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Last Night in Soho, 2021
Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) dreams of being a fashion designer, and is thrilled when she's accepted into a London fashion school. After clashing with her self-centered roommate, Eloise rents a small apartment in Soho from an older woman named Mrs. Collins (Diana Rigg). But soon after moving in, Eloise begins to have intense, immersive dreams/visions centered on a woman named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy): a young woman who came to London in the 1960s to be a singer before falling into the orbit of a manipulative man named Jack (Matt Smith). As Eloise loses her sense of reality, she begins to suspect that people she's encountering in present-day London may be connected to what happened to Sandie in the past.
This film takes a talented cast and an interesting premise and then frustratingly spins its wheels for two hours. While it has some moments of visual intrigue, it fails to explore or pay off most of the ideas or themes it raises.
The best aspect of the film is definitely some of the visual style. There are some neat moments with reflections and mirrors as Eloise gets more and more drawn into Sandie's life and story. A sequence where Sandie auditions in an empty nightclub, singing a version of "Downtown" is lovely and stylish, only for a later sequence to reveal the more exploitative nature of the nightclub as Sandie becomes a backup dancer in a vaguely raunchy number.
But really, from there, it gets harder to say nice things about this one. McKenzie is a really talented actress, but I swear about 90% of this film was her staring wide-eyed at a vision and then sprinting in an unhinged manner through the London streets. Taylor-Joy brings an increasingly disaffected spirit to Sandie, whose disillusionment with the nightlife scene is stark and brutal. I liked Michael Ajao as John, a classmate of Eloise's who has a big crush on her and seems to be an ally. Rigg is also solid as the landlady who manages to be very vague about her past residents. Matt Smith's performance tips from nice guy to bad guy almost comically fast, but that feels like more of a writing problem than a problem with the performance.
At the end of the day, I'm not sure what this movie was trying to say or even where the horror was supposed to derive from. The film establishes very quickly the danger of exploitation that exists in the city. Eloise is hit on very directly and creepily by the taxi driver who picks her up from the airport, the telephone boxes are plastered with ads for sex workers. But really there's a disconnect between Eloise's story and what happens to Sandie. Yes, there are some creepy guys she encounters. But Eloise is not a victim of sexual exploitation outside of the usual crap that any women in a city has to put up with. (Now if done right, that could be an interesting film. But it already exists and it's called Lucky.) The backstory we get with Eloise is that her mother died of suicide and she sometimes has visions of her.
So the whole time the film is progressing, I kept waiting for
. When it all shakes out, there's just a fundamental lack of coherence. When you get deep into the third act and everything is explained, it just raises a whole lot of questions about everything that came before it.
In a way, the whole movie feels like a graveyard of abandoned themes. Eloise borderline fetishizes the 1960s--the clothing, the music, etc. I thought that maybe the film would explore the idea of the reality of the past and the danger of idolizing "the good old days." Nope. John repeatedly tells Eloise that he connects with her because he also feels like an outsider. So maybe this movie will explore the idea of being an outsider in a creative space. Nope. Eloise encounters a lot of casually gross/predatory sexual attention from men. So maybe this movie will explore the way that such behavior is normalized. Nope. Early mention is made of Eloise's mother and her mental health issues, so maybe that will be an important part of the film. Nope.
There's enough style and enjoyable performances that this wasn't a total loss. But it's definitely a one-time-only watch, and not something I'd quickly recommend.
Last Night in Soho, 2021
Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) dreams of being a fashion designer, and is thrilled when she's accepted into a London fashion school. After clashing with her self-centered roommate, Eloise rents a small apartment in Soho from an older woman named Mrs. Collins (Diana Rigg). But soon after moving in, Eloise begins to have intense, immersive dreams/visions centered on a woman named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy): a young woman who came to London in the 1960s to be a singer before falling into the orbit of a manipulative man named Jack (Matt Smith). As Eloise loses her sense of reality, she begins to suspect that people she's encountering in present-day London may be connected to what happened to Sandie in the past.
This film takes a talented cast and an interesting premise and then frustratingly spins its wheels for two hours. While it has some moments of visual intrigue, it fails to explore or pay off most of the ideas or themes it raises.
The best aspect of the film is definitely some of the visual style. There are some neat moments with reflections and mirrors as Eloise gets more and more drawn into Sandie's life and story. A sequence where Sandie auditions in an empty nightclub, singing a version of "Downtown" is lovely and stylish, only for a later sequence to reveal the more exploitative nature of the nightclub as Sandie becomes a backup dancer in a vaguely raunchy number.
But really, from there, it gets harder to say nice things about this one. McKenzie is a really talented actress, but I swear about 90% of this film was her staring wide-eyed at a vision and then sprinting in an unhinged manner through the London streets. Taylor-Joy brings an increasingly disaffected spirit to Sandie, whose disillusionment with the nightlife scene is stark and brutal. I liked Michael Ajao as John, a classmate of Eloise's who has a big crush on her and seems to be an ally. Rigg is also solid as the landlady who manages to be very vague about her past residents. Matt Smith's performance tips from nice guy to bad guy almost comically fast, but that feels like more of a writing problem than a problem with the performance.
At the end of the day, I'm not sure what this movie was trying to say or even where the horror was supposed to derive from. The film establishes very quickly the danger of exploitation that exists in the city. Eloise is hit on very directly and creepily by the taxi driver who picks her up from the airport, the telephone boxes are plastered with ads for sex workers. But really there's a disconnect between Eloise's story and what happens to Sandie. Yes, there are some creepy guys she encounters. But Eloise is not a victim of sexual exploitation outside of the usual crap that any women in a city has to put up with. (Now if done right, that could be an interesting film. But it already exists and it's called Lucky.) The backstory we get with Eloise is that her mother died of suicide and she sometimes has visions of her.
So the whole time the film is progressing, I kept waiting for
WARNING: spoilers below
some connection, even a slight one, between Eloise's mother and Sandie's story.
In a way, the whole movie feels like a graveyard of abandoned themes. Eloise borderline fetishizes the 1960s--the clothing, the music, etc. I thought that maybe the film would explore the idea of the reality of the past and the danger of idolizing "the good old days." Nope. John repeatedly tells Eloise that he connects with her because he also feels like an outsider. So maybe this movie will explore the idea of being an outsider in a creative space. Nope. Eloise encounters a lot of casually gross/predatory sexual attention from men. So maybe this movie will explore the way that such behavior is normalized. Nope. Early mention is made of Eloise's mother and her mental health issues, so maybe that will be an important part of the film. Nope.
There's enough style and enjoyable performances that this wasn't a total loss. But it's definitely a one-time-only watch, and not something I'd quickly recommend.