Last Night in Soho

I completely underestimated this movie coming in. It seemed a divisive movie; those who loved it couldn’t stop gushing, and those who didn’t love it left puzzled and unimpressed. Normally, effusive praise makes me wary, and having just as many people say it wasn’t everything it was cracked up to be had me on guard. And yet, here I am, giving it the full score. It is everything its proponents — which now happily include me — say it is. First, this movie is absolutely drenched in style. There is no way not to fall in love with the movie’s visual and aural aesthetic. The soundtrack is stuffed with swinging 60’s tunes, and when the heroine Ellie is transported back to those days, the fashion and colors and decor are so heady and decadent, you’ll get a contact buzz watching it. Edgar Wright’s direction infuses this movie with style and grace and attitude. And it doesn’t stop when the movie is in modern day; there is serious directorial flourish here that should melt the stoniest heart. When the movie shifts from indulging in the seductive ambiance to using it to terrify, Wright’s direction stays on point; the colors and the fashion and the visuals and the music somehow switch in intent without changing in style. And then there’s the acting. From Thomasin McKenzie as Ellie to Anya Taylor-Joy as Sandie to supporting actors like Terence Stamp and the late Diana Rigg in her final performance, there isn’t an actor here who isn’t knocking it out of the park. McKenzie is a hell of an actor, and Taylor-Joy … well, I’ve thought she was a star since Split, and I’ve yet to see a movie to convince me otherwise. But McKenzie here is the real star, as she's the lead, and makes every moment of Ellie's descent into madness real. The plot may be where some of the divisiveness comes from, and to an extent, I get it. Wright’s story doesn’t reinvent the wheel. I’ve seen it compared to a Lifetime thriller or a Brian de Palma thriller, and that’s not entirely wrong. I’ve seen it said it indulges in cliches and tropes, and that’s also not wrong. But here’s the thing; EVERYTHING in movies is, to one extent or another, a trope. The challenge isn’t avoiding tropes or breaking them or lampshading them. It’s that, when you have to do it, do it well. Add some flourish. Give it life beyond just hitting the familiar beats. And in this regard, Soho does that. I didn’t mind any tropey moments, because the acting and the aesthetic of the movie is so excellent, the tropes used here feel natural. Some of the most critically acclaimed horror movies of the past few years are, at their core, cliche-ridden; X, Barbarian, and Summer of ‘84 all lean on some seriously shopworn storytelling aspects, but the movie elevates them because they use them well. Soho is no exception; when it uses those tropes, it does so with elegance, not laziness. I can't even pretend to find a criticism here. You've got to know it's a bit of a slow burn before it gets to the horror, but in the best way. It's a hell of a journey, and an emotional one at that.