I loved the detail that Miss Collins was still trapped. She could never sell that place, because she'd run the risk of someone renovating the room and discovering what she'd done.
Thomasin, Anya and Matt were superb. The cinematography was gorgeous, especially when Eloise first arrives in 1960's London, and the various sets allowing Ellie to peek into Sandie's life was very well executed. I also liked the message of not romanticising the past, since every eras has its dark side.
Yes yes yes!! And to your last point, i think there's a troubling trend in movies to romanticize eras in the name of nostalgia but this has a more.... Balanced approach.
Hey! I’ve seen you around Cinema Therapy! I really liked how it showed human trafficking in the way that it tends to happen more often. It’s awful, but I appreciate it’s shown in a more realistic way if that makes sense.
SPOILERS Looking back, I realized that Ms. Collins never crossed the threshold of the rental room until the end. Not even when she thought Ellie was getting hurt. She didn’t cross the threshold until she sat on the bed during the fire, facing her murder and finding some sort of peace before she died. Now considering the stone tape concept, it makes sense that she couldn’t physically step through without physically reliving her trauma and killing spree. Which is why Ms. Collins feels the flashback slap from her pimp. I love that detail
I love this film and it annoys me sometimes that Thomasin McKenzie doesn't get enough credit for her performance here. People mostly focused on Anya Taylor Joy and Wright's filmmaking technique, yeah both were great but come on people, let's give some roses for Thomasin who did a terrific job playing the lead role and this is her first time playing a lead role and she pulled it off very well. She's so talented and I cannot wait to see what else she does in the future. She's gonna be a superstar soon
I'm a huge fan of Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, and Edgar Wright. Yet the first thing I said to anybody about this movie was that Thomasin McKenzie surpasses everyone (and thats with everyone else in peak form). I've only seen her in this and Jojo Rabbit, and I already feel aghast that she doesn't have an Oscar.
I get why the faceless men might not be scary for everyone, but they absolutely terrify me. As someone who was preyed upon by an older man when I was a kid, who has forgotten what his face actually looked like, I found the faceless ghosts really f***ing scary.
Right. Like I remember what the guy was wearing but not his face. It's unfortunate that people have this misconception about memory, especially when it comes to these specific experiences: our brains tend to catalog details in a way that often isn't how you'd expect and that confounds people.
As a man, they scared me sh*tless, not because of what they could do to me, but because of what they say about me. I try to be accommodating and respectful to women, but I admit I sometimes falter and think/say/do things that hurt them. It scares me to see those ghosts, because I think that's how women see me when I do things like that: just another faceless creep in a long line of faceless creeps. I always work to better myself, and to be a good person, but women don't (and shouldn't) see that. They just see a guy who's hurting them. It sucks that we have made a world that makes you feel like that
I loved John so much, he was such a kind hearted boy. It was frustrating to see him go through really traumatic situations but never receiving an honest apology nor a happy resolution. I mean... what about his fashion designs? Did he get to present them or did he not get to complete them because he got fuc::ng stabbed.
It feels like he wasn't there to be his own character but more to be someone to look out for Ellie and add some heart and a bit of a romantic storyline to the film.
@@asterismos5451 I felt this too. He was good and I liked what he added, but he was mostly inconsequential. I hazard to say he was a ‘second draft’ character. Likely because some producer stepped in and said to add a male love interest. I love him and his character, but it seemed like this story wasn’t for him.
One of the biggest let downs for me was her final project. Entire thing had amazing costumes and then forgot to spend budget on the actual fashion show.
Agreed. Unless she was always intending to go for "high fashion" (read: literally no one would actually wear this and we don't expect anyone to-), which wouldn't have made sense. They don't look like a modern homage to the 60s look; they look like retro-future "wtf" clothing...But maybe that's just me
The one thing that jumps out at me the most from the ending is that Sandie poisoned Ellie's tea and she was clearly getting sick from it for a bit, but then she ran upstairs, had that whole thing with the ghost men, had a conversation with Sandie, ran back downstairs, then was rescued. They never even brought up that she was poisoned. It was like she just got over it by pure willpower.
Well, paramedics arrived in time due to the fire going on, so Ellie could be treated for the poison she had ingested. It seems likely she didn't give it enough time to kill her because the fire department got on the scene before that could happen.
I only recently learned what "Chekhovs gun" means, and the moment the landlady mentioned that the phone only makes emergency calls, my first thought was "Chekhovs phone! She's gonna need that later."
Precisely, while sometimes they can be used as red herrings, and be deliberately misleading, but yes, usually a seemingly throwaway line or character will have some form of relevance later on. Very well spotted! 🎊👏🏾
Personally, I really like the morphous design of Sandie's victims because it makes me think that after sleeping with so many men who all wanted the same disgusting thing, to use her body and traumatize her, they all began to blend together and after a certain point, she just couldn't distinguish them as anything else other than faceless, greedy perverts looking to use her for their own desires
Thats seems kinda harsh. Most johns are just lonely, horny guys who hire a sex worker for an evening of fun and companionship. Just like you would hire any professional. Not that I've every hired one. Necessarily.
@@dudeman5685 And? The sex industry is incredibly dangerous for the people working in it. They took advantage of a young girl and reduced her to her body. They had no respect for her and probably other girls, so why should anyone have respect for them? Reduce them to their disgusting behaviour.
I love how both characters mirror each other's ambition and how the city itself almost crushes their passion and shows its very ugly side. I felt like Ellie is clairvoyant, which is why she was able to sense the emotions left in the apartment. This also visually reminded me of the audition scene from Mulholland Dr. The 60's music, the costumes, the dark underbelly of what's actually going on. Another eerie mirroring.
I agree, I adored how Ellie and Sandie's stories mirrored each other, and how it slowly transpired that things were not all rosy in the 60's. With Ellie being clairvoyant, I thought that her deceased mother might have also been connected with spirits, which caused her to end her own life.
Yes! My partner and I saw this in theaters and pretty much as soon as the lights lifted I went off about the Mulholland Dr. parallels. Glad someone else saw this, too.
I was a child in London during this era. There was glamor, no doubt, but virtually every club had one-armed bandits (British euphemism was fruit machines) and those and the cigarette machines were ruled by the gangs. My parents took me to Wheelers back in the day (fish restaurant) and I recognized its design in the Bistro on Goodge Place. The idea that a bedsit in Soho could be haunted by its past doesn't seem at all farfetched. Stone tape is a great phrase. Actors hate working in brand new theaters because the theater isn't alive yet. The Royal Shakespeare Company opened the Barbican Theater with a panto to ensure that laughter would be embedded in its walls.
"One-armed bandits" - I get it! The lever you pull is the arm. What a fun slang term for an absolutely awful money-sink. In America, we have similar - slot machines in convenience stores/gas stations where people just sit and press a button, throwing their money away for hours.
(Spoilers) I ended up crying almost the entire second act, after its revealed that Sandie is continually forced to sleep with men and seeing Ellie and Sandie’s dreams being slowly crushed. I connected so deeply with Ellie from the beginning, I can relate to many of her life situations and how the girls at school treat her. So I was enraptured in her character when she discovered Sandie’s world in her dreams. when Ellie became crushed so did i. I felt like I was seeing how women are put down and taken advantage of in the 60’s and now, it broke me. I know the ending soiled the movie for a lot of people, but I was too moved by the story at that point for it to be ruined by a few scenes. My emotions completely took over and I was truly SEEING women as they are on the screen.
honestly i think the men not being as menacing is actually good! For me it shows that the people we dont think are scary are often the ones that are the most terrifying, and that could totally translate into a spirit form as well where we see them and go "oh they did that? they dont look scary". So that even in death we are surprised that about it.
I agree, the men seeming still human is terrifying in a sense that it is close to reality. Personally, they remind me of creeps on the street, catcalling, touching without consent, maybe even following women. That fear is still real for many people, so these men looking like blurry people instead of monsters shows the fear many experience in real life.
one of my favorite parts was how Sandie/Miss Collins described how to find where she lived. there were definitely more stand-out parts that revealed who Miss Collins actually was, but as soon as I heard Sandie describe it the exact same way I was like "oh that'd be a clever reveal." i really liked it, even the ending wasn't too bad imo
Same! I love the way you get to uncover certain mysteries within the film by yourself with its subtle but clever details. **SPOILER ALERT BELOW** Like for me, I discovered that the man she thought was Jack, was actually the police officer from before, because he said "Sandy deserved better". That was something the man said in the flashback, and I LOVE that they had the character say it again as a hint. When I heard it, I literally gasped because it was such a cool moment.
