Downtown, no finer place for sure
Downtown everyone's waiting for you"
It was this time of the year of 2021 when I started listening to this song "Downtown" in my Spotify playlist of my favorite movie soundtrack. Right after I left the cinema after watching the movie "Last Night in Soho", a psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright. I believe that in other countries like the US, they already got to watch the premiere in October, but here in Thailand, it came later in December.
Since I saw the trailer, there were so many things that I fell for; the cast, the director, the mood and tone, and of course, the horror of it. I made up my mind right away to go watch it in the cinema. And I brought my friend, who is also a big fan of Anya-Taylor Joy to enjoy the night with me.
I was indeed living my Anya Taylor-Joy fantasy by dressing up after her in this movie. Well, I've tried at the very least 😂 See?
Now, let's start with
🌟 the Recap 🌟
The story follows a girl named Eloise or Ellie, played by Thomasin McKenzie. Ellie is an aspiring fashion designer from a small town, who has this "gift" of being able to see a spirit. She saw her dead mother once in a while. At first, her grandmother was a bit worried that Ellie was going to have some troublesome alone time in moving to study fashion in London, but Ellie insisted.
As she moved into the new apartment on her own, she met the elderly lady owner called "Miss Collins", played by Diana Rigg. Miss Collins had several rules and seemed kinda pushy. Ellie didn't pay much attention as she really liked the place.
Then something strange happened, every night in her sleep, Ellie found herself attached to/mirroring the girl from the 60s, who seemed to be a previous tenant. Her name is Sandie, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. At first, Ellie was captivated by Sandie's charm and confidence as she was such a passionate singer/performer and Ellie wanted nothing more than to be more like her. Later on, after Sandie met and began a romantic relationship with Jack, played by Matt Smith. Things started to go down a bad road for Sandie.
Please skip the next 2 paragraphs (and continue on the Review and the Reflection part),
if you want to steer clear of spoilers.
! [Hidden Spoiler nr1 of Last Night in Soho ] Instead of getting her a record and signing a deal as promised, he tricked and lured her into prostitution and drugs, turning Sandie into a sad miserable girl, whose dream got completely crushed. Ellie saw that one day Jack just stabbed and killed Sandie right on the bed where Ellie sleeps. Ellie was shocked and desperately tried to find the truth and justice for Sandie.
! [Hidden Spoiler nr2 of Last Night in Soho] Unable to find the story about missing Sandie, yet instead a bunch of news about missing men in Soho, Ellie then finds out later on that in fact, it was Sandie that killed Jack and all the "customers" that she brought back to the room and hiding all the bodies under the floorboard. Moreover, Sandie wasn't dead, but she is, in the flesh, Miss Collins!!! Miss Collins did try to kill Ellie to keep her story quiet, but in the end, she changes her mind and helps Ellie get out of the burning apartment. Ellie went on with life and had a successful fashion show after the school year with Sandie waving her goodbye at the end.
Now it's time for...
🌟 the Review 🌟
Like I said in the beginning, I've fallen in love with the idea and the cast of the movie already and the movie didn't disappoint me at all. It kept me on edge and in suspense all the length of the film. It was such a masterpiece from Wright. I must say I wasn't a big fan of "Baby Driver", his other work, because it was very actiony and manly for me. However, this one with the female protagonist, Write delivered it so smoothly and I was hooked.
The transition between Ellie and Sandie was made almost flawlessly. I felt with both of the characters. I felt sad for Sandie when things turned bad for her and I felt very stressed out with Ellie stuck in the memory of somebody and felt the need to do something about it. I can tell that in order to make this feeling happen, Write needed so much work in detail to make the puzzles in the right place. The light, the picture, and the soundtrack combined so well creating great storytelling.
To be frank, I've seen a number of McKenzie's works, but none of them really make me like her. I just wasn't a big fan of how she speaks. In this movie too, that was still annoying to me, still, I won't deny that her acting was good, and lots of times she carried this troubled character with overwhelming duties quite well.
Sandie, on the other hand, in my biased opinion was really great. Joy always brings the creep and the horror into the role, she was given. As a passionate and aspiring performer, she showed us how talented she was and how she deserved it. Meanwhile, as a heartbroken girl, who was driven to the dark side of herself is exceptionally hard to watch. I LOVE HER SO MUCH ❤️
Two more things I wanted to bring up in this review are (1) the soundtrack and (2) the costume. Both are underrated elements of the movie that make it so enjoyable to watch. It took a step to make the whole story more complex and make more sense at the same time.
Here comes...
🌟 the Reflection 🌟
I thought of 2 saying when I watched the movie.
(1) the grass is greener on the other side and
(2) You can't judge a book by its cover
I know it's cliché, but as a normal human being who is just living life day by day. The jealousy of seeing other people living their best lives, especially nowadays tons in social media, is getting to us without us acknowledging it. Just like Ellie, who saw Sandie's life and immediately interpreted that it was a great life and almost blindly followed and got deeper into it before she realized that it was just f*cked up and nothing is perfect.
I think that is when you are obsessed with something and you try to rationalize everything too much that you're not in reality anymore. So, I've learned that we should be mindful of what we getting ourselves into and always evaluate that our action towards it is too much, not enough, or just right. Only we can know that answer.
Another thing is towards the end, I felt very sympathized with Sandie, as I felt mad at how easily a woman's dream can be robbed by the blindness that a girl has for a guy. So, I'll keep in mind that we, girls should be mindful about that too.
PS. All the official movie photos are from source
That's a wrap for my #nomnommovie review post for today. I planned to write some more of my favorite Christmas movies during this festive time. I hope you're still with me here, just leave the comments to let me know or discuss film theory with me. Til next time...
Let's stay supportive of the entertainment industry and keep watching great movies, guys
Khob khun kaa,
Nomnomnoodle 🍜