The past, as L.P. Hartley reminds us, is a foreign country where they do things differently. Yet we are often inexorably drawn to it in the belief that different or not they did things better. It is that belief that is at the heart of the highly entertaining psychological horror Last Night in Soho.
The film is directed by Edgar Wright – his most mature work to date – from a script co-written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Full disclosure. Wilson-Cairns is a friend and was a student of mine for two years. I am as ever immensely proud of her, but that friendship has not influenced this piece.
As the title suggests, this is set in Soho. It is a time travel story with a twist which allows us to see contemporary London with its characterless bars and clubs as well as its Sixties heyday when neon-drenched Soho was one of the most vibrant areas in what Ian Fleming used to call, a thrilling city.
Given the nature of the film I am reluctant to say too much about the plot. Suffice to say it is the story of Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie), an aspiring fashion designer from rural Cornwall who goes to study in contemporary London.
Eloise has what appear to be psychic gifts, although it may be a mental illness. But when she moves to the Big Smoke she starts to dream about Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), a wannabe singer in Sixties Soho. Sandie is Eloise’s portal to the world she has always dreamed of. But it wouldn’t be much of a film if the dream didn’t turn out to be a nightmare of the past which resonates menacingly in the present.
The film starts with one of Wright’s signature musical numbers and the Sixties soundtrack is one of the strong points of the mise en scene. These musical interludes are usually technical tours de force but, pleasingly, this time the content of the numbers adds layers of meaning.
The early part of the film is a slightly generic country mouse to town mouse story, but there is one chillingly well written scene in a taxi which hints at the menace to come. Very quickly Eloise ditches the Mean Girls scenario and takes a room in an old house owned by Miss Collins (Diana Rigg), a grande dame who is as much of a relic as the building itself. Eloise thinks this may be all she has ever wanted; then she meets Sandie, and, in story terms, we are off to the races.
This first meeting is spectacular. The transition from our contemporary world to vintage Soho is stunning; a combination of confident directing from Wright, dazzling cinematography from Chung-hoon Chung, and breath-taking production design from Marcus Rowland. A triumphant coup de cinema.
The story, conceived by Wright, is very much his love letter to the great days of Soho. Sixties icons such as Rita Tushingham, Diana Rigg, and Terence Stamp come and go, the now sadly gone Cafe de Paris typifies London night life, and above it all is a poster for Thunderball reminding us we are in 1965 in the coolest place on earth. There are lots of cinematic nods too and Wright, as the sort of director for whom nothing succeeds like excess, fairly ladles on the influences. Without trying too hard you can find references to Georgy Girl, Frenzy, Repulsion, several Dario Argento films, Black Narcissus, and a few others.
Unusually for Wright, there is also something underneath all of this. Wright, for me, is normally a director of great style and not much content, but there is real substance at the centre of this film. It makes several feminist statements, which is why I think it is his most mature work.
The beating heart of Last Night in Soho is a great performance from Thomasin McKenzie, for my money the most talented of her generation. Her characterisation of the febrile Eloise is note-perfect, it keeps the audience guessing about the story they are watching and captures the carefully constructed rhythms of the script to the letter.
In contrast Anya Taylor-Joy feels a little underwritten as Sandie. Everyone seems spectacularly incurious about her, especially Eloise, until the plot requires them to be. She feels more like a plot device than a rounded character.
Nonetheless both leads are excellent, Diana Rigg gives great support and, even if the red herrings are a bit obvious and Wright a little over-reliant on certain directorial tropes, Last Night in Soho is cracking entertainment with plenty of thrills and chills.