The late, great Diana Riggs was perfect in her last film role, although it was a little obvious that an actress of her caliber and ilk wouldn't just be regulated to a minor side role. I also liked the reveal of who Terence Stamp's character really was in the 1960's.
I acted in this movie and when filming the Cafe de Paris scene was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had. It took a week to film, including that amazing scene of Thomasine, Matt and Anya. That was incredible to watch being done. It’s an actual choreography of them switching places.
I had the chance to see this film on opening weekend and was blown away. Edgar Wright is such a creative director and I love how he’s able to make each of his films have their own unique style.
@@Chinchilla2310 The meaning is fustration..we all been there. For example, in sports a quaterback throwing an interception in the last minute. Someone who wanted to be a lawyer but now works delivering pizzas
I also felt the ending was a bit abrupt. I would have loved to see a bridging scene perhaps, of Ellie recovering in the hospital, and sketching a new design, more moderns but still with nods to her previous love, showing that she’s changed but her love of the past and design hasn’t been taken from her. Maybe we still see sandy in the mirror, or in a window and Ellie adjusts an element of the design because of that to make it more ‘Sandy’ showing that Sandy and her mother are still with her. A bit less happy go lucky but still hopeful?
I think this was the most down to earth performance I've ever seen from Tarrance Stamp, lol. My brother and I were the only two in the cinema when we saw this on opening weekend, and we had just the absolute best time. From the obvious Dario Argento's Suspiria motifs with the red lights flashing to having Matt Smith as a bad guy (we're both huge Doctor Who fans and love seeing former cast from that show on the big screen) to having everything we've come to expect from Edgar Wright, including the soundtrack you can't help but sing along with. Such a fun film!
This reminds me of a tour I went to of a haunted town center where one room was haunted by the event of a little girl being sexually assaulted, that people would hear and see this little girl in that room. She did not die in that room, something awful happened there, and that something awful stayed.
This is such an interesting story. Plus I agree with the glamorized version of the past eras. I think we tend to forget the struggles that came with the glamour.
Idk if anyone else has felt this, but as a person of colour, I'm 200% unable to see the the past as glamorized. Going to the 60s would be more of a nightmare than a dream for me lol
@@junew8133 I see almost no people of color being like "I was born in the wrong era", so yeah. Also, college humor made a sketch about "being born in the wrong era" that shows the illusion a bit.
I appreciate how they made the horror of it not too scary. Because the situation Eloise was going through alone, and all that she seen, was enough to make me feel creeped out. That was a great movie twist. I only noticed she was her when the camera subtly showed the mail
9:42 was one of the most tragic scenes. It was beautifully crafted with her shattering reality just to get sandie to see her. i feel like the metaphor here is Eloise symbolizes Sandies lost purity.
I honestly found the ghost-men to be sickeningly terrifying and they're actually what made me start to hate the film part way through- because I see hallucinations of people at night when under stress and exhaustion. The ghost-men looked exactly like what I see, in reality I've learnt to ignore them and think "they're not real", but to see them on film in the middle of the day while I was fully awake nocked me sick and was truly horrifying, because in the context of the film they were real (the effects made it worse because they were so good).
Just a heads up to see a psychologist since sensing things that don't exist and frighten you could be an early signs of schizophrenia and the sooner you get it under control the easier your life would be. Wish you the best.
Dude, me too, but it’s not hallucinations it’s just nightmares when i go to sleep. But the movie made me so uneasy bc i’ve had so many nightmares that look almost exactly like how this movie depicts it. Horrifying yet hauntingly beautiful
so when miss collins said she was 'pretending it was happening to someone else' she was literally projecting it onto someone else aka ellie? woww that did not hit me the first time
I also noticed the detail that Mrs. Collins probably continued murdering all of the people who rented that room. They kept "running off in the middle of the night"? I think not.
I assumed it meant that other girls (she specified a lot of girls lived there) were having similar nightmares and ran because they couldn’t handle it either
@@TheGoosebumpsGirl I think this is more likely too. Her MO was killing men. She only tries to kill Ellie because of the involvement of the police, I think
I think the girls she was referring to were all her. She gave herself a different name with each client and since she viewed her original self as dead, each new name was a new girl.
That was a great moment. Your eye is just so magnetically drawn to Sandie I wasn't looking at anyone else at all and I didn't even realize it until Amanda pointed out those were the Phelps twins. She's so electrifying in this scene, in every scene! I love watching her.
This movie reminded me of another movie, "An American Haunting", where a woman is being haunted by a psychic energy from the past. I don't want to give spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. Loved "Last Night in Soho". I was happy that I got to see it in a theater.
Ugh finally another human who has seen that movie. I loved it so much as a kid and now I can't find it anywhere and I thought I was the only one who remembered it. Was starting to think it was a bad dream.
I don't think I've met another person who's watched AAH! My mom wsa watching it one night and got scared because of the wolf scene reflecting in the glass of the back door and she thought someone was breaking in xD
@@samanthagalarza3421 there’s at least four of us who’ve seen it then! I’ve got a vivid memory of the “someone who was once happy” scene, and being so unsettled it made my scalp start feeling tingly 😂
There's also 1991's dead again with Emma Thompson about a woman who after having strange visions starts investigating the murder of one of her past lives.
@@kaykutcher2103 This was also a great watch for me. This was my introduction to Andy Garcia and Robin Williams played an interesting part. The mystery part of this movie sucked me in.
y'know with Ellie's mom and her grandmother knowing that she sees her mom sometimes, it makes me wonder if the sensitivity that Ellie has to the energy and the "ghosts" is one that she inherited? her mother was also overwhelmed by it and that's part of why London is specifically so overwhelming for Ellie
Gurl this was a great video but I have a tv suggestion. It's called My Name on Netflix and I just finished it and it was amazing. If you don't do a video on it at least watch it for yourself its genuinely amazing. =>
The stone tape theory isn't something that I've heard of before but it makes so much sense, especially in this movie! When I've watched it myself I just registered Sandie "haunting" the house as a sign of her spirit dying there - which didn't make much sense seeing how the other men there were dead in the literal sense, but then again, Sandie has never manifested herself to Ellie until she was possibly drugged which amped up her sensitivity. In either case, I absolutely agree how amazing some moments were, and how others felt lacking or not touched upon enough. Still highly enjoyable!
I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard at a movie theater. I had to literally walk out right before it ended so that nobody would see my phat mascara tears. I went in blind and I don’t regret it but it was definitely effective on my brain. Just a warning, if you have a history of SA and/or r@pe, be careful of your mental state if you choose to watch it. It’s kinda a lot and quite triggering but it’s still a phenomenal movie.
I'm so sorry that you were triggered by the explicit content in this movie, and I hope that you're feeling better now. 🤗 😘 I wish that they'd include content warnings at the beginning, just to warn possible assault survivors of what to expect.
@@trinaq I think if the content warnings were clear enough to be helpful they’d also be clear enough to spoil the film. Arguably better for sensitive people to do the extra background reading rather than opening with tags that make this kind of film impossible.
Yeah, this is the one thing I was worried about. It looks like a great film, but I make it a habit of avoiding things with r*pe and sexual assault, because oftentimes it's not shown with the sensitivity required - it's there for shock value or in some cases lazy writing. I think that's certainly not the case here, but depending on how it is depicted (if it even needs to be actually depicted at all)...yeah...I may have to skip this one. :(
Especially people like me who went to see this movie thinking that it is a Science Fiction movie about time travel and not expecting it to turn out to be a fucking ghost story.
