Posted by Student with mental health issues uses her dreams to travel back in time and plagiarise ideas for a dress design.
Have I ever mentioned my dislike for horror movies? I have? When? Oh. You mean here? And here? Well, despite my fear of horror, I once again found myself on route to watching a horror flick at the cinemas. Am I mad? Yes, but what’s that got to do with it?
An outcast fashion student name Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie), moves from the countryside to London. She experiences visions in her sleep of a woman, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), in the 1960s who is an aspiring singer. Conveniently, Ellie is also a fan of 60s music. To be fair who wouldn’t be? It’s the era of the Beatles after all. Ellie finds herself idolising Sandie, only to find all is not what it appears in continued visions.
Edgar Wright directs, after his successful Cornetto trilogy, and one of my favourite movies, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. There was also Baby Driver, a stylish movie I enjoyed but one that I find largely forgettable.
Last Night In Soho reminds me a lot of Baby Driver. From the opening music sequence… through to the fact it is indeed rather forgettable. I do like the music, I feel it adds to the movie in a very natural way – setting the vibe of the 60s. No Beatles track but I’ll let it slide, I’m guessing it’s not easy to get music rights in movies. But had it had a Beatles track featured in the movie I’d have probably given an extra star. I’m not upset, I’m just disappointed.
Aesthetically the movie is stunning. Once again capturing the essence of 60s glam. Both Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy look equally as stunning. I don’t know if it’s just my bad eyesight, but there’s a lot of similarities in their appearance. Perhaps that was intended all along.
If I were to rate this movie as a horror, I’d go as far as saying it isn’t really a horror movie at all. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, I guess there’s different types of scares in the world. But I didn’t get scared once – and that says something… I suffered sleepless nights after watching Toy Story!
I do think Edgar Wright does comedy better than he does horror/action. Maybe he’s established enough to play around with different genres now, but I do miss the comedic entries to his film list. To this day I wonder what Ant-Man would have been like had it been directed by him.
As for the story, I have to say Last Night In Soho is quite predictable in places. Even when it tries to divert your attention and a character’s motives, you kind of see it coming. I’m not an especially intelligent guy, so if I can see it coming, anyone can! There’s also story points I feel don’t really go anywhere. It’s established fairly early that Ellie has a gift in seeing the dead, with her mother appearing in mirrors. But ultimately the visions of her mother don’t really go anywhere. You can almost just remove that aspect of the character so there’s more mystery.
And speaking of mystery, I was left a little confused as to the rules of these visions. Like how is it that Ellie can interact with the visions to the extent that she can get a bruise in her vision and still have it when she wakes up in reality. Shouldn’t that mean she’s tired because she never actually goes to sleep? I guess there’s certain things I feel would have worked well leaving as mysteries, and other things they probably should have added more explanation around. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t and all that malarkey.
I found the ending a bit poor too. Almost playing it too safe when there was an opportunity for a more risky ending that would leave things a bit more somber. I’m all for a happy ending and all, but sometimes a darker ending would leave a more lasting impact. A darker ending would have suited the tone of this movie too.
I was chatting to the OddFella last night about his take on the movie. He really didn’t like it, giving it 2 stars. To quote him – he said “Looks good but the story is silly old bollocks”. I largely agree with his take, but I don’t think I hate it as much as he did. It’s fine, we’re still friends!
Verdict
A stylish if not rather predictable movie which I mostly enjoyed. However, it’s one I’ll probably forget fairly quickly too.