LAST Night in Soho promises to be a thrilling return to escapist cinema as two young actresses on the brink of stardom grace our screens.
Young Kiwi starlet Thomas McKenzie, who you may recognise from Leave No Trace and Taiki Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit takes the lead with ‘It Girl’ Anya Taylor-Joy – the actress of the moment with recent roles in the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma and Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit.
This visually decadent and haunting take on psychological horror from acclaimed director Edgar Wright follows McKenzie’s character Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer, as she is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s.
Stepping through this retro time warp, she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer, Sandie, played by Taylor-Joy.
But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.
The film asks the question – what if you could experience another time for yourself, in full sensory overload?
The film begins with Eloise arriving in the ‘Big Smoke’ of London to start her future.
Moving into her drab student halls, Eloise is immediately intimidated by her glittering roommate Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen) and Jocasta’s fashion-forward friends.
Despite the attempts of her friendlier classmate John (Michael Ajao) to encourage her, Eloise can’t stand the all-night parties.
Instead, she finds a room for rent at the top of an old house owned by landlady Ms Collins (Diana Rigg).
It’s there, still unsettled yet hopeful for a new start, that Eloise slips away into dreams of the Swinging Sixties.
But are her night-time visions only dreams?
Eloise finds herself inhabiting the life of Sandie, a 1960s starlet in the making.
Sandie is a wannabe singer, dancer, actress, star – and she’s dead set on making an impression.
All of Sandie’s dreams seem to come true as she meets the charming Jack (Matt Smith), a manager who might be able to introduce her to the right people to help launch her career – and Eloise is pulled along with her on an intoxicating adventure of first love, bright lights and big dreams.
Eloise immediately adopts Sandie as her role model and guiding spirit, dyeing her hair to look more like her heroine and living for the nights when she can re-join the past in her dreams.
But when Sandie’s life takes a turn for the darker, Eloise threatens to spin off right alongside her.
Is there a way to change the past and save Sandie?
Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) directs Last Night in Soho from a story he conceived and a script he co-wrote with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917).
Wanting to nail the look of the Sixties, Wright enlisted the talents of Emmy winner and BAFTA nominee Odile Dicks-Mireaux, who has won acclaim for her work on other period pieces such as An Education and Brooklyn.
Last Night in Soho is a Working Title/Complete Fiction production and was shot on location in Soho, Leavesden, Ealing Studios and London.
Now showing at Swan Hill Showbiz Cinemas – so book your trip to Soho soon!