As much as people say the horror in this film kinda seeps out near the end, I have to say that so many moments (when Eloise sees the morphed men and her reactions to them, her reactions when she watches Sandie be in so much trauma to the point where she starts to feel it) are so gosh darn accurate to how the aftermath of assault genuinely feels internally (for me, anyways, idk about anyone else). Even though it wasn't general 'horror', for me, the visuals were so realistic and somewhat therapeutic (even though I was on the verge of a panic attack) because it was like seeing my previous emotions on screen, so in that sense for me the horror is dealt with incredibly wall all throughout the film. In a summary, Edgar Wright is amazing XD
Couldn't agree more! As a survivor myself I felt they really captured the horrors of SA yet in a way that felt so personal and empathetic. Brought me to tears honestly, but such a good movie and such a good angle
When I saw this in theatres, I was the only one there! It was fun and I could talk as loud as I could. At the same time, I was pretty disappointed that nobody else came to see Edgar Wright’s film. It was the same case with Wes Anderson’s French Dispatch. This proves that even our greatest and praised directors can make great films, and then they bomb at the box office
a few things: 1. the death of the protagonists mother and her visions of her at the start definitely were seemingly two early cues of her clairvoyance/sensitivity to energy. i wish we learned more about her mother, bc what if she inherited it from her and it drove her mom to do what she did? 2. john was sweet the whole film, i was scared at first he would suck since most the ppl at the start of the film do, but even after stepping on glass bc of this girl he’s still so sweet and amazing. 3. the figures were enough for me. they were rlly rlly scary to me and i hadn’t expected it. i’m kind of afraid of/paranoid about stalking/assault, etc. so seeing that was horrific. i was scared it might be triggering for some viewers.
i literally just finished watching this movie right before i watched your video and man am i glad i took your advice and watched it first. I cried when Sandy started talking about how she had died up there a thousand times and i'm glad we still sorta sided with her even though she was a literal serial killer LMAO. I was kinda worried that the reveal would take away any sympathy we/ellie feel for sandy but i'm glad even ellie was like no fuck that i'm sorry for what happened to you. Also, i found the ghost men really scary tbh, but that's just me LOL. The horror of those men for me was just how they didnt see those women as people and used them without any care because that's some real shit and nothing is as scary as reality lol. I liked the blurry facelessness of them and i think if they were made to look scarier it would kinda defeat the point a little, because real regular men do that shit and they dont look like monsters, you know what i mean? anyway i really loved this movie and your video
I felt bad for the men for one second. When they screamed “help us”. It showed that even though they were some of the worst people ever, they were still people. And I thought Wright was gonna make Alexa the bad guy. And she was when she was trying to kill her. But she realized what this city has turned her into and what it did to her. I teared up when I saw her sitting in the flames. Maybe at peace with her choices. Maybe not. But she accepts the end.
@@christinemaure4216 fair enough, but I think because Ellie lived through what Sandy experienced with her, she understood that Sandy was someone who had been victimized doing what she felt she had to do to protect herself in that moment. A lot of the time people who have been through shit like that can react in ways that seem over the top when they feel their safety is threatened because they have come to expect such a high level of abuse from others. To be clear, I'm not saying it was okay that she tried to kill her, just that I understand why and I think Ellie did as well and I liked that aspect of the movie
@@jasminem812 except that Sandy was a psychopat since the beginning. The way she walked, looked at people and talked to other people clearly show a very high sense of self plus when she explains why she did that she never said " I was in danger I didn't have the choice" it always"I deserve better than this. I'm here for being a singer not a slut" which means to me that she didn't kill them for her safety but because of her ego I don't even know if she was physically forced by any of them. She stabed her boyfriend even though she could let him go, tried to kill Ellie. She was never a good person.
I had a great time watching this one a couple weeks back. The main three leads were excellent (as would be expected from Anya and Matt especially), the cinematography is surreal and beautiful (you can see the giallo influence as the horror unfolds), Dame Diana Rigg did a superb job with her final role & the soundtrack is awesome as most Edgar Wright film tracks are
I saw this movie not seeing any preview beforehand and was so glad I did as did as I was surprised by every twist and turn (I didn’t even know if it took place in the 60s or modern day till she was on the bus with beats headphones). You had way better inside and appreciation for this movie than Grace from “Beyond the Trailer” as you can tell it is not like Edgar Wright’s other movies in a lot of ways but still has a distinctive style.
I absolutely adore this movie, I've seen it three times now and sometimes I just rewatch whatever scenes are there on youtube. It's just so so visually stunning but also Ellie is the most relatable character ever, and I love the messages of the movie. I love that despite everything Ellie sided with Sandie in the end and showed her sympathy that Sandie has probably never received (or at least accepted) from anyone else. One of my favorite films for sure.
One of my favorite parts of this film has to be the scene after the marionette-show, in the dressing room and trying to escape from the club, when they almost seemlessly switch between Sandie and Eloise as their emotions change between anger and defeat. It’s Eloise desperately trying to make Sandie fight while she is about ready to give up. It’s similar to the end of the “That’s a lovely name“ scene where the young Lindsey wants to help Sandie and Eloise is trying to get through to her but can’t. It really felt like one of those nightmares where you know something is wrong but can’t do anything to change it and are forced to just watch helplessly. I have never seen a film utilize nightmares this effective or convincing
I think that John definitely suffers from Edgar Wright Love Interest Syndrome (see: Debora from Baby Driver) where he doesn’t really give them a life outside of being there for the main character through thick and thin. It’s also pretty loaded that John is the first Black protagonist Wright has ever written, and having him not only have no personality or motivation outside of caring about his white maybe-girlfriend, but ALSO having him very casually brush off that he was accused of raping her and was physically attacked as a result of that…it really didn’t sit well with me. I absolutely love this film, but Wright still has things to learn as an artist, especially regarding characters of color.
That's an interesting take. I never thought of it that way. The impression I got from the whole scene with Ellie and John in the bedroom was that it was a smart contrast from how a scene like that might have played out in an all-white film. A white love interest might have run to Ellie to comfort her, but a black love interest realizes that if he's caught in a room with a freaked out girl and no pants then he's dead man (and literally, in this case). Later on in the library, the impression I got was that he's wracked with concern and guilt. The girl he cares for is clearly in some serious trouble, and (rightly or wrongly) he feels bad for having bailed on her while she was having an episode. That was the impression I got from the scene. The kid's naive to a fault, but genuinely sweet and caring. Definitely a bit two dimensional, but I didn't see it as especially negative. Of course, that might also come from the fact that, as the audience, we get to see Ellie's perspective where there's a murder taking place in the room, while John doesn't see it. So it's easier to "understand" while John would feel guilty... Again, interesting take. Thank you.
I agree with basically everything you said, and tbh the fact that John had seemingly no motivation outside of being there for the main character-and knowing from the trailers going into the movie that the illusion that London was a safe place was going to be shattered-I was suspicious of him from the beginning and expecting some kind of betrayal at some point, maybe in a way that mirrored Jack's character. I mean, it went so far as to literally mirror those two characters in the same scenario where Sandy was "killed". The fact that his character never had that moment tho actually subverted my expectations and tbh I'm glad they didn't do something like that. Thinking about it more, his character is basically the only one in Ellie's circle in London that's a decent person lol. without his character things would feel much more cynical but with him there it's like an affirmation of "hey but not everybody is so bad". probably reading too much into it at this point tho lol
I feel like the writers dangled one overlooked carrot for the audience: The police asked Ellie if she had a family history of schizophrenia which may or may not reason her visions (or hallucinations) of her mom, and also her mother took her own life. Perhaps it was due to her own schizophrenia? I feel like that line was definitely left there for a reason and it really stuck with me!
I LOVED the movie. I was afraid for a second that Eloise was going to listen to the men telling her to kill Sandie during the fire but I’m so so glad it didn’t go that way. I mean it couldn’t have, obviously, it would’ve been a shitty ending. I loved loved loved this movie and the cast was absolutely phenomenal. Side note, I found the faceless men to be absolutely terrifying but that might just be that it’s literally one of the scariest tropes for me. I’m still seeing Kate Siegel in bly manor lmao. Also: DANCE SCENE. Another cool detail was the lighting outside Eloise’s bedroom at night; it changed from flickering blue, white, red to only red whenever it switched from the modern day to the 60s, that was a cool touch I think and it definitely contributed to the feeling of dread accompanying the switch.
Yeah I was glad that she was like uhm no u guys are awful. And literally understands why sandy/alexandria/ Mrs Collin’s did what she did. She literally only didn’t wanna be killed for accidentally reporting her
I think the designs of the ghosts were supposed to invoke monsters from Dr. Who, as another layer of distinct Britishness. Like, it's definitely not an accident that one of the Doctors was cast as a villain.
