout, and perfectly cast as the ambitious young nightclub singer, Sandie, but Thomasin McKenzie is a major disappointment. I very much enjoyed her understated portrayal of Elsa in Jojo Rabbit, but here her portrayal of Eloise lacks that nuanced quality. When we meet Eloise, she is cartoonishly sweet and naive. Her experience at the London College of Fashion  leaves her cartoonishly anguished and the exaggerated performance sees Eloise become more terrified, more unstable and perpetually on the verge of tears. With this level of extreme caricature, there no place for McKenzie to go emotionally.

But where Wright’s film begins to truly falter is with the principal villain. Sandie comes under the watchful eye of Jack (Matt Smith). Unbeknownst to Sandie, Jack is a pimp, not an agent. He inevitably exploits her desire for fame through lurid relationships with a series of men. And while Eloise may come to fear him, the audience doesn’t.

Ultimately, Eloise's story feels incomplete. Slick and stylish the film may be, but not even Wright's supreme direction, the swingin' soundtrack or the chic retro fashion by Costume Designer, Odile Dicks-Mireaux, can save Last Night In Soho from crumbling apart in a confusing and confounding second half.