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Last Night in Soho (2021)

Last Night in Soho (2021)

7.5

A Studio Ghibli plot dressed like a vintage horror film

Movie

China, United Kingdom
English
Horror, Mystery, Thriller
2021

TLDR

This is more an Anya Taylor-Joy movie than an effective horror movie.

What it's about

A fashion design student tries to live independently in London for her studies. However, the apartment she’s living in brings her apparitions that get increasingly more detailed and real each passing night.

The take

In Last Night in Soho, director Edgar Wright has so much to play with. The old lady character serves an unexpected role, while Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) faces an interesting morality crisis as she tries to decide who to help at the end of the film. Just as fascinating is the film’s Ghibli-esque premise: we follow a hero going on an adventure far away from home and into a world where it's unclear where reality ends and fantasy begins. However, a lot of the time, it feels like the film was made to serve a big twist that doesn't have enough weight to it. The fantasy is far more intriguing than any tame interaction the film has to offer, so it doesn't feel like it lives up to its potential. But there is one obvious exception: Anya Taylor-Joy’s magnetic presence as Sandie—it’s a presence powerful enough to hold a film together.

What stands out

They turned a smoke detector off in the first 10 minutes, and a completely different building burns down in the last 10 minutes. Cool touch.

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