This is the movie that finally got me to understand how a jump scare is supposed to work. And i seriously used to HATE them. But this movie helped me to understand that I in fact hate when someone doesn't know how to use them.
I genuinely love this movie so much. I thought the cinematography was drop dead gorgeous and the actresses did such an amazing job with the roles. Beautiful. I very much enjoyed the ending as well as the concept. Just beautiful truly.
The secret is in vinyl records as a symbol for the stone tape theory. Sandie and Ellie are two sides of the same record with the past and present etching the music of life experiences into how they play. It all plays out on a loop, just how fashion and music all come back in style in a loop. Life experiences etch the tracks of our lives on a tangible medium. Look at the records shown especially in the ending the record is shown coming to an end and eventually melt in the fire.
This movie was such a loving nod to the Giallo genre. Literally every choice is so intentional, as all Edgar Wright films and TV is, and so hyper aware of how to both pay homage to and subvert the expectations of classic Giallo storytelling.
I think that on top of the stone tape theory, there's also maybe the idea that Sandie and the men are poltergeists instead of ghosts. Poltergeists tend to be energy manifestations that a person is unconsciously controlling and are tied to those person's emotions. Because Sandie has lived there for decades, her trauma is strongest in the apartment and unknowingly manifests itself as these spirits. Like when Ellie is with John and Miss Collins is pounding on the door, Ellie is seeing the vision of Sandie because Miss Collins is manifesting it with her anger, since John reminds her of her clients. So it's not just the energy of the events, it's energy that Sandie herself is unknowingly manipulating as a reaction to her trauma. That's just my take on it.
This movie immediately jumped to an all time favorite. It just super spoke to me, and I ended up seeing it in theaters 5 times since it just...neeeeever left my mind. Such an amazing movie ahhh, I absolutely love it :')
I actually love the idea of ghosts in this movie; how they're more like the trauma and energy soaked into the environment and the objects around where it all happened. You don't see that very often in media, and I love it. I didn't know that there was a term for it, but I'm glad I finally learned it. I liked the movie, and I'm glad I saw it. There's some stuff that's a little rocky for me in it, but it's such a beautiful movie, and Sandy really was a great and tragic character in this that I'll definitely be returning to it soon
I love watching your videos! A lot of these movies are about topics that are just too heavy for me, especially the themes of sexual exploitation and assault that just bring up bad memories, but watching you talk about them sates my curiosity. I know they're good movies and I wish I could experience them in full, but your synopses are actually very detailed and the way you present stuff is always fun and engaging.
I loved the worldbuilding that is casually mentioned that could allude to bigger meanings. Like her mom killing herself after moving to a city, her drastic change in appearance to a very emotional look, it’s all building towards a psychic/medium arc and coming into that power with a very personal connection with a victim and the traumatic events. A common thing about psychics in media is that their parents are usually dead or unknown due to this traumatic ability that can make you insane and/or dangerous.
I think this video has helped me appreciate the film more. The first half was really amazing but I felt disappointed when it ended, but your analysis make sense of some of the things I glossed over while watching
I was one of two people at a showing in my local theater. I’m so glad I was able to see Last Night in Soho on a movie screen. I can be sensitive to blue lights and they were handled so well here! Whoever designed those visuals managed to make them work for the film, especially the bedroom scenes, without being migraine inducing!The ghost men were the first time a horror/thriller actually managed to disturb me in a loooong time. I knew I was going to enjoy Anya and Matt Smith in this, but I was impressed with how well the cast did overall. I was excited for this one for awhile and I’m glad it didn’t disappoint.
So towards the start of this movie I opened Wikipedia to check an actor, and ended up spoiling for myself that Ms. Collins was the older Sandy. I was a little crestfallen that I'd spoiled what I realized was going to be a big twist, but that ended up working in my favor by the end. I bought no question that Terrence Stamp was Jack, even before that running shot where they juxtapose the two; the cop had less than 5 minutes of screen time before so I never even considered him. And I kept trying to figure out how Sandy was "haunting" Ellie despite not being dead, so the one-two punch of the old man being the cop and Sandy being a serial killer got me, and I loved it.
I really liked Last Night in Soho, and gave it a 4 out of 5 on our website. It was an original take on the ghost story, where the haunted house was, in a way, a city, and the rain-slick streets and dingy nightclubs the various rooms. Hard to watch at times too, especially the sexual assault and harassment scenes.
The movie was phenomenal. I'm glad i decided to watch it before continuing your video :) Also , i strongly believe her former roommate was supposed to be a witch. In the bathroom scene , when they go out on the first night, you can see a queen bee ( she's from Manchester) and arrow towards a pentagram. She also joked about her jacket's designer selling her soul . And her name... I think she's Jack's granddaughter. Idk... fun Easter eggs :)
I love your way of discussing the film! This has become one of my favorites films. I watched it opening weekend and it was amazing. I had a short obsession during its first week but then Eternals came along and my obsession shifted but now ITS BACK AND I LOVE IT SM.
I don’t feel like this movie is scary in anyway, but just sad. I don’t think any characters have happy stories and it’s really sad to see how life screws over everyone nearly.
First of all, I genuinely and truly value and love your work. You're just very ...chill but funny. You have great perspectives and are clearly just all around great at what you do. So I mean this in the most wholesome way. Anytime someone asks what kind of girl I'm attracted to, I ask them if they've heard of you.
FINALLY got around to seeing this awesome movie and this is the first place I came to once the credits started to roll. I wanted to be surprised so when you warned us within the first 30 sec about spoilers, I clicked out and waited until I saw it…a year later 😂. Thank you Amanda! It was so worth not knowing anything about the movie before going into it!
It's probably my least favourite Edgar Wright film, but I thought Last Night in Soho was still really good. All the performances were superb - obviously Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy were stellar, but I also have to praise Matt Smith's performance, speaking as someone who watched him on Doctor Who, seeing him play this seedy abusive monster hiding behind the façade of charm and friendliness really proves how versatile he can be. And of course, Edgar's direction was phenomenal, the dance scene is an obvious highlight, but the way he uses lighting to convey this horrifying dreamlike tone was magnificent, and as per usual the song choices were brilliant. I do think the story kind of peaks in the first act, and the third act explanations were a bit underwhelming, but I do appreciate what Edgar and Krysty Wilson-Cairns were going for with their script, even if the execution wasn't great. Still enjoyed it a lot though, and I'm sure this is one that will grow on me with future watches
Okay, in the beginning of the video I was like, okay, I don't know where to watch it in my country, probably I'll forget everything anyway, let's get started. I stopped at 6:16, so I can look it up in any sort of place on the internet because it seems AMAZING and I don't wanna know anything more
Honestly thank you for doing these videos. I'm not opposed to spoilers. And these videos help me hear about movies I haven't seen or heard of. And I can't wait to watch this one
I went to the same fashion college as Ellie, but in the early 90's. Soho still had that personality, but it felt like the last of the old days. The Windmill Club which has now closed down was described as 'burlesque' definitely wasn't when I went in there to ask about using it as a film location - it was seedy, dark and the guys there were these greasy kind of individuals. AlthoughI was there over 20 years after the end of the 60's, the area still had that feeling leftover that all wasn't swinging and amazing in sixties London.
The men reminded me of franscis bacon paintings of the mid century and the first song at the rialto being the sandy shaw puppet on a string was such a nice touch
FINALLY got around to watching LNISH and didn't even realize it was an Edgar Wright film until after I watched it. That's a lot of his fans went in with certain expectations and I luckily missed that. What a great, great movie. So well done.
My silly head thinks the perfect flow between the 2 main characters is partly due to Anya working opposite her namesake from The Witch 😋 and she just has a face that can pull off stunning looks.
It’s interesting to see different takes on this movie as personally I saw her visions to be schizophrenic hallucinations. It’s never fully confirmed as they only say her mother had mental health issues but perhaps she too was schizophrenic and passed it on to her daughter
I thought the ending was way too cheery until the Sandy reveal right before credits. Definitely the 70's horror vibe Edgar was going for. I think it's possible she died in the ambulance. It honestly felt like it blacked out for credits -- and then the cheery fashion show scene happened. For me, at least haha. But other than the ghost acting, I thought was friggin' great. And both the dance scenes were so great!
