75% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 296 reviews)
Runtime: 116 minutes
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Michael Ajao, Diana Rigg
From: Focus Features
It took a long while, but I finally saw this film, and theatrically to boot; a Cinemark still had it and as it was 5 dollar day yesterday... I haven't seen every Edgar Wright movie (and not all that have been watched have been reviewed here) but my being “meh” to Baby Driver despite a soundtrack seemingly curated by me-that gave me pause when it came to his new movie. Of course it was something different from him so the alluring trailer & the retro vibes should have been enough. Be that as it may, at least that mistake has been fixed. As I would have been happy to be pals w/ lead girl Eloise “Ellie” Turner and her 60's aesthetic if I was a college-aged British chap now...
By now I presume most are familiar with the plot of how Ellie-from a small English village-starts having visions of 1960's London after she moves to the city in present time and those dreams start manifesting into her real life, so I'll instead move on. Personally, an awkward retro sort of person like myself will easily sympathize with a character like Ellie yet the biggest asset for the movie is the excellent performance from Thomasin McKenzie in the role. Even if you aren't like me you'll probably find it easy to root for such a likable young lady, or feel awful that she is crapped on by some Mean Girls at her new art school, or she sees those dreams turned nightmares in her reality. The cast as a whole was nice (including those that acted in the '60's like Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg in a fine final role or Margaret Nolan in a small part which was also her final acting credit before she passed away) such as Taylor-Joy's magnetic performance or Michael Ajao of Attack the Block fame as an actual nice fellow or Matt Smith's part but for this being the first time I've seen McKenzie in anything, she was great and shame on me for not seeing something like Jojo Rabbit or Leave No Trace before.
The story: it started off fine between modern London and the swinging 1960's version of the city that at first looked great for Sandie but eventually became a horror show for her—shown at the same time as Ellie's life is in a tailspin. Then the final act happens and well, I was not entirely on board for everything that happened. Not that it doesn't make sense in its own way, but I can't get into details as it'd massively spoil it for those that still have this on their watchlist. It very well could have ruined the entire movie-which is the opinion of some-which was not the case for me, although it being more effective at the psychological horror aspects rather than the more overt scares is something I have to note also.
At least there were other things that deserve high marks: old London being brought to life, the colorful cinematography, the bangin' soundtrack of older tunes either familiar to me or not, the blatant DePalma/giallo influence, & a nice concluding scene. Last Night in Soho was well-suited for the theatrical experience so not waiting for home viewing was a prudent decision on my part. Even if I don't love everything about it, McKenzie as the lead girl was good enough for me to give it a better than average score. Oh, and for those unaware the title of this movie came from Tarantino telling Wright that the song of the same name from Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (who can forget that English Beat act when they were referenced in Death Proof?) would be great if it was used for a movie, and Edgar agreed. As even I hadn't heard of the tune before, it is played during the closing credits.
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