Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is an aspiring fashion student excited to be spending her first semester in London.  After moving into a spare room in an old house owned by Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg, in her final role) she begins having strange, reoccurring dreams about a young singer, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), and her sometimes violent manager, Jack (Matt Smith).  As the dreams continue, Eloise begins to suspect these might not just be dreams but visions of the past.  As the line between the past and the present continues to blur, Sandie becomes an obsession for Eloise who sees the young woman now even when she is awake. 

Last Night in Soho is a cerebral, genre-bending thriller from Edgar Wright alternating between a modern mystery and a pulpy crime.  The Focus released film is imbued with the director’s bold and popping style as well as plenty of bubbly 1960’s needle drops.  The music integrates itself well with the rest of the film and the sound design, in addition to the colors and overall production design, is some of the best work of the year in the field.  The mood is constantly in flux between the elegant music halls, seedy streets, and the modern exuberance of the first semester of college. 

McKenzie gives an incredibly nuanced performance in a role that requires precision to present the timeline blending narrative in a clear manner.  Described as a “field mouse” by the self-branded It Girl Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen), it is a fitting comparison despite it being said with some biting malice.  Eloise’s wide-eyed innocence makes her immediately sympathetic as our entry point into the narrative and we cannot help but cheer as she begins to rise in confidence and ability throughout the course of the film. 

Last Night in Soho really picks up speed – though it was never slow to begin with – when Eloise begins having dreams about a young, aspiring starlet, Sandie.  Wright does a great job at incorporating Eloise into these dreams by having her appear in mirrors or in the crowds.  She and Sandie move as if attached by a thread but still have enough slack – at least at first – to work independently of each other.  As the 116-minute thriller continues its twisty course, the slack tightens, and it becomes harder to tell what is real and what is a dream.  Wright, to his credit, makes sure that the film remains entirely legible throughout as he never breaks the rules which he set up in the first dream sequence, but rather he pushes them to their absolute limit without ever crossing over and “cheating” the audience to achieve a reveal.  The structure and restraint shown in the narrative, despite its insanity, is to be commended. 

Taylor-Joy is phenomenal opposite McKenzie as everything Eloise aspires to be: strong, fierce, independent, and in control.  As Eloise begins to take on more and more of Sandie’s characteristics, it is a real joy to watch and Taylor-Joy as Sandie, here, gets to play a bit of a femme fatale role.  To Eloise, she is a mystery that continues to reveal her secrets, but in doing so she becomes an obsession which both helps to empower Eloise but also destroys her.  It is very notable that much of their shared screentime is done practically and in-camera as much as possible which really helps to sell this mirrored dynamic between the two leads.  Surely, they would have been talented enough to pull this off in a digital environment but to see it come together in real life adds to the pageantry of the larger ballroom scenes.  

While in the ’60s, the sets are lavish and warmly lit, yet we never quite feel comfortable there.  The frantic camera keeps us unnerved as its weaves wildly through the rooms of dancers and freely pouring booze before finally spitting us out into the cold, wet London streets at nighttime.  Through it all, Sandie – sometimes substituted by Eloise – remain in the center of the camera’s orbit so that we never lose track of them in the story.  

The primary antagonist in the film is Jack, the music manager.  Unfortunately, Smith is as wooden as ever in the role as he skulks and stalks with the same unchanging scowl throughout while gruffly mumbling and rushing his dialogue.  For all the detail and process given by the two young leads, Smith’s one-note comic villain is one of the few, if not only, weak points in the film.  In Smith’s defense, Jack as a character is not written out as much as the others and is afforded very little to do in the film, but in the greater context of the work, he is the weak link of an otherwise expertly crafted ensemble piece. 

Returning to the present to round out the cast is John (Michael Ajao), another student with Eloise who slowly becomes increasingly important to her: coming to her defense with Jocasta, believing the dreams and visions, and overall, just being a standup guy in an otherwise vicious industry.  His role truly blossoms in the film, at first being seen just as another student in the room, but as the narrative grows, so does his importance and he brings some much-needed level-headedness to the latter half of the film.  He reaffirms to the audience that yes, what we are witnessing is insane, but just trust that Eloise knows what she is doing, and it will all be worth it. 

Last Night in Soho, after a long covid delay, is absolutely worth it.  Wright throws us right into the deep end within the first 15 minutes, but never abandons us.  Despite the twists and turns his narrative takes, it is all very carefully defined and planned, and Wright does a good job and establishing which timeline we are viewing, even when things crossover.  With bold red and blue neon lighting, Wright shows us the darker side of an oft-romanticized town as well as the pitfalls that can come with romanticizing the past in a film that blends some of the more macabre tones of a Polanski thriller with enough levity to make it widely accessible to a modern audience.