Last Night in Soho

Last Night in Soho really had me hypnotized. I feel like that's a comment that will be said by a lot of people, but that's exactly the kind of effect this film has. Edgar Wright brings us a dreamy, groovy ghost story that heavily pays tribute to Suspiria, along with other film classics from the 60s and 70s. Being Britain's top film junkie, Edgar Wright can get a hold of a camera and make it seem like you're walking into a video store at full blast. His love of this specific genre of horror is just gushing here. His love of music is also as romantic as ever. Music plays just as important of a role here as it did in Baby Driver, even if the songs aren't full-on characters of their own. Mackenzie and Taylor-Joy carry this film fully on their shoulders, and by God, do they rock it. I've been incredibly impressed with Thomasin Mackenzie since Jojo Rabbit, and if this film doesn't rocket her career all the way to the top, nothing will. There's so much to love about this movie. It's a trace. No, it's a trip.

Holy smoke what a waste! The actors are all talented, the art direction, sets, costumes, soundtrack are great.

But the second half of this is just the most juvenile simplistic and trope filled junk.

This is another covid era film that looks to be, due to delays, got over- tweeked to bad result.

From the first scene, my hopes for this film started to fade. It is abysmally written, knocked together by a grand total of two brain cells. The characters are cliche and uninteresting and without a single layer of depth, the setups predictable and revisited upon us from a millions other films (bedroom alarm clock going off... the bitchy classmates... overhearing someone talk about you in the bathroom... the plot twist..., etc etc ad nauseum), the acting for the most part unbelievable and often cringe. The one ray of light in the acting was Sam Claflin, who makes a tiny appearance but brings something of interest and intrigue. Why he's not become more mainstream over the years, I have no idea. Sure the cinematography is good, but this alone does not make a film. And we expect decent cinematography as standard from modern films given the leaps in digital technology. Nor does banging some old tunes over celluloid make it hip. This film is entirely style over substance, and unfortunately the style doesn't even come close to the style of the era it attempts to recreate.

I'm suspicious of the IMDb rating this film gets. As usual, many one timers popping a rating in. There are 14,000 ratings for this film. This film has made $8 million at the box-office to date. If we assume roughly one in a hundred people rate a film on IMDb and that the average price of a cinema ticket is $15 (probably an underestimate), then this film should have made $21 million. Even if you're generous and give the figures a 30% lag time and account for preview ratings etc, you should still be hitting $15 mil.

Me thinks many of these reviews are fake...

I understand what Edgar Wright tried to do, but I could not help but feel that this story would have been more intersting if it were less horror focused and more of a straightforward mystery with flashbacks.

This movie had me hooked from the beginning. The vibe of the neon, eerily upbeat 60s music, and intense cinematography, is unmatched. Acting was decent and the storyline unpredictable (at least to me). A well made movie that haunts, not scares.