Film Review: "Last Night in Soho" (2021).

"A Murder in the Past. A Mystery in the Future." This is Last Night in Soho. This British psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright and written by Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.

In 2007, Wright first conceived of the idea for the film. He pitched the plot to producers Nira Park and Rachel Prior before the start of filming for The World's End (2013), describing it as a "dark Valentine" to London and the Soho neighbourhood. Wright cited Don't Look Now (1973) and Repulsion (1965) as influences for the film. Wright was first introduced to Wilson-Cairns by Sam Mendes. In 2016, on the night of the Brexit vote, the pair went on a bar crawl together through the basement bars of Soho, ending up at a bar called Trisha's, where Wright pitched her the story of the film. In December 2017, after the press tour for Baby Driver had concluded, Wright felt pressure to begin working on a sequel immediately, but decided instead to go in "a radically different direction" for his next film. He phoned Wilson-Cairns and asked if she wanted to co-write the screenplay for the film with him. Wright and Wilson-Cairns wrote the first draft of the script in six weeks, before she had to leave to begin work on 1917 (2019) with Mendes. The film was originally titled Red Light Area and then The Night Has a Thousand Eyes. The title originates from a 1968 hit single by the English pop band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich and a conversation Wright had with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. By late May 2019, Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, Sam Claflin, Rita Tushingham, Jessie Mei Li, James and Oliver Phelps, Margaret Nolan and Diana Rigg were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late August. Filming took place throughout London, England, including Soho. The film marks the final film appearances of Rigg and Margaret Nolan, who both died in 2020. The film was originally scheduled for a 25 September 2020 release date, but was delayed to 23 April 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being delayed again to October 22, then again to the following weekend.

The film stars McKenzie, Taylor-Joy, Smith, Stamp, Claflin, Tushingham, Li, James and Oliver Phelps, Nolan and Rigg. McKenzie and Taylor-Joy give performances so unsettling and so precise, I can barely believe they grew into such confident screen presences.

The film is far more shocking, in fact, than anything Hitchcock or De Palma ever made, because it can produce in the spectator the added shock of self-recognition, the hallmark of a real artwork. The film takes us on a deeply disturbing, hallucinatory trip into McKenzie's mental breakdown in this British psychological thriller.

Simon says Last Night in Soho receives:

Also, see my review for Baby Driver.