I want to believe she didn’t die. But I really believe the last scene was a hallucination. It was a way too sweet ending and also, those dresses were ugly af I want to believe Ellie wouldn’t create that
Althought Edgar Wright's more recent "serious" movies haven't been hitting as hard as his comedies, I still love this movie. Wright is a master of paying off every setup with millimetrical precision and a great example of it is how Ellie set her vinyl reccords on fire while deffending herself from Ms Collins. A perfect metaphor of her abandoning her toxic nostalgia for the 60s to save her life... its not a _subtle_ metaphor, but in the hands of Edgar Wright, even the bluntest McGuffins have a certain elegance to them
This is one of those films that I wanted to see, but I just had too many things else to watch(I’m actually just right now getting to Luca). I thought it looked really interesting
I absolutely loved this movie and wish moe people would've gone to see it in theatres, but at least now I can show it to all of my friends. Thank you for this theory!
I went into this movie pretty blind. I’d seen the trailer once but mainly took note of Anya Taylor Joy edits on Twitter lol. Completely missed how much horror was incorporated into the movie and brought my friend who could not do horror to watch it with me. She was not thriving, zero live laugh loves from her. Movie slapped though I had a great time
I needed this review to make me appreciate the film more. I really didn't get all the excitement while watching it and in the end I was pretty disappointed. Now I feel better about it. Not going to watch it again or anything but it's better than I thought for sure.
I just watched this and had to watch a good portion of it muted coz my dad was on the phone, but I still thought it was awesome and immediately jumped on RUclips to watch a deep dive of the film while I did the dishes 😅
I loved the detail that Miss Collins was still trapped. She could never sell that place, because she'd run the risk of someone renovating the room and discovering what she'd done.
Thomasin, Anya and Matt were superb. The cinematography was gorgeous, especially when Eloise first arrives in 1960's London, and the various sets allowing Ellie to peek into Sandie's life was very well executed. I also liked the message of not romanticising the past, since every eras has its dark side.
Yes yes yes!! And to your last point, i think there's a troubling trend in movies to romanticize eras in the name of nostalgia but this has a more.... Balanced approach.
@@ashanein murderous
Hey! I’ve seen you around Cinema Therapy!
I really liked how it showed human trafficking in the way that it tends to happen more often. It’s awful, but I appreciate it’s shown in a more realistic way if that makes sense.
SPOILERS
Looking back, I realized that Ms. Collins never crossed the threshold of the rental room until the end. Not even when she thought Ellie was getting hurt. She didn’t cross the threshold until she sat on the bed during the fire, facing her murder and finding some sort of peace before she died. Now considering the stone tape concept, it makes sense that she couldn’t physically step through without physically reliving her trauma and killing spree. Which is why Ms. Collins feels the flashback slap from her pimp. I love that detail
I love this film and it annoys me sometimes that Thomasin McKenzie doesn't get enough credit for her performance here. People mostly focused on Anya Taylor Joy and Wright's filmmaking technique, yeah both were great but come on people, let's give some roses for Thomasin who did a terrific job playing the lead role and this is her first time playing a lead role and she pulled it off very well. She's so talented and I cannot wait to see what else she does in the future. She's gonna be a superstar soon
True...great acting. Top 3 for me
she did an excellent job.
I'm a huge fan of Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, and Edgar Wright. Yet the first thing I said to anybody about this movie was that Thomasin McKenzie surpasses everyone (and thats with everyone else in peak form). I've only seen her in this and Jojo Rabbit, and I already feel aghast that she doesn't have an Oscar.
She’s soooooo talented☺️☺️☺️
That scene where she was screaming for Jack to get off Sandie, I had chills. You could feel her fear and panic and desperation.
I get why the faceless men might not be scary for everyone, but they absolutely terrify me. As someone who was preyed upon by an older man when I was a kid, who has forgotten what his face actually looked like, I found the faceless ghosts really f***ing scary.
100% agree. I just seen the movie last night and was explaining the faceless men to my husband. As a survivor of sexual abuse myself I 100% agree.
Right. Like I remember what the guy was wearing but not his face. It's unfortunate that people have this misconception about memory, especially when it comes to these specific experiences: our brains tend to catalog details in a way that often isn't how you'd expect and that confounds people.
As a man, they scared me sh*tless, not because of what they could do to me, but because of what they say about me. I try to be accommodating and respectful to women, but I admit I sometimes falter and think/say/do things that hurt them. It scares me to see those ghosts, because I think that's how women see me when I do things like that: just another faceless creep in a long line of faceless creeps. I always work to better myself, and to be a good person, but women don't (and shouldn't) see that. They just see a guy who's hurting them. It sucks that we have made a world that makes you feel like that
I loved John so much, he was such a kind hearted boy. It was frustrating to see him go through really traumatic situations but never receiving an honest apology nor a happy resolution. I mean... what about his fashion designs? Did he get to present them or did he not get to complete them because he got fuc::ng stabbed.
He was wearing the shirt he designed in the final scene! A small thing but you know Edgar, every tiny detail matters
@@theresa5797 Ah how nice that you caught that! Good for him ❤️
I honestly felt like he should've walked away from Ellie. I Ellie wasn't even that into him. And no one is worth getting stabbed for. :D
It feels like he wasn't there to be his own character but more to be someone to look out for Ellie and add some heart and a bit of a romantic storyline to the film.
@@asterismos5451 I felt this too. He was good and I liked what he added, but he was mostly inconsequential. I hazard to say he was a ‘second draft’ character. Likely because some producer stepped in and said to add a male love interest. I love him and his character, but it seemed like this story wasn’t for him.
One of the biggest let downs for me was her final project. Entire thing had amazing costumes and then forgot to spend budget on the actual fashion show.
Whoops😅
Lol..so true
Gotta start from somewhere
Agreed. Unless she was always intending to go for "high fashion" (read: literally no one would actually wear this and we don't expect anyone to-), which wouldn't have made sense. They don't look like a modern homage to the 60s look; they look like retro-future "wtf" clothing...But maybe that's just me
To be fair it was supposed to be a fashion school, not a real high end fashion show
Diana Rigg's casting is so meta since she was a 60s icon. She's such a badass and I adore her. What a role to end a career on.
For real. Legend. Also I feel like I would've found out she was the murderer and been like "slay queen, those dickheads deserved what they got" lmao
The one thing that jumps out at me the most from the ending is that Sandie poisoned Ellie's tea and she was clearly getting sick from it for a bit, but then she ran upstairs, had that whole thing with the ghost men, had a conversation with Sandie, ran back downstairs, then was rescued. They never even brought up that she was poisoned. It was like she just got over it by pure willpower.
She vomits it up when she's on the stairs, after she's hit in the head
i think it's because she hadn't drink much of it and the adrenaline kicked in. and it cut to the fashion show, so who knows
Well, paramedics arrived in time due to the fire going on, so Ellie could be treated for the poison she had ingested. It seems likely she didn't give it enough time to kill her because the fire department got on the scene before that could happen.
She threw up while running up the stairs so that would’ve helped clean her system a bit and she only had like two small sips
She didn’t drink much and she threw up what she did on the stairs
I only recently learned what "Chekhovs gun" means, and the moment the landlady mentioned that the phone only makes emergency calls, my first thought was "Chekhovs phone! She's gonna need that later."
Precisely, while sometimes they can be used as red herrings, and be deliberately misleading, but yes, usually a seemingly throwaway line or character will have some form of relevance later on. Very well spotted! 🎊👏🏾
@@trinaq omg i see you everywhere!!! i'll subscribe. lol
Personally, I really like the morphous design of Sandie's victims because it makes me think that after sleeping with so many men who all wanted the same disgusting thing, to use her body and traumatize her, they all began to blend together and after a certain point, she just couldn't distinguish them as anything else other than faceless, greedy perverts looking to use her for their own desires
Thats seems kinda harsh. Most johns are just lonely, horny guys who hire a sex worker for an evening of fun and companionship. Just like you would hire any professional.
Not that I've every hired one. Necessarily.
@@dudeman5685 And? The sex industry is incredibly dangerous for the people working in it. They took advantage of a young girl and reduced her to her body. They had no respect for her and probably other girls, so why should anyone have respect for them? Reduce them to their disgusting behaviour.
