Director Edgar Wright made a name for himself with the Cornetto Trilogy and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, all great films that combined different genre elements but were first and foremost comedies. Since then, however, Wright's been switching up his style. Baby Driver was an action movie with jokes rather than a comedy with action scenes like his previous films were. This year he made the humorous documentary The Sparks Brothers, and Last Night in Soho shows Wright's venture into a psychological thriller/horror movie.
In terms of sheer style, Wright is more talented than almost any other director around, but the quality of his screenplays is heavily reliant on having good co-writers. The Cornetto Trilogy was just as much Simon Pegg's baby as Wright's. For Last Night in Soho, Wright has a new co-writer, Kristy Wilson-Cairns, who wrote 1917 and is clearly a rising talent to watch.
Last Night in Soho is Wright's first film solely focused on women characters. In the film, Thomasin McKenzie plays Eloise, an orphan obsessed with 1960s pop culture, and can also see the ghost of her mother. She moves to London for fashion school, but her social naivete and "grandma" taste make her an easy target for bullying at college. It's easy to read Eloise as autistic, which seems intentional given McKenzie has cited Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as an inspiration for her portrayal.
Eloise rents a room in an old house owned by the strict Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg) to escape being bullied by her roommate. It's here where things go wild -- whenever Eloise goes to bed in her new room, she finds herself transported back to 1964 and inhabiting the body of an ethereally beautiful, musically talented showgirl named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). At first, this ghostly time travel scenario is like a dream come true. However, as she witnesses and experiences the torment and prostitution that Sandie is put through by her manager Jack -- an eerie Matt Smith--, these dreams get increasingly nightmarish.
Edgar Wright has kindly asked that those screening Last Night in Soho at film festivals avoid spoilers. Some might even consider the plot details revealed in the second trailer to be spoilers, but rest assured, there are still many more twists. Like the Giallo films that inspired Wright, the scares tread the line between the campy and the deeply uncanny, resulting in a final act that's deliriously spooky and satisfying -- even as it risks going too over-the-top for some tastes.
With each film, Edgar Wright seems to be getting closer and closer to making a full-on musical. Last Night in Soho continues the trend with perfect retro needle cuts, musical performances by Taylor-Joy, and some amazing dance sequences. There's one dance where McKenzie and Taylor-Joy switch in and out of view as the camera spins that must have been nearly impossible to choreograph and edit but might be one of the best movie scenes of 2021.
In terms of how it addresses nostalgia and mental health, Last Night in Soho is interesting but not as deep as The World's End. Comedy can be the most effective tool to handle heavy subjects, and it would be a shame for Wright to abandon comedy when he's so great at it. While Last Night in Soho improves upon how Wright handles women, he could still improve his approach to creating Black characters -- Eloise's friend John (Michael Ajao) has a thankless and somewhat problematic role. Despite these weaknesses, however, Last Night in Soho still makes for some highly entertaining Halloween viewing.
Last Night in Soho opens in theaters on October 29.