Movie Review: Last Night in SoHo

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

One of Edgar Wright's most ambitious films and one of his best. 

This movie is top notch horror filmmaking. The scary scenes are legitimately creepy and scary and will stay in your mind long after the movie is finished. Yet this movie has much more than scares in store for its audience. The scares actually come relatively late in this film and that works heavily to its advantage. We begin with the story of a small town girl, who has always felt like she belonged in 1960's London. When she finds herself going to school in modern day London, she finds herself incredibly out of place and the isolation proves tough on her mentality. This is what draws her to the vivid dreams about 1960's London that will lead to the horror in the story. This in itself is a completely compelling story that will draw viewers in long before anything creepy starts to happen. It is not hard to become emotional invested in this character and her emotional journey is what makes this much more than your average horror film. The performances of Thomasin McKenzie and  Anya Taylor-Joy, add a lot to the emotion connection to this film as well. In fact I think many will be disappointed by the later scenes because these early scenes are so great. The last act in particular will divide many movie fans because of how far it stretches suspension of disbelief and that it goes in such an unexcepted direction. I can only applaud Edgar Wright and his co-writer  Krysty Wilson-Cairns on the sheer bravery of this last act and say that it worked for me. This movie also pulls you in by being incredibly visually stylish and wonderful to look at. There are many incredible shots and sequences in this movie that will long live in film fans' minds. Being an Edgar Wright film naturally music plays a large part. This works perfectly as the use of 1960's pop songs not only fit the 60's inspired dreams, but they also add so much to every scene they appear in. No one can ever argue that Edgar Wright doesn't use music perfectly in his movies and this film is more proof than ever.