Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho was an unequivocal flop at the box office.
I myself didn’t even see it in the theater, but rather opted to rent it on streaming.
I gotta say though I’m really glad I did.
It’s always refreshing to see a completely original idea take shape on screen, and with
an Edgar Wright movie, a filmmaker who’s made films such as Baby Driver, Scott Pilgrim
Vs The World, and Shaun of the Dead, you know you are going to get something truly special.
After Watching Last Night In Soho, I immediately knew I wanted to make a video about it, but
at first I wasn’t sure where to start.
There’s so many great aspects to this film, the cinematography, the sound design, the
editing, but to be completely honest, there’s thousands of video essays that talk about
Edgar Wright’s style.
It’s obvious that he’s a master of his craft.
He knows how to make a movie.
Go watch any of his films and you can get a really good lesson in how to tell a story.
But I do think that with Last Night in Soho, the filmmakers made a choice on this film
that glues the whole thing together, and it’s a choice that most filmmakers wouldn’t even
consider.
It truly is genius filmmaking at work, definitely a 10,000 IQ move.
It’s subtle, many people might not even think it’s that big of a deal, but I promise
you, it made all the difference in this film.
To fully understand what the filmmakers did here, let me set the scene for you.
Minor spoilers ahead for those that haven’t seen the movie.
The first act of Last Night In Soho introduces us to the main character Ellie.
In these first few scenes we learn a lot about her, she has a passion for design, a somewhat
weird obsession with the sixties, but above all, she’s a bit timid.
She’s weird, different, she doesn’t quite fit in and she for sure lacks confidence in
her abilities.
It’s during this scene where Ellie meets her new roommate that we get the first hint
about what the filmmakers will be doing for the rest of the movie.
When Ellie meets her new roommate they talk about what they are wearing.
Her roommate brags about the famous designer clothes she’s wearing, Ellie tells her that
she made her clothes herself.
So many times I hear film analysts talk about composition, lens choice, camera height, and
lighting as the main way to convey where a character is on their journey.
Last Night in Soho does this too, and it does it really well, but the way they step it up
beyond that is by using Ellie’s wardrobe as a physical representation of where she
is in her character Arc.
Ellie starts the film like this, but as she grows, as she changes, she starts to look
like this.
Most people didn’t even notice this, but it has a huge effect on how you feel about
her as a character.
The movie really kicks into gear when Ellie moves into this apartment above an old lady
in Soho.
That night, as she goes to sleep she has a dream.
She dreams she is a beautiful, confident, and sensual woman named Sandy.
Sandy is everything Ellie believes she should be.
Ellie is this timid girl who can’t stand up for herself, whereas Sandy knows what she
wants, and she goes after it.
After experiencing this dream with Sandy, Ellie is inspired.
She goes to work in one of her classes creating the dress she saw in the dream.
Every night she dreams of Soho in the 60’s and spends time with or as Sandy, but during
the day she still feels like an outcast.
She still has trouble making friends.
She decides it’s time to be more like Sandy.
She dyes her hair and buys some vintage clothes.
Slowly she starts to change her look to be more like Sandy.
This change in her wardrobe represents the big change that is going on internally.
It signals to the audience that Ellie believes that Sandy is a perfect role model for the
type of person she needs to be.
But as the film progresses we learn that this belief she has is actually a huge lie and
her wardrobe continues to change to represent this.
Soon Ellie realises that these dreams she’s been having are actually visions of the past.
Sandy moved to the city because she wanted to be a star.
She had dreams of performing, but after her first gig, things took a turn for the worst.
Ellie learns that Sandy was actually being pimped out to the men in town, and these men
are starting to haunt her as ghosts.
Every night she lives through these visions, witnessing the horror that Sandy was going
through.
And every day Ellie gets more on edge, more stressed out, she starts to look more like
this.
Her eyes darken, her hair becomes more descheveld.
The horror of the life she’s beginning to live, a life being haunted by these visions,
by these ghosts, it’s taking its toll on her.
It gets even worse when she witnesses one of the final visions: Sandy being murdered
by her pimp.
This causes her to spiral out of control, and her appearance approaches well unapproachable.
If you saw this girl on the street, you’d probably keep your distance.
What started as an attempt to look like the woman she looks up to, ends up being a descent
into madness.
Ellie tries to find Sandy’s murderer, but the hauntings begin to follow her even during
the day.
She goes to the library to look at old news articles, and almost stabs a classmate in
a ghostly attack.
She even confronts the man she believes is Sandy’s murderer.
The confrontation leading to the man dying after being struck by a car.
Sandy is spiraling out of control and her appearance reflects this.
All of this takes a turn when she learns the real truth about Sandy though, the horrifying
truth.
This is a bigger spoiler so if you still haven’t seen the film and don’t want it spoiled,
by all means go watch one of my other videos, here’s a card to help you get there.
In the final act of the film, Ellie decides she needs to leave town.
She can’t handle the terror she is living in anymore.
She goes to her landlady in an attempt to get her deposit back, and this is where she
learns what is really going on.
This whole time, Sandy was actually not dead.
In Fact, Sandy is her landlord.
And the ghosts of the men who have been haunting her, are the ghosts of the men who Sandy murdered
and stuffed in the floorboards of the apartment she’s living in.
All this time Ellie wanted to be like Sandy, but Sandy was no role model.
Her pursuit of her dreams led her to compromising what she stood for, what she wanted.
It led her into a place of madness, it led her to be a murderer.
In the same way, Ellie, modeling herself after Sandy, almost fell into madness in an attempt
to find her killer.
She almost stabs a classmate and even gets an innocent man killed.
The more she becomes like Sandy, the more she looks like a psychopath, and that is what
I think is truly brilliant about this movie.
It’s not flashy, but it’s so well thought out.
You can tell that in every shot, they made sure to make Ellie look exactly how she was
feeling on the inside.
Her slow descent into madness is perfectly displayed on her hair and makeup and her wardrobe.
In the end, after Ellie escapes a final murder attempt by Sandy, she shows her work at the
student fashion show, and she looks…
different.
Ellie has her old hair color, but it’s curled.
She’s dressed a bit more stylishly, but still within her voice.
She carries herself with confidence, not because she’s choosing to be like Sandy, but because
she’s choosing to be her best self.
I know sometimes we like to focus on the flashy stuff, the cool camera angles and the sick
VFX, but it’s important to remember that filmmaking is multi-layered.
Don’t overlook the little stuff, as it can have a profound effect on the film itself.
But anyways, that’s just my take, but what do you think?
Do you think I’m overhyping this technique?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Thanks again for watching guys, I’ll see you in the next one.
Peace!