The director Edgar Wright is known for some special films of recent years, such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz or Baby Driver. Nevertheless, MeinMMO author Schuhmann found it difficult to tackle his latest film: “Last Night in Soho”. Now he’s done it and doesn’t regret it.
Why do I like Edgar Wright so much? Wright has a particular style of making his films. He became known for the “Cornetto Trilogy”, together with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. These are classic “buddy” films, with action and comedy: Films like Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead start off relatively normal and then degenerate into wild action orgies, with bizarre characters, stupid sayings and lots of hidden and subtle gags. The more you see them, the funnier and better the films become.
Wright’s films are either about men’s steadfast refusal to grow up or about how fiction and films have shaped our everyday lives. These are topics that have always resonated with me.
But Wright has proven he’s up for it when he does something different:
German trailer for “Last Night in Soho”
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Last Night in Soho didn’t sound like Wright at all
Why did the new film put me off? Edgar Wright’s latest film, Last Night in Soho, was released in 2021, and I resisted watching it for a long time because it didn’t sound like Wright at all.
The film is about a young woman who moves from the village to London to study fashion, but then gets lost in waking dreams in glittering London in the 1960s: We’re talking glitter, glamour, nightlife. We’re talking about women who look in mirrors and suddenly see a different face. We’re talking men in suits twirling women in dresses around the ballroom.
No Simon Pegg, no chases in hot cars, no stupid sayings – just nostalgia, self-discovery and fashion. I was out of there.
Then why did I see him? Well, Last Night in Soho was on Amazon Prime and if you pay the €9 and already have the service, you can take a look to get the most out of your money.
And the film was actually different than I assumed based on the trailer and initial descriptions: the search for meaning and London in the 60s quickly grew into a psychological thriller like Black Swan. With Matt Smith (from House of Dragon) there’s a charismatic, shady guy and you’re quickly captivated by Edgar Wright’s special style and you want to know what the heck is actually going on.
Because behind every cut, behind every sequence, there is something hidden that is more than it seems at first glance.
The film was a bit of a flop in the cinema because many Edgar Wright fans probably thought the same way I did. But after almost 2 hours and a gripping film, I was quite satisfied with myself that I watched the supposed women’s film. Because the film, which begins so shy and dreamy, quickly becomes damn exciting and evil.
Last Night in Solo can be seen in German via Amazon Prime.
More movie recommendations: A fascinating movie on Netflix is like “Squid Game,” but the game only ends when only one person is alive