Last Night in Soho
Year: 2021
Rating: R
Length: 116 minutes / 1.93 hours
In the last five years, it’s been interesting to see director Edgar Wright move further from the comedies that helped put his name on the cinematic map. Most know him for his British comedies like Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Hot Fuzz (2007), but stylistically I don’t think you can go wrong with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). This kind of cinematography drew me to his more serious film, Baby Driver (2017), and the even more serious Last Night in Soho (2021).
It is a little odd to see Wright step out from his comfort zone just because he’s so good at comedic writing (having also written Ant-Man (2015)). While I liked the music-themed mayhem in Baby Driver, there wasn’t much in Last Night in Soho that was artistically interesting. Sure, the whole mirror-image special effects were neat and occasionally a little mind-blowing, but the biggest problem with Last Night in Soho is that it didn’t get good until its third act. By that point in the film, I wasn’t nearly as invested as I should have been.
Edgar Wright has a distinctive style to his films that keep me coming back, and I did like the portions of this movie that leaned into that style of cinematography. Even the twists in his films are good enough to be eyebrow-raising (but not so distinctive as to elicit M. Night Shyamalan comparisons). Last Night in Soho is still a Wright movie, even if the elements that retain his distinctive style are subdued. I can appreciate that he’s trying to branch out from his core strengths, but sometimes it’s difficult to swap to drama from comedy and fully keep that success.
A subdued version of Edgar Wright’s style with a killer third act, I give Last Night in Soho 3.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