Exactly the became faceless because in that way they were easier to forget
@@dudeman5685 You are still taking advantage of the situation. That being, the situation is transactional. Idc, it's weird. 😂
@@dudeman5685🤮
I love how both characters mirror each other's ambition and how the city itself almost crushes their passion and shows its very ugly side. I felt like Ellie is clairvoyant, which is why she was able to sense the emotions left in the apartment.
This also visually reminded me of the audition scene from Mulholland Dr. The 60's music, the costumes, the dark underbelly of what's actually going on. Another eerie mirroring.
I agree, I adored how Ellie and Sandie's stories mirrored each other, and how it slowly transpired that things were not all rosy in the 60's. With Ellie being clairvoyant, I thought that her deceased mother might have also been connected with spirits, which caused her to end her own life.
Yes! My partner and I saw this in theaters and pretty much as soon as the lights lifted I went off about the Mulholland Dr. parallels. Glad someone else saw this, too.
Definetely a lot of David Lynch in this movie... especially the first half. Another of Lynch's films that may be of influence is "Inland Empire"
I was a child in London during this era. There was glamor, no doubt, but virtually every club had one-armed bandits (British euphemism was fruit machines) and those and the cigarette machines were ruled by the gangs. My parents took me to Wheelers back in the day (fish restaurant) and I recognized its design in the Bistro on Goodge Place.
The idea that a bedsit in Soho could be haunted by its past doesn't seem at all farfetched.
Stone tape is a great phrase. Actors hate working in brand new theaters because the theater isn't alive yet. The Royal Shakespeare Company opened the Barbican Theater with a panto to ensure that laughter would be embedded in its walls.
"One-armed bandits" - I get it! The lever you pull is the arm. What a fun slang term for an absolutely awful money-sink. In America, we have similar - slot machines in convenience stores/gas stations where people just sit and press a button, throwing their money away for hours.
(Spoilers) I ended up crying almost the entire second act, after its revealed that Sandie is continually forced to sleep with men and seeing Ellie and Sandie’s dreams being slowly crushed. I connected so deeply with Ellie from the beginning, I can relate to many of her life situations and how the girls at school treat her. So I was enraptured in her character when she discovered Sandie’s world in her dreams. when Ellie became crushed so did i. I felt like I was seeing how women are put down and taken advantage of in the 60’s and now, it broke me. I know the ending soiled the movie for a lot of people, but I was too moved by the story at that point for it to be ruined by a few scenes. My emotions completely took over and I was truly SEEING women as they are on the screen.
* Sandie
Same here and Im a man
Can we talk about how insane it is to respond to “my mothers dead” with “I thought she was”
honestly i think the men not being as menacing is actually good! For me it shows that the people we dont think are scary are often the ones that are the most terrifying, and that could totally translate into a spirit form as well where we see them and go "oh they did that? they dont look scary". So that even in death we are surprised that about it.
I agree, the men seeming still human is terrifying in a sense that it is close to reality. Personally, they remind me of creeps on the street, catcalling, touching without consent, maybe even following women. That fear is still real for many people, so these men looking like blurry people instead of monsters shows the fear many experience in real life.
one of my favorite parts was how Sandie/Miss Collins described how to find where she lived. there were definitely more stand-out parts that revealed who Miss Collins actually was, but as soon as I heard Sandie describe it the exact same way I was like "oh that'd be a clever reveal." i really liked it, even the ending wasn't too bad imo
Same! I love the way you get to uncover certain mysteries within the film by yourself with its subtle but clever details.
**SPOILER ALERT BELOW**
Like for me, I discovered that the man she thought was Jack, was actually the police officer from before, because he said "Sandy deserved better". That was something the man said in the flashback, and I LOVE that they had the character say it again as a hint. When I heard it, I literally gasped because it was such a cool moment.
@@lepotato135 i got tipped off when ellie confronts him and he says "alex killed sandy"
I LOVED the ending!!
Also if you look closely you can see Miss Colins wearing the same ring on the same finger as Sandie. That was a bit of a clue for me.
The late, great Diana Riggs was perfect in her last film role, although it was a little obvious that an actress of her caliber and ilk wouldn't just be regulated to a minor side role. I also liked the reveal of who Terence Stamp's character really was in the 1960's.
In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't know about her before watching.
Admittedly I guessed the ending pretty much as soon as I saw her. Thoroughly enjoyed it all the same :)
I'm trying to find the name of the actor who played his younger version. He looks so familiar!
@@AlyssaZ630 Same here...good looking guy. It might be young Terrence put inthe movie withComputer
@@AlyssaZ630 Sam Clafin though I'm not sure about whether or not CGI was used to make him look more like a young Stamp.
I acted in this movie and when filming the Cafe de Paris scene was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had. It took a week to film, including that amazing scene of Thomasine, Matt and Anya. That was incredible to watch being done. It’s an actual choreography of them switching places.
I had the chance to see this film on opening weekend and was blown away. Edgar Wright is such a creative director and I love how he’s able to make each of his films have their own unique style.
def one of my fav artisic insprations
Ending twist was stupid lol 😂😂
"We all pay for broken mirrors some day" by mrs collins right after you see sandy breaking a mirror out of frustration when things start going bad
Such a powerful scene and so true. Vyts deep no joke
Not really. Breaking mirrors cause bad luck is an old superstition, I think that’s what she meant. Could be a double meaning, tho.
@@Chinchilla2310 The meaning is fustration..we all been there. For example, in sports a quaterback throwing an interception in the last minute. Someone who wanted to be a lawyer but now works delivering pizzas
I also felt the ending was a bit abrupt. I would have loved to see a bridging scene perhaps, of Ellie recovering in the hospital, and sketching a new design, more moderns but still with nods to her previous love, showing that she’s changed but her love of the past and design hasn’t been taken from her. Maybe we still see sandy in the mirror, or in a window and Ellie adjusts an element of the design because of that to make it more ‘Sandy’ showing that Sandy and her mother are still with her. A bit less happy go lucky but still hopeful?
I think this was the most down to earth performance I've ever seen from Tarrance Stamp, lol. My brother and I were the only two in the cinema when we saw this on opening weekend, and we had just the absolute best time. From the obvious Dario Argento's Suspiria motifs with the red lights flashing to having Matt Smith as a bad guy (we're both huge Doctor Who fans and love seeing former cast from that show on the big screen) to having everything we've come to expect from Edgar Wright, including the soundtrack you can't help but sing along with. Such a fun film!
no actor can truly swap between good and evil characters as well as him
Anaya was great as well and also the lead actress
This reminds me of a tour I went to of a haunted town center where one room was haunted by the event of a little girl being sexually assaulted, that people would hear and see this little girl in that room. She did not die in that room, something awful happened there, and that something awful stayed.
wow that's so sad
This is such an interesting story. Plus I agree with the glamorized version of the past eras. I think we tend to forget the struggles that came with the glamour.
Idk if anyone else has felt this, but as a person of colour, I'm 200% unable to see the the past as glamorized.
Going to the 60s would be more of a nightmare than a dream for me lol
@@junew8133 I see almost no people of color being like "I was born in the wrong era", so yeah. Also, college humor made a sketch about "being born in the wrong era" that shows the illusion a bit.
I appreciate how they made the horror of it not too scary. Because the situation Eloise was going through alone, and all that she seen, was enough to make me feel creeped out. That was a great movie twist. I only noticed she was her when the camera subtly showed the mail
9:42 was one of the most tragic scenes. It was beautifully crafted with her shattering reality just to get sandie to see her. i feel like the metaphor here is Eloise symbolizes Sandies lost purity.
True
I honestly found the ghost-men to be sickeningly terrifying and they're actually what made me start to hate the film part way through- because I see hallucinations of people at night when under stress and exhaustion. The ghost-men looked exactly like what I see, in reality I've learnt to ignore them and think "they're not real", but to see them on film in the middle of the day while I was fully awake nocked me sick and was truly horrifying, because in the context of the film they were real (the effects made it worse because they were so good).
I found them horrifying because it could be a reality someone lives through right now and it could be slowly killing her as well.
Bruh the CGI is out of place. I don't find their vfx really good visually, but I admit the concept really great.
