Review of Last Night in Soho (2021) by Leonvitali — 13 Nov 2021

The title of the film already refers to the famous song by "Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich & Tech": it seems to be, from the very first sequences, immersed in the cult film "Suspiria" by Dario Argento, with a photograph, a direction and an impressive mise-en-scène, in the most astonishing sense of the term, capable of daring so much as to touch a small revolution in the way of narrating stories cinematically.

It is the story of Ellie, obsessed with the sixties, who from the Cornish countryside, goes to the heart of London to study at London College of Fashion, to aspire to become a famous fashion icon.

From the beginning we understand the girl's problems: occasionally she sees, through the mirrors, her mother, who committed suicide some time ago, trying to rise in the career of fashion, just like her daughter; and this is also the seed that is handed down from mother to daughter, that of being able to see the past, the ghosts: Ellie is as we said in love with the sixties, and as happens in "Midnight in Paris", every night, when she puts on a precise vinyl (after taking a room in London with a rigid and mysterious old woman, masterfully interpreted by Diana Rigg), returns to the London of the years she has always loved: here Edgar Wright no longer sees us, puts the gear in fourth and transports us in the most sensational way possible inside a world made of colorful neon lights, energetic dances and provocative looks ... but this seems to be the beginning of a fairy tale, and here we are looming in the beginning of a nightmare: at night , Ellie begins to have the visions of Sandie (one of the most spectacular and masterful interpretations of Anya Taylor-Joy, discovered by Robert Eggers with The VVitch a few years ago), a shadow girl who will become an inspiration for the protagonist, in creating v you live in the real world.

So every night we go to Downtown ... a shady figure, Jack, begins to torment Sandie, who immerses her in the world of entertainment asking for sexual favoritism in exchange: the sequence is memorable where through a sequence shot so visionary as to make the skin crawl , we witness the degradation of the night, of the darkest London, of the world of entertainment from behind the curtain, of the most hallucinating limelight; a succession of sensational sequences, where reality and lucid madness mix, creating a particular genre and aspiring to a narrative quality of a new and perfectly understandable language at the same time.

A Matt Smith at his full potential, terrifying and magnetic at the same time.

Fleeting appearances of a veteran Terence Stamp, who will become the protagonist of a well-studied and well-staged twist.

Young actors and young director, who together do an admirable job, and which over the years will probably become a real cult film: Thomasin McKenzie demonstrates, through his scared looks beyond words, capable of making the skin crawl, filtered by light and from the reflection of a knife, of the discolored make-up, a superlative acting ability.

Film inspired by masterpieces such as Polanski's “Repulsion” and Roeg's “In Venice a red December ... shocking”.

The dance scenes, just like Thomas Vinterberg's last “Druk” scene, albeit much more visually spectacular, invite the viewer to take part in the scene, taking his hand and dragging him along.

It is therefore the spectacle that becomes horror, it becomes the curtain for every shady business, for every darkest and most gloomy desire.

Music that for the director is his daily bread, therefore one more fabulous and historical than the other: the final sequence, hallucinating, visionary and inspiring, will go down in history.