“Last Night in Soho” is a suspense thriller movie released in 2021.
“Last Night in Soho” is directed by Edgar Wright and starring actors Anya Taylor-Joy, Thomasin McKenzie and Matt Smith.
The plot tells the story of Eloise, a woman studying at the London School of Design, who unexpectedly returns to the 1960s.
She met Sandie, a dazzling singer who yearned for success.
But the brilliance of the surface is not the whole picture of Sandie. As the dreams of the past began to fall apart, Eloise and Sandie fell into an endless abyss of darkness.
The huge gap between expectation and reality
Edgar Wright, the director who directed “Shaun of the Dead” and “Blue Fury”, has always been known for his unique style of getting rid of the existing framework.
Just as his 2017 robbery film “Baby Driver” brought a high degree of entertainment to the audience with a strong rhythmic soundtrack.
This year’s highly anticipated new film “Last Night in Soho” takes us back to Soho in central London in the 1960s.
The film presents a confusing and confusing murder case between the two girls in an interlaced manner.
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The theme background of the “Last Night in Soho”
For many years, Edgar Wright has directed films as both director and screenwriter.
This time he filmed “Last Night in Soho” and invited the screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who was shortlisted for the 2020 Oscars with “1917”, to co-write the script.
He brought two actresses, Anya Taylor-Joy (“Emma”) and Thomasin McKenzie (“Jojo Rabbit”) to star in “Last Night in Soho”.
Fans can expect that “Last Night in Soho” will be a story with a different tone from his previous works and a relatively female perspective.
In the opening of the “Last Night in Soho” movie, we can see her cute side of the heroine Eloise played by Thomasin McKenzie.
A poster of Audrey Hepburn’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is posted on the wall of her living room, which reflects her quirky personality and not being tied down by the environment.
Although she was only a child, there was an old soul in Eloise.
Her headphones and turntables are always playing old songs from the 60s.
This is the era that Eloise yearns for. She can’t wait to go back to the past and experience the many beautiful things she missed at that time.
“Last Night in Soho” Expectation Fantasy
So although Eloise was born in a rural area in England, she has the dream of becoming a professional fashion designer.
She always hopes to come to London, an ancient city with a long history.
So when Eloise received the admission letter from the Fashion School of the University of the Arts London, it also became the starting point for the story of the whole movie “Last Night in Soho” and the realization of her dream dream.
However, the process of pursuing dreams is always accompanied by many difficult tests that we could not predict beforehand.
“Last Night in Soho” protagonist Eloise has the ability to perceive supernaturally.
Although this allowed Eloise to meet her deceased mother in the room, it also planted a seed of instability for her future academic journey.
The London that Eloise thinks about every day and the “Soho” where her school is located is actually not as good as she thinks.
They seem to be full of vitality and open all year round, but while inspiring people’s creativity, they are also accompanied by darkness and danger.
The ability of the protagonist of “Last Night in Soho”
On the first day Eloise moved into the school dormitory, it was not very pleasant with his roommates.
In addition to the difference in daily life habits, Eloise came from the country but was talented, which also made her an object of jealousy for several classmates immediately.
Therefore, Eloise, the independent protagonist of “Last Night in Soho”, immediately moved out of the dormitory after finding an old apartment in the city center.
However, this seemed to solve the problem very smoothly, but what Eloise didn’t know was that this decision also changed her life.
Just like other horror movies, “Last Night in Soho” also uses Eloise’s supernatural perception ability under the neon lights that constantly flicker outside the window at night to bring her and the audience back to the representative of London’s nightlife in the 1960s.
The most prosperous “Soho”, full of restaurants, bars, theaters and clubs.
The beautiful imagination of “Last Night in Soho”
Eloise traveled to the time she was most yearning for.
Eloise, the protagonist of “Last Night in Soho”, became the woman “Sandie” played by Anya Taylor-Joy.
Sandie and Eloise are both talented young girls who come to Soho to work hard with their own dreams.
That day, Sandie wore a pink dress to a large nightclub, and the dazzling Sandie instantly became the focus of the audience.
This also made her meet Jack, a gentleman-like man, and then they started a new relationship.
Eloise was immersed in the time of becoming Sandie, the dream singer, and her time in Soho in the 1960s.
Eloise regarded Sandie as her idol, dyed the same color of blond hair, bought a coat far exceeding the budget, and tried to make the pink dress she was wearing.
Although Eloise did so hard, she needed to work at a bar at night to barely pay for living expenses.
But this won the teacher’s praise and affirmation, and also allowed Eloise to find a direction to work hard, and she was full of confidence in her future.