Just a heads up to see a psychologist since sensing things that don't exist and frighten you could be an early signs of schizophrenia and the sooner you get it under control the easier your life would be. Wish you the best.
Dude, me too, but it’s not hallucinations it’s just nightmares when i go to sleep. But the movie made me so uneasy bc i’ve had so many nightmares that look almost exactly like how this movie depicts it. Horrifying yet hauntingly beautiful
@@incogniftoar3943 It's more so the practical effects combined with blurring their faces that makes it feeling uneased.
so when miss collins said she was 'pretending it was happening to someone else' she was literally projecting it onto someone else aka ellie? woww that did not hit me the first time
How sad that Diana Rig didn't even get to see the release of her work. I suppose it's somewhat common in the art world, but still.
I also noticed the detail that Mrs. Collins probably continued murdering all of the people who rented that room. They kept "running off in the middle of the night"? I think not.
I assumed it meant that other girls (she specified a lot of girls lived there) were having similar nightmares and ran because they couldn’t handle it either
@@TheGoosebumpsGirl I think this is more likely too. Her MO was killing men. She only tries to kill Ellie because of the involvement of the police, I think
@@LoZander Yeah that's why she did that
I think the girls she was referring to were all her. She gave herself a different name with each client and since she viewed her original self as dead, each new name was a new girl.
@@zhiguli8 Thats clever
I was so excited to see Anya Taylor-Joy that the fact that the Phelps twins played that guy totally flew under my radar!
That was a great moment. Your eye is just so magnetically drawn to Sandie I wasn't looking at anyone else at all and I didn't even realize it until Amanda pointed out those were the Phelps twins. She's so electrifying in this scene, in every scene! I love watching her.
This movie reminded me of another movie, "An American Haunting", where a woman is being haunted by a psychic energy from the past. I don't want to give spoilers, so I'll leave it at that. Loved "Last Night in Soho". I was happy that I got to see it in a theater.
Ugh finally another human who has seen that movie. I loved it so much as a kid and now I can't find it anywhere and I thought I was the only one who remembered it. Was starting to think it was a bad dream.
I don't think I've met another person who's watched AAH! My mom wsa watching it one night and got scared because of the wolf scene reflecting in the glass of the back door and she thought someone was breaking in xD
@@samanthagalarza3421 there’s at least four of us who’ve seen it then! I’ve got a vivid memory of the “someone who was once happy” scene, and being so unsettled it made my scalp start feeling tingly 😂
There's also 1991's dead again with Emma Thompson about a woman who after having strange visions starts investigating the murder of one of her past lives.
@@kaykutcher2103 This was also a great watch for me. This was my introduction to Andy Garcia and Robin Williams played an interesting part. The mystery part of this movie sucked me in.
y'know with Ellie's mom and her grandmother knowing that she sees her mom sometimes, it makes me wonder if the sensitivity that Ellie has to the energy and the "ghosts" is one that she inherited? her mother was also overwhelmed by it and that's part of why London is specifically so overwhelming for Ellie
DANCE. SCENE.
Guys is 4D chess to call the bitchy girl by the wrong name, obviously I didn't mess up Jocasta's name by mistake...
The dance scene was amazing, and I loved the behind the scenes clips showing how they managed to pull it off. 💃
And just think, there was no CGI involved in it. It was literally just perfect timing and switching.
💃🕺💃🕺
Gurl this was a great video but I have a tv suggestion. It's called My Name on Netflix and I just finished it and it was amazing. If you don't do a video on it at least watch it for yourself its genuinely amazing. =>
🔥
The stone tape theory isn't something that I've heard of before but it makes so much sense, especially in this movie! When I've watched it myself I just registered Sandie "haunting" the house as a sign of her spirit dying there - which didn't make much sense seeing how the other men there were dead in the literal sense, but then again, Sandie has never manifested herself to Ellie until she was possibly drugged which amped up her sensitivity. In either case, I absolutely agree how amazing some moments were, and how others felt lacking or not touched upon enough. Still highly enjoyable!
I don’t think I’ve ever cried so hard at a movie theater. I had to literally walk out right before it ended so that nobody would see my phat mascara tears. I went in blind and I don’t regret it but it was definitely effective on my brain. Just a warning, if you have a history of SA and/or r@pe, be careful of your mental state if you choose to watch it. It’s kinda a lot and quite triggering but it’s still a phenomenal movie.
I'm so sorry that you were triggered by the explicit content in this movie, and I hope that you're feeling better now. 🤗 😘 I wish that they'd include content warnings at the beginning, just to warn possible assault survivors of what to expect.
@@trinaq I think if the content warnings were clear enough to be helpful they’d also be clear enough to spoil the film. Arguably better for sensitive people to do the extra background reading rather than opening with tags that make this kind of film impossible.
Yeah, this is the one thing I was worried about. It looks like a great film, but I make it a habit of avoiding things with r*pe and sexual assault, because oftentimes it's not shown with the sensitivity required - it's there for shock value or in some cases lazy writing. I think that's certainly not the case here, but depending on how it is depicted (if it even needs to be actually depicted at all)...yeah...I may have to skip this one. :(
Especially people like me who went to see this movie thinking that it is a Science Fiction movie about time travel and not expecting it to turn out to be a fucking ghost story.
I wish you happiness
As much as people say the horror in this film kinda seeps out near the end, I have to say that so many moments (when Eloise sees the morphed men and her reactions to them, her reactions when she watches Sandie be in so much trauma to the point where she starts to feel it) are so gosh darn accurate to how the aftermath of assault genuinely feels internally (for me, anyways, idk about anyone else). Even though it wasn't general 'horror', for me, the visuals were so realistic and somewhat therapeutic (even though I was on the verge of a panic attack) because it was like seeing my previous emotions on screen, so in that sense for me the horror is dealt with incredibly wall all throughout the film.
In a summary, Edgar Wright is amazing XD
Couldn't agree more! As a survivor myself I felt they really captured the horrors of SA yet in a way that felt so personal and empathetic. Brought me to tears honestly, but such a good movie and such a good angle
When I saw this in theatres, I was the only one there! It was fun and I could talk as loud as I could. At the same time, I was pretty disappointed that nobody else came to see Edgar Wright’s film. It was the same case with Wes Anderson’s French Dispatch. This proves that even our greatest and praised directors can make great films, and then they bomb at the box office
So fu...true. Case in point: The Shawshank redemption. I LOVE this movie. Masterpiece
The eternals was average but its collection?
I loved the sound design in this movie! the mid-song switch between modern sound engineering and the Spector 'wall of sound' was so amazing.
a few things:
1. the death of the protagonists mother and her visions of her at the start definitely were seemingly two early cues of her clairvoyance/sensitivity to energy. i wish we learned more about her mother, bc what if she inherited it from her and it drove her mom to do what she did?
2. john was sweet the whole film, i was scared at first he would suck since most the ppl at the start of the film do, but even after stepping on glass bc of this girl he’s still so sweet and amazing.
3. the figures were enough for me. they were rlly rlly scary to me and i hadn’t expected it. i’m kind of afraid of/paranoid about stalking/assault, etc. so seeing that was horrific. i was scared it might be triggering for some viewers.
Amen buddy
i literally just finished watching this movie right before i watched your video and man am i glad i took your advice and watched it first. I cried when Sandy started talking about how she had died up there a thousand times and i'm glad we still sorta sided with her even though she was a literal serial killer LMAO. I was kinda worried that the reveal would take away any sympathy we/ellie feel for sandy but i'm glad even ellie was like no fuck that i'm sorry for what happened to you. Also, i found the ghost men really scary tbh, but that's just me LOL. The horror of those men for me was just how they didnt see those women as people and used them without any care because that's some real shit and nothing is as scary as reality lol. I liked the blurry facelessness of them and i think if they were made to look scarier it would kinda defeat the point a little, because real regular men do that shit and they dont look like monsters, you know what i mean? anyway i really loved this movie and your video
Great review...I agree.
I felt bad for the men for one second. When they screamed “help us”. It showed that even though they were some of the worst people ever, they were still people. And I thought Wright was gonna make Alexa the bad guy. And she was when she was trying to kill her. But she realized what this city has turned her into and what it did to her. I teared up when I saw her sitting in the flames. Maybe at peace with her choices. Maybe not. But she accepts the end.
