Downtown

Not what I was expecting in the best ways. (Massive Unmarked Spoilers)

Eloise “Ellie” Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) has recently come to Soho to study at the London College of Fashion. Except when she goes to sleep, she’s transported to her dream destination, the Swingin Sixties. More specifically, she sees through the eyes of Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), her flat’s previous tenant, who aspires to be a singer with the help of her new manager Jack (Matt Smith). 

At first, it seems like Sandie can teach Ellie a thing or two about living deliciously. Ellie dyes her hair blonde to be like Sandie’s, making her look Aryan when coupled with her blue eyes. She’s inspired to make a dress based on Sandie’s look. Then it all goes wrong. Though the warning signs were there beforehand, the seedier side of the sixties emerges with such sudden force that it causes whiplash. 

Sandie’s first real gig isn’t as a singer, as the film initially led her and the audience to believe. She ends up being part of this degrading burlesque show, where backstage, the performers are all burnt out, drug-addicted, or coerced into doing sexual favors to move up in the business. The latter is also forced upon Sandy by Jack, who ends up less her manager and more her pimp. 

Following being one of pop culture’s most iconic good guys, Smith seems to be taking roles to distance himself from that as much as possible. Here are the notable examples. You’ve got Patrick Bateman, Charles Manson, Skynet, and Prince Phillip, who’s not a bad guy, but still pretty f*****g far from the Eleventh Doctor. 

The scene of at least a dozen blurry-faced johns advancing on Sandie is like the scene in Bombshell where Margot Robbie had to hike up her skirt in that I found myself feeling ashamed at ever finding both actresses attractive. Last Night is one of the most disturbing movies I’ve seen, at least in a very long time. And that’s before we’re led to believe that Jack murdered Sandie.

At school, Ellie meets this black classmate played by Michael Ajao. His name’s John, but you might struggle to remember that. While I can appreciate how with him, there’s at least one man in this movie who isn’t a complete a*****e, the nice and friendly black guy without any real flaws reeks of positive discrimination. And a couple of related tropes as well. 

There’s the token black (boy)friend. John does nothing but try to help Ellie because he knows what it’s like to be different. He could mean because he’s from another part of London, except as the only prominent person of color in the cast, it’s hard not to think he’s talking about his race. He also instantly believes Ellie when she starts seeing ghosts because he has a female relative who believes in all kinds of things. So add a sprinkle of magical negro in there as well.

When I call the men in this movie a******s, the women can be pretty awful too. The whole reason that Ellie moved into Sandie’s apartment in the first place was that her university roommate, Jocasta (Synnøve Karlsen), was a nightmare. She derides Ellie revealing her mom committed suicide as a bid for attention, even though Jocasta brought the subject up in the first place. Then there’s the complicated matter of Ellie’s landlord, Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg).

Ellie ends up reporting Sandie’s murder to the police, who don’t believe her, but there’s a female cop who at least humors her. After the police come by the flat asking questions, Ms. Collins reveals to Ellie that Jack didn’t kill Sandie. Sandie killed Jack and all the other men who took advantage of her. Ms. Collins knows this because she’s an elderly Sandie. And that she’s going to kill Ellie too because she threatens to expose her secret.

Okay, so there’s a lot to unpack here. Sandie’s a victim. She’s a killer. Those guys deserved to die. Ellie doesn’t and certainly not John, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sandie changes her mind at the very end, sparing Ellie and telling her to save an injured John. But isn’t it still weird to have a woman be the antagonist at the very end of the film after a whole movie about male violence?

Well, my reading of Last Night is that it’s a cautionary tale in much the same way as Joker. Both Sandie and Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) show you what you get (NSFW) when you cross a marginalized person with a society that keeps pushing them and pushing them. I’m also reminded of “Carrie and the Boys,” the introduction to Men, Women, and Chainsaws by Carol Clover. What is Carrie White? Is she the hero, the victim, or the monster? The answer it gives is all of the above. 

At the very end, there’s an epilogue where we see Ellie continuing to work with sixties-style designs. I found that a little strange since this whole movie seems to be her learning that the time wasn’t quite as rosy as she initially thought. Of course, just because the decade had its ugly side doesn’t mean that parts of it weren’t still great. Ellie going back to her original hairstyle at the same time could indicate that while she still appreciates the sixties, she’s no longer lionizing it.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing Last Night in Soho for so long, I started to get nervous that I wouldn’t like it. I’m happy to report that after finally, finally seeing the movie, I loved it. Taylor-Joy and McKenzie are both phenomenal in this film. It might also be the most stylish period piece I’ve seen since The Shape of Water. I highly recommend seeing it.