Last Night in Soho [2021]
"You've got to live in the now, girls. So, hos... to Soho."
Edgar Wright is [W]rightfully associated with artistic, fun, and creative films. Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, World's End, and Baby Driver are artistic delights. His vision, his flair, and his energy are unforgettable, unique, and exciting even when visiting familiar themes or tropes. His latest movie, Last Night in Soho somehow manages to be none of those things for more than 15-minutes of what feels like a 15-day long film.
Conveniently, Scooby-Doo Where Are You? first aired in 1969, which is about when the conflict in this movie takes place. This is convenient because, if you imagine any given episode with the gang and their titular dog, but decide to take all of the fun and silliness out for some reason... you end up with Last Night in Soho. It's obvious, it's frivolous, it's corny... but it lacks the self awareness that makes Scooby-Doo fun or meaningful.
If I had to assign one word to Last Night in Soho, it would be "duh".
The plot of this movie has been written a thousand times by a thousand different writers and told again and again in film, TV, and books... all of them more interesting and adroit than Soho. In trying to be clever, it succeeds only in being trite and in trying to be original, it succeeds only in being just like everything that's come before it... except more forgettable. Soho is fun when it's being artsy and fanciful, but it's kind of like a supremely good looking manikin. Don't get too close or try to have any sort of conversation with it, because that polished, pretty face is all it has going on.
If you haven't already stumbled into this one, skip it. Go watch Haunting of Hill House or The Others or The Sixth Sense or, hell, even Beetlejuice does a better job at telling a compelling story than Soho does.
I want to mention some good things about the movie but... beyond Thomasin McKenzie [who was great] and the editing in some early scenes... this was just really, really boring, tried, forgettable, and significantly below Edgar Wright's previous achievements.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.
"Help... Us... Be... Free..."
