LAST NIGHT IN SOHO

The exquisite soundtrack and production design aside, twisty thriller Last Night in Soho is a tonally misguided, style-over-substance misfire.

There are various elements Last Night in Soho excels at, like the glorious Swinging London production design and a marvellous sixties soundtrack.

If only the screenplay had been given as much attention Edgar Wright might have wrought a decent thriller out of a nifty concept, but it's in that department that the movie badly lets the audience down.

The build-up to the picture's central conceit - aspiring designer Thomasin McKenzie crawls into the skin of would-be sixties singer Anya Taylor-Joy during lively, gradually more disturbing dreams - is just fine, but with each new scene Wright gets more baroque in his approach, until you feel like you've stumbled in an exploitation B-film with slightly higher production value.

In the end all nuances in the characters fall on the wayside, while the only thing that makes the final act twist somewhat believable is the talent of Dame Diana Rigg, exquisite as always in her final screen role.

release: 2021

director: Edgar Wright

starring: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg