Edger Wright started out his directing career making genera send ups like 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz' before moving on to comic adaptations like 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World' and the screenplays for 'The Adventures of Tintin' and 'Ant-Man'. In 2017 Wright wrote and directed 'Baby Driver' an original heist movie that was more action film then comedy. With 'Last Night in Soho' we see Wright's further evolution, making a psychological thriller that owes much to such 60's films as 'Repulsion' (1965), 'Peeping Tom' (1960) and 'Carnivals of Souls' (1962).
The 60's homages are very much intentional and appropriate to this film, which is not only partially set in that decade but contains appearances by period beauty's Rita Tushingham, Margaret Nolan and Diana Rigg, the last two in their final film roles. The story concerns a contemporary young woman with a family history of mental illness (Thomasin McKenzie) who moves from her home in rural Cornwall to pursue her dream of studying design at the esteemed London College of Fashion. Personality conflicts with her roommate lead the young woman to seek lodgings off campus, and she rents a room in an old house from an elderly Diana Rigg.
It is in that room that she starts having vivid dreams of an aspiring young singer back in the mid 60's (Anya Taylor-Joy), and at first these are largely of a rose colored nostalgic heugh, the film has large gorgeous period sets, one even outdoors running for seeming blocks. This vicarious life imparts a new vivacity to Thomasin's generally quite bearing, but then things in the dream world start to get really dark, and we see the underbelly of mod swinging London, and the ways it could exploit young women, ending with images of Taylor-Joy covered in blood. Our leads efforts to now solve a more then half century old murder is given new menace when she believes she see's the killer still alive in the form of Terrance Stamp.
Promotional art for this film, movie posters, the soundtrack album, have been rendered in a very 1960'style, and the movie itself takes elements from the films of the era and successfully rearranges them to create something that feels quite fresh, even while remaining quite rooted in something old. This is definitely a film I will want to re-watch with added focus on the way it was structed, I'll be curious to see how well certain plot elements hold up under increased scrutiny, but as mood piece and evocation of a previous era this movie really works. The fact that it doesn't give the era of it's focus an essay pass, choosing to dwell on just the comforting nostalgia of the past and ignoring the periods blemishes, is very much an asset the movies favor. A really fun and sometimes unexpected theater experience that had a smile of appreciation on my face through much of it. ***1/2
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