Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright has moved on from geeky parodies and comic books to a paranoid thriller, notching up the first real "serious" notch in his feature film output (Baby Driver is also slightly serious, but...). Last Night in Soho, with its extremely impressive retro-atmosphere, is such an appealing blend of Mulholland Drive and Black Swan. Wright's mannerist directorial style elsewhere doesn't distract this time (and in fact often hangs back in the background), on the other hand the visual imagination is truly stunning and the two protagonists give the performance of a lifetime. And the contrast of the "bovine, innocent, and unblemished country girl" with the spectacular "evil" London as one of the main motifs kept me entertained. The only complaint I might have is the denouement itself, which doesn't feel 100% believable, but doesn't spoil the overall impression too much. An honest and visually damn good genre film. [80%] (19/11/2021)

One sort of expects form over substance from Wright, especially in a film that wets both feet in the waters of Giallo, Lynch and the 1960s. Maybe I wouldn't have expected such a big split between the exquisite form and the empty content, but whatever. The hauntingly enchanting hallucinatory atmosphere makes up for a lot of it, likewise with Wright in some places of the first half, which although it's not without its hiccups, it definitely has something (and especially someone) to build on. Unfortunately, though, Wright decided to start grafting some content in the second half and ruined everything, especially during the final 20 minutes, which are unintentionally ridiculous. What is most fascinating about the whole shattering finale is that even the otherwise top-notch form betrays him during it. (03/11/2021)

A thoroughly intoxicating experience that drew me in like few films manage to do. After 14 years, Edgar Wright has made a film that I have nothing to reproach, and above all, the way he made it is breathtaking. Amazing visuals to the rhythm of superbly chosen music, clouds of directorial ideas, a clever (perhaps just a little too literal at the end) screenplay and a fantastic cast, of which Anya Taylor-Joy stands out, but Thomasin McKenzie keeps on her heels with his transformation until he eventually is on par with her, and Matt Smith is, as always, a great choice. I look forward to experiencing it all again. (26/11/2021)

I'm pretty pleased with Wright's new film, though it does take a weird nosedive during the ride to the finale and struggles to not completely fall apart at the end. At the same time, the acting is brilliant, the sets are great, the direction is imaginative, the soundtrack is polished and the cast is amazing, especially Thomasin McKenzie, who I find to be one of the cutest and most likeable heroines in horror in a long time. The script throws up a number of themes and you wait to see what will come out of them... only to find that many turn out to be nothing. The ending itself makes it seem as if a number of minutes were cut before it, or as if the director and everyone on set suddenly stopped having fun. But I don't want to sound too negative, because I definitely don't have a negative feeling about this film. On the contrary, I was more satisfied than I expected for most of the runtime, and I'm just a little disappointed that the finale didn't go as far as it looked like it might at one point. (04/11/2021)

Edgar Wright has made a kind of antithesis to the idealized utopia of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. He has created a movie for all those people who have their heads in the clouds, and who like to dream about how they would have lived in a different ("better") time. However, every period in the past had its advantages and disadvantages. Last Night in Soho is a horror movie for fans of imaginative visuals and knowing winks combined with modern trends, even though it is doubtful you are going to be terrified by it. Anyway, I found it quite enjoyable and I enjoy replaying it in my head. (02/11/2021)