The reality of “Last Night in Soho”
Perhaps “Last Night in Soho” seems to be an inspirational story full of courage.
It allows Eloise to follow in Sandie’s footsteps and grow and thrive in London, a large and unfamiliar city.
But in fact, it’s as if Eloise first came to London and felt dangerous because of some over-the-counter taxi drivers.
Sandie, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, lived in the 1960s when women’s rights were low. Unlike Eloise, she was not able to survive without being vigilant about her surroundings and not ganging up with people casually.
Although the two people are so similar, Sandie, who embraced the singer’s dream, wanted to please Soho at the time, but it was a group of hideous old men who showed their teeth and claws at young girls.
Therefore, watching Sandie’s debut performance through Eloise in the middle of the “Last Night in Soho” movie brought the first plot twist.
The radiant girl in her mind is not only not the protagonist of this show, but for her livelihood, she can only wear revealing clothes and pose on the side to satisfy the fantasy desires of the men in the audience.
The horror of “Last Night in Soho”
“Last Night in Soho” can’t help but remind me of “Promising Young Woman”, which won the best original screenplay at this year’s Oscar.
On the surface, London in the 1960s was colorful and full of opportunities to attract many young people to adventure.
But in fact, these prosperous successes are based on the oppression of women.
Perhaps the girls are dazzling on the stage, but most of the rewards they receive and the applause given under the stage come from men who have other plans and want to sleep in their bed at night.
What’s even worse is that those men happen to be the most powerful and incapable of offending.
As Eloise’s fantasy about Sandie disintegrated, “Last Night in Soho” her beautiful yearning for the 60s also instantly became a nightmare that made people want to wake up immediately.
However, just as Sandie was forced to face the heavy pressure of reality, Eloise’s spiritual perception ability also made it difficult for her to escape easily.
This made her original smooth life lost its original order because of the entanglement of those male phantoms.
The meaning of the ending of “Last Night in Soho”
“Last Night in Soho” is just like the story itself. It is a beautiful movie that can bring great pressure to people.
Among them, the director Edgar Wright successfully created the prosperous and fascinating look of London Soho in the 1960s with gorgeous character costumes, makeup and scene design.
On the other hand, the film is also under the unique visual style and soundtrack of the whole film. Through a nightmare experienced by Eloise and Sandie, the oppression and discomfort brought by the male gaze are presented “bloodly”.
Just like when Eloise first came to Soho, he saw the advertising leaflets on the phone booth.
Does the young and beautiful girl in the photo face the same situation as Sandie in the 60s?
Therefore, I like the reversal of the final ending of “Last Night in Soho”. The lamb that seems to be slaughtered will have time to counterattack.
The dead souls of those men are pitiful, but they don’t deserve people’s sympathy.
But Sandie, as a murderer, is understandable because the audience clearly sees the pain and pressure she has suffered from the collapse of her dream.
The theme of the “Last Night in Soho” plot
There is no doubt that “Last Night in Soho” premiered at the Venice Film Festival this time is not Edgar Wright’s most powerful work.
Perhaps the film too wants to show the corresponding relationship between the two heroines, and Eloise’s difficulties in reality are weakened.
In the film, the female classmates, the old policeman and other supporting roles are slightly flat, and the behavioral responses of the male ghosts who want to ask for help are also inconsistent.
But in the end, these small flaws did not affect the excellent results of “Last Night in Soho” and the core theme that the director hopes to tell in the film.
“Don’t miss the past too much, or try to whitewash the mistakes of the past.”
This is a reminder and vigilance given to the audience by “Last Night in Soho”.
We can miss or imagine the people, things, and things that have disappeared.
But no matter what, you must remember that what you have in your impression may not be what they really are.
“Last Night in Soho” film review conclusion
Overall, in addition to the unpredictable plot development of “Last Night in Soho”, its most fascinating place is the presentation of the overall atmosphere.
Along with the neon lights flickering outside the window, we clearly saw Soho’s dazzling appearance from the original imagination to the real appearance of gradual collapse.
The hopeless gap between the two, indeed, through the director’s atmosphere shaping and the actors’ interpretation of the characters, brings intense psychological pressure and fear to the audience.
Director Edgar Wright used the switch of lens, scene, light and shadow to make the whole film constantly wander between gorgeous and treacherous, creating a quite charming conflicting beauty.
The two heroines are the key to the achievement of “Last Night in Soho”.
The experience of Anya Taylor-Joy, who fascinated everyone every time he appeared, was heartbreaking.
Thomasin McKenzie, who watched all of this happen, successfully stirred up the audience’s emotions due to his gradual breakdown in his mental state.
I look forward to their performance in other works in the future.
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