To begin with, Last Night in Soho (2021, Edgar Wright) gives us a young woman called ELLIE (Thomasin McKenzie), whose moral anchor is her dead mum. We’ll never know exactly what happened to her mother (or anything about any of the men in their family), other than: London was a lot for her, she suffered from mental illness, and took her own life. When Ellie gets into fashion school in London, it’s her chance to earn the redemption of her mother’s ghost.
Ellie’s dorm life is a lot for her, so she moves to Soho. There she begins to have dreams of an aspiring ingenue called SANDY (Anya Taylor-Joy). At this point in the movie, there’s a subtle shift. Sandy replaces Ellie’s mother as her moral anchor. Because Sandy is what Ellie hopes to be, and everything her mother wasn’t. Sandy is assertive, confident, and strong enough to defend herself against the untoward advances of gross men.
But around the midpoint, when Ellie realizes that Sandy is preyed upon in the same way her mother was and that Soho nightlife is a monster that breaks women, we get a terrifying Steadicam montage through a corridor of women shooting up, giving a blowjob, and ODing.
The film’s second act largely serves as a me too fueled mental breakdown. It’s when Ellie decides to make it her mission to bring the man who killed Sandy to justice that her psychotic breaks with reality escalate. And what does she do first? She goes to the police. And they don’t believe her. While off the record, the guy cop thinks she’s crazy and the lady cop believes her but admits she chose not to come forward.
So not having got anywhere, Ellie attempts to ensnare the man she believes guilty. Yet it turns out she costs him his life and soon thereafter that she’s falsely accused the wrong man. Okay so, yes a new spin on horror, and yes timely with its relevance. But there’s more. Ellie went after this guy because his victim was her idealized role-model; and said role-model is revealed to have wantonly mass-murdered every guy who took advantage of her.
Have you let that sink in? Last Night in Soho ends with Ellie’s success as a fashion designer, living happily ever after (looks like everyone can forget about the guilt of that old guy who got killed). Then there’s this haunting final image of Sandy staring back at Ellie from the reflection of a mirror. What a perfect note of ambiguity. So, Sandy is still Ellie’s moral anchor maybe? Is this friendly ghost an inspirational reminder? Or is this the final scene in a horror movie where the monster’s not entirely vanquished? And that Ellie’s mental illness won’t lay dormant for long?
In closing, Last Night in Soho is superb as a fun giallo horror with the complexity found in the best of that genre. The night scenes, drenched in neon spill and the rain-beaded windows along with the slick pavement and cobblestones is gorgeous. And one of the coolest shots in a horror movie ever is when Ellie’s fixed horrified stare is reflected in the knife blade slashing in and out of frame catching it every time it comes back and forth.
10/31/2021 AMC Madison Yards 8
Atlanta, GA
DCP
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