A newer recommendation and review.

 I know...

I generally try to keep this blog about older films, since I love them, and people today tend to ignore them. But this one is special. 

I would direct you now to Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho (2021).

There WILL be spoilers, and I will put the poster here... if you don't want the spoilers, don't scroll below the poster. Ok?

Let's start off with the amazing cast, shall we? 

Thomasin McKenzie is the cast member I'm least familiar with, but she does an amazing job here as our protagonist Eloise. Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Queen's Gambit, The New Mutants, and others)  is ALWAYS amazing, and here plays the mysterious 'Sandie' who's life in 60's Soho  Eloise bears witness to. Matt Smith, from In Bruges and Doctor Who, plays Jack, Sandie's charming but scheming boyfriend, and finally AMAZING supporting performances by veteran actors Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp. 

Someone asked me what genre this film is... and its honestly not easy to categorize. It starts as a sort of fantasy piece, but shifts to thriller and then outright horror by the end of it. The style shifts wonderfully, and bleeds together in unexpected ways. 

The basic story is that Eloise (McKenzie), a girl obsessed with 60s pop culture, moves to London to attend a prestigious Fashion Design school. She is not prepared for the city life, having been somewhat sheltered by her grandmother, after the death of her mother, and discovers that Dorm life is harsh... and seeking shelter from it, takes a room in Soho at a house owned by an older woman (Rigg). Almost immediately, Eloise begins having vivid dreams of Sandie (Taylor-Joy) who has come to 60s London to become a singer. Sandie gets involved with the charming Jack (Smith) who seems to be the answers to her prayers, and who promises to get her into 'the business' with his contacts among the nightclubs of Soho. 

But almost immediately what is dream and what is reality start to blur. Eloise wakes up inspired by these visions of this past version of Soho, but ... is also mysteriously sporting the same hickey Jack gave to Sandie in her dreams. 

Each night, Eloise returns to her dreams to watch as Sandie's life progresses, and begins to take a far more sinister turn, and we begin to see that Jack is a far less altruistic beau than he first appeared. And the darkness that Sandie finds herself in starts intruding on Eloise in her waking hours as well. 

The film presents two views of Soho. The present day Soho is a little drab, trendy, almost quaint, and populated by vacuous students and bitter old people. The Soho of the sixties, is, to quote Marillion, 'a neon wonderland', populated by elegant, stylish trendsetters where nothing is exactly what it seems. This dreamlike past is reinforced by mirrors, colored lights, and a sort of hazy atmosphere that is easy to get lost in. 

The very first scene set in this is astonishing in its setup, and remarkable in its execution. Eloise enters a club, and is greeted by a doorman who takes her coat. The full mirror on the wall shows not Eloise, but Sandie, and the two women face each other in the mirror, checking their makeup before going into the club proper. Its such a simple effect, little more than the old Marx Brothers mirror gag, but done expertly (using twin actors as the doorman) and for dramatic effect. It establishes that what Sandie experiences, Eloise does as well. 

Later, Sandie and Jack share a dance, and with a very simple camera trick, we see Eloise also dancing with Jack. Its all done practically, and in-camera. The dance and the camera are choreographed so that McKenzie and Taylor-Joy swap places seamlessly at various points, and its a gorgeous sequence.

Later still, we see Sandie running down the club's stairs, and Eloise pursuing in the mirrors.... again, ALL done practically on set, with only false reflection added later using CGI. 

The colors and the lighting are pure Dario Argento. Wright lights things in pink and red hazes, and highlights things with green lights, and the result is something visually stunning. I've heard a rumor that Suspiria (1977) is one of Wrights favorite films, and it shows. However, that is not the only influence here. The clothing often recalls the 60s James Bond Films, and one party sequence reflects Live and Let Die. When the crowds of ghosts begin to appear, I kept thinking of Carnival of Souls. One alleyway they run through I recognized from Peeping Tom (1960), there is a cinema marque advertising Thunderball (1965), several of Eloise's fellow students dress as the characters from The Craft (1996)... This is a film that draws from and page homage to all sorts of films that came before it.

One of my favorite moments in the film is where it transitions to something darker in the past. Eloise has arrived to Sandie's opening night at the club where Jack got her a job, expecting to see her headlining. She feels something is amiss, as she watches Jack laughing, smoking, and drinking with his friends at the bar, and when the show starts... its not Sandie who is headlining. Instead, its a rather sordid, risque little show with a clearly unhappy Sandie as one of the chorus. As Eloise, and the Audience follow her backstage after the performance, it initially looks like an energetic and happily chaotic scene... but then you start picking out whats really going on; Prostitution, Drug-use, blackmail, extortion... again, what we see initially is NOT what we find when we look deeper.

The only real misstep... and I'm not sure how much of a misstep it really is, and how much is just a mistake on Eloise's part... is her mistaking 'The older gentleman' (Terence Stamp) for an aged Jack. We saw what very much seemed to be a younger version of Stamp's character as one of Sandie's 'dates' and his personality seemed very different than Jack's as well. While I can understand Eloise's fixation and fear of Jack, linking him to 'The Older Gentleman' seemed a bit of a stretch... and particularly when Stamp's character seemed to know exactly what Eloise was talking about and have information about what really happened. 

I want to revisit this film again soon. I find myself thinking about it long after watching it.