Review of Last Night in Soho (2021) by Jluis_001 — 06 Nov 2021

For a while after I finished watching it, I was a bit conflicted. It slipped through my mind after some minutes.

I'm not disappointed, but neither am I delighted or excited. Just meditative.

Last Night in Soho is pretty much a film aboutFor a while after I finished watching it, I was a bit conflicted. It slipped through my mind after some minutes.

I'm not disappointed, but neither am I delighted or excited. Just meditative.

Last Night in Soho is pretty much a film about nothing.

Certainly a mystery that looks great, but its concept of dreams that come true and dreams that died in a big city is not original.

Of course, Wright puts it in another perspective, but it's a perspective that's completely controlled by him to be able to mold it to his liking in order that the situations that give life to his film continue to occur.

At first, the lead character seems to be able to see ghosts.

I'm not really sure if I can call them that, but you can intuit it, even though at first we only see that she can see her dead mother.

She arrives in London to start studying to become a fashion designer. And being a country girl she is completely out of place.

After a quick change of her living place, she gets involved in dreams that feel to real, and that also begin to consume her.

But why? And more importantly. Does it matter?

Edgar Wright does not give much with which to defend himself in that regard.

The problem here is not that whatever happened to the character of Anya Taylor-Joy, is only important for Thomasin McKenzie's character, but that it raises other questions that this story does not even bother to address, with the exception from the little mention about schizophrenia at the police station. Which leaves you with two options. Either she's mentally ill, or she can genuinely see, ghosts?

And neither of them really answers the question of what happens to McKenzie's character. That's what history gives us and that's pretty much it. Her own mental breakdown is also quite rushed.

Two beautiful and romantic dreams and everything is going very well. One goes wrong and McKenzie starts to freak out. What's up with that?

And I must say it. Thomasin McKenzie was not up to the task. Even though she appears much less on screen, Anya Taylor-Joy totally consumes her. In each and every one of the scenes in which she appears.

If you're going to get an impression of this movie, it's because of Anya Taylor-Joy.

The climax is predictable because if you're paying attention, you quickly sense who is who.

And going from murderous rage to conclusive acceptance of the crimes to then die and obtain some sort of redemption and closure had no impact on me. But at that point there was nowhere else to go.

It's an entertaining film for this weekend. But mark my words. This in the future will not be recognized as one of the best works of Edgar Wright.