REVIEW: LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

4/5

Big Smoke and Mirrors. 

116 Mins. Starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Michael Ajao, Terence Stamp & Diana Rigg. Director: Edgar Wright. 

'Thunderball' , 1965 in tribute to the late, great Sean Connery in this 'No Time To Die' swan song year for Daniel Craig's 007. The billboard adorns this swingin' sixties 'Last Night In Soho' bonded with brilliant lightbulbs, shining like neon. As classic as this movies promotional poster that like an Alana Haim 'Liquorice Pizza' is giving us a slice in the faith of fan art service. "Just one more Cornetto", fans were left screaming after Edgar Wright dropped his trilogy ('Shaun Of The Dead', 'Hot Fuzz', 'The World's End') like kids ice creams on the sidewalk of a Summers day. Or he did out of the Marvel 'Ant-Man' movie we'd love to still see with all these cuts out there these days. Steven Spielberg's 'West Side Story' may be taking the stage and changing the game, but we all know the original Ansel Elgort musical was 'Baby Driver', clutching and swerving to the sound of music. The energy that pulses through Edgar's projects is epic. And this is hallucinogenic in a fever dream that catches the last train home like Mayer to the Big Smoke of foggy London town's Soho, as famous as New York, New York’s. All the way to the panorama of photographs captured in the credits. So lasting of the memories of Soho, you'll stick around like he really did direct a Marvel movie. The late night to early morning straggler starved streets as empty as quarantine at home. And this writer in the land of the rising sun being reminded of the times he used to take a Virgin train or Megabus down to the Smoke for many a memory back home in the U.K. of my 20's. The classic Carnaby Street arched sign blindsiding me in how could it possibly be a decade since I told the love of my life from South Korea that I'd always have her in heart. Although she just wanted to be friends. It's all good. I was just too late. Now she's found her family and fond fate. And I couldn't be happier. But looking at these familiar, nostalgic black, spiked railing streets, a million miles away, even though Seoul is now a closer neighbour, I wonder if that world still somehow spiritually exists in this multi-verse (no spoilers please). Upstairs in the aesthetic of these apartments that through boundless bedsheets unfold a whole new world like a magic carpet that seems like a dream. 

Or is it a nightmare? Red, white and blue neon from a French restaurant downstairs invades the room like garlic. Ooh, la, la. It feels like something out of Fitzgerald's Gatsby down here in this new 20's that's yet to roar the way we like. A black cab takes you back like a Yellow Submarine. Or like 'Lord Of The Rings' director Peter Jackson getting back with The Beatles in living color for Disney +. All the way back to the sixties that swung like those dances, diving straight into the depths of Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction' (he gets a thank you in the credits too). Dusting off the records and blonde bombshells like Springfield for anyone who had a heart for this time like Cilla or Warwick, Twitter's favourite aunt. All for something that as authentic as the scratches is as vivid as vinyl. And our throwback muse here-who dreams of those days like 'WandaVision' does Jeanie-fashions her vision of these times in the seams of her grand design that laces the perfect pink dress. On reflection of living through someone from that bygone era who is more than a mere avatar, or lucid fantasy. Realism for today's world of online escapism were we can filter our lives and looks to look any way we want others to perceive us or our world as. And Wright's film looks to cautionary tale this modern day wrong, for what it does to our sense of self. Amongst other things he calls to task in this movie as muddled as our mainstream minds are in kind. Because this yearning for the past as times go by conceals much more behind this made-up life that looks different in the shimmer of all its smoke and mirrors. The skinny suit and cigarette time of the sixties isn't so slight when you get into the thick of it and the dark corners of this story that are illuminated in sleazy neon. All hiding under the bed for a truly harrowing horror that makes that left turn in 'The Worlds End' look like just another pub crawl hangover. Coming through the wallpaper, pasting his new signature style all over us, Edgar has epically redefined both his own and the scary stories of movies. Do you like it? Slashing away like a 'Scream' this Halloween, in this haunted house, burning like the latest Michael Myers 'Kills'. Albeit in a very different way that the Ari Aster's and Jordan Peele's who have made the heart of this horror genre a hallmark one. All whilst speaking to the spirit of the stirred and shaken souls. 

Chin on heel, strike a pose like vogue across this board. Because 'The Queens Gambit' plays for this being Anya Taylor-Joy's time. The 'Split', 'Glass' franchise star and 'Emma' doing the type of wonders with horror all the power of the Marvel 'New Mutants' couldn't. A testament to this time like her 'Gambit' or mob steal in the BBC's 'Peaky Blinders'. A starlet with so much more under that iconic 'do, her character wants to be the next Cilla Black (but all these blind dates is not what she expected). Yet she has the look and the love to make many a sixties star her next muse in 'Queens' biographies by the book. That's just the color of her money and hustle. She's a vision. But for as much as she takes your gaze and then your heart the first time you look in the mirror this is Thomasin McKenzie's moment and movie. The board is hers. It's her game. The Kiwi actress of 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Leave No Trace', 'Old', 'The King' and 'The Hobbit' fame has found her film in the same weeks she rounds up with 'The Power Of The Dog', as fellow New Zealander Jane Campion, Benedict Cumberbatch and Netflix go for Oscar's ranch. McKenzie carries every frame of this picture and every nuance of experienced and earned emotion, Hidden behind that sweet sounding, innocent voice that actually catches the timbre of terrible pain. Always punctuated and profound at such a young age, but never perfunctory or perplexing on this big stage, even in all the craziness of this cinematic experience. She makes you believe this story as true as her genuinely ground breaking talent. Thomasin is terrific. Add another breakthrough star in 'Attack The Block's' Michael Ajao, who could be on the rise like his awakening force of a friend and you really have something here too. Like the pairs burgeoning chemistry on-screen like Picard that could translate to more than just starting off as friends, even though this mutal attraction and polite appreciation would just be happy to be here for each other. Such is the sweet selflessness of young love. There's nothing loving about Matt Smith's romancing management of Joy however. Taken back in Tardis time with the good Doctor who really showed us his acting depths as Prince Phillip in all the scuffs of 'The Crown'. He's still a Brylcreemed shining jewel here though. And one moment Springsteen racing in the streets of London with Anya like Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson crossing Tokyo’s Shibuya in 'Lost In Translation' is actual, pure joy. Add a cool cameo and a legend in Terence Stamp, putting a creepy last name on things with that unmistakable voice and this night has more sidewalks than Soho has dark alleys, hiding more. Because 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' like Lazenby, it's original 'Avenger' (no, not those widow making Marvels. But the kind Roger Moore was familiar with) and 'Game Of Thrones' star Diana Rigg whose kindly homeowner leaves the most lasting impression. Her perfect and powerful performance is inspired as it is incendiary. As without her letting the room, this night in Soho that you'll never forget wouldn't have played out. And we couldn't let that happen. Rigg one again shows us you can't mess with the good ole days, and bringing it all back like a throwback track, Edgar spins a soundtrack like a car on the grooves that once again works just right. By the end of this Saturday night at the movies, this is the picture you will care to see as it fixes its lipstick and touches the mirror one last time in reflection. It's so much brighter here in this reel of film. So forgot all your troubles, forget all your cares. Just make sure in nostalgia you linger on the sidewalks of pretty neon a little longer amongst the music of the traffic of the city. Because with Joy singing in your ear like Petula, you can still always go downtown with this love song to the way we were. No finer place for sure. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Baby Driver', 'Black Swan', 'The World's End'.