I don't know she tried to kill her. I would never have sympathy for someone who want to kill me she's a litteral psychopath
@@christinemaure4216 fair enough, but I think because Ellie lived through what Sandy experienced with her, she understood that Sandy was someone who had been victimized doing what she felt she had to do to protect herself in that moment. A lot of the time people who have been through shit like that can react in ways that seem over the top when they feel their safety is threatened because they have come to expect such a high level of abuse from others. To be clear, I'm not saying it was okay that she tried to kill her, just that I understand why and I think Ellie did as well and I liked that aspect of the movie
@@jasminem812 except that Sandy was a psychopat since the beginning. The way she walked, looked at people and talked to other people clearly show a very high sense of self plus when she explains why she did that she never said " I was in danger I didn't have the choice" it always"I deserve better than this. I'm here for being a singer not a slut" which means to me that she didn't kill them for her safety but because of her ego I don't even know if she was physically forced by any of them. She stabed her boyfriend even though she could let him go, tried to kill Ellie. She was never a good person.
I had a great time watching this one a couple weeks back. The main three leads were excellent (as would be expected from Anya and Matt especially), the cinematography is surreal and beautiful (you can see the giallo influence as the horror unfolds), Dame Diana Rigg did a superb job with her final role & the soundtrack is awesome as most Edgar Wright film tracks are
I saw this movie not seeing any preview beforehand and was so glad I did as did as I was surprised by every twist and turn (I didn’t even know if it took place in the 60s or modern day till she was on the bus with beats headphones). You had way better inside and appreciation for this movie than Grace from “Beyond the Trailer” as you can tell it is not like Edgar Wright’s other movies in a lot of ways but still has a distinctive style.
I absolutely adore this movie, I've seen it three times now and sometimes I just rewatch whatever scenes are there on youtube. It's just so so visually stunning but also Ellie is the most relatable character ever, and I love the messages of the movie. I love that despite everything Ellie sided with Sandie in the end and showed her sympathy that Sandie has probably never received (or at least accepted) from anyone else. One of my favorite films for sure.
One of my favorite parts of this film has to be the scene after the marionette-show, in the dressing room and trying to escape from the club, when they almost seemlessly switch between Sandie and Eloise as their emotions change between anger and defeat. It’s Eloise desperately trying to make Sandie fight while she is about ready to give up. It’s similar to the end of the “That’s a lovely name“ scene where the young Lindsey wants to help Sandie and Eloise is trying to get through to her but can’t.
It really felt like one of those nightmares where you know something is wrong but can’t do anything to change it and are forced to just watch helplessly.
I have never seen a film utilize nightmares this effective or convincing
Can we PLEASE talk about the acting legend that Dame Diana Rigg was? My god, what an extraordinary actress!
I think that John definitely suffers from Edgar Wright Love Interest Syndrome (see: Debora from Baby Driver) where he doesn’t really give them a life outside of being there for the main character through thick and thin. It’s also pretty loaded that John is the first Black protagonist Wright has ever written, and having him not only have no personality or motivation outside of caring about his white maybe-girlfriend, but ALSO having him very casually brush off that he was accused of raping her and was physically attacked as a result of that…it really didn’t sit well with me. I absolutely love this film, but Wright still has things to learn as an artist, especially regarding characters of color.
This is the exact same problem I had too. That particular scene with him being accused made me sick but definitely not in a good way.
That's an interesting take. I never thought of it that way.
The impression I got from the whole scene with Ellie and John in the bedroom was that it was a smart contrast from how a scene like that might have played out in an all-white film. A white love interest might have run to Ellie to comfort her, but a black love interest realizes that if he's caught in a room with a freaked out girl and no pants then he's dead man (and literally, in this case). Later on in the library, the impression I got was that he's wracked with concern and guilt. The girl he cares for is clearly in some serious trouble, and (rightly or wrongly) he feels bad for having bailed on her while she was having an episode.
That was the impression I got from the scene. The kid's naive to a fault, but genuinely sweet and caring. Definitely a bit two dimensional, but I didn't see it as especially negative.
Of course, that might also come from the fact that, as the audience, we get to see Ellie's perspective where there's a murder taking place in the room, while John doesn't see it. So it's easier to "understand" while John would feel guilty...
Again, interesting take. Thank you.
this is exactly how I felt
The way i didnt even watch this film but as Amanda was talking about i was thinking the exact same thing
I agree with basically everything you said, and tbh the fact that John had seemingly no motivation outside of being there for the main character-and knowing from the trailers going into the movie that the illusion that London was a safe place was going to be shattered-I was suspicious of him from the beginning and expecting some kind of betrayal at some point, maybe in a way that mirrored Jack's character. I mean, it went so far as to literally mirror those two characters in the same scenario where Sandy was "killed". The fact that his character never had that moment tho actually subverted my expectations and tbh I'm glad they didn't do something like that. Thinking about it more, his character is basically the only one in Ellie's circle in London that's a decent person lol. without his character things would feel much more cynical but with him there it's like an affirmation of "hey but not everybody is so bad". probably reading too much into it at this point tho lol
I feel like the writers dangled one overlooked carrot for the audience:
The police asked Ellie if she had a family history of schizophrenia which may or may not reason her visions (or hallucinations) of her mom, and also her mother took her own life. Perhaps it was due to her own schizophrenia? I feel like that line was definitely left there for a reason and it really stuck with me!
The hickey tho...... and seeing the landmarks in visions first...... idk bout this take
i think its both tbh! ghosts and schizophrenia
I LOVED the movie. I was afraid for a second that Eloise was going to listen to the men telling her to kill Sandie during the fire but I’m so so glad it didn’t go that way. I mean it couldn’t have, obviously, it would’ve been a shitty ending. I loved loved loved this movie and the cast was absolutely phenomenal. Side note, I found the faceless men to be absolutely terrifying but that might just be that it’s literally one of the scariest tropes for me. I’m still seeing Kate Siegel in bly manor lmao. Also: DANCE SCENE. Another cool detail was the lighting outside Eloise’s bedroom at night; it changed from flickering blue, white, red to only red whenever it switched from the modern day to the 60s, that was a cool touch I think and it definitely contributed to the feeling of dread accompanying the switch.
I feared the same
. I'm really happy with the way it ended
Yeah I was glad that she was like uhm no u guys are awful. And literally understands why sandy/alexandria/ Mrs Collin’s did what she did. She literally only didn’t wanna be killed for accidentally reporting her
I think the designs of the ghosts were supposed to invoke monsters from Dr. Who, as another layer of distinct Britishness. Like, it's definitely not an accident that one of the Doctors was cast as a villain.
That and Diana Rigg was a Villain In an 11th Doctor Episode.
This is the movie that finally got me to understand how a jump scare is supposed to work.
And i seriously used to HATE them.
But this movie helped me to understand that I in fact hate when someone doesn't know how to use them.
I genuinely love this movie so much. I thought the cinematography was drop dead gorgeous and the actresses did such an amazing job with the roles. Beautiful. I very much enjoyed the ending as well as the concept. Just beautiful truly.
The secret is in vinyl records as a symbol for the stone tape theory. Sandie and Ellie are two sides of the same record with the past and present etching the music of life experiences into how they play. It all plays out on a loop, just how fashion and music all come back in style in a loop. Life experiences etch the tracks of our lives on a tangible medium. Look at the records shown especially in the ending the record is shown coming to an end and eventually melt in the fire.
This movie was such a loving nod to the Giallo genre. Literally every choice is so intentional, as all Edgar Wright films and TV is, and so hyper aware of how to both pay homage to and subvert the expectations of classic Giallo storytelling.
I think that on top of the stone tape theory, there's also maybe the idea that Sandie and the men are poltergeists instead of ghosts. Poltergeists tend to be energy manifestations that a person is unconsciously controlling and are tied to those person's emotions. Because Sandie has lived there for decades, her trauma is strongest in the apartment and unknowingly manifests itself as these spirits. Like when Ellie is with John and Miss Collins is pounding on the door, Ellie is seeing the vision of Sandie because Miss Collins is manifesting it with her anger, since John reminds her of her clients. So it's not just the energy of the events, it's energy that Sandie herself is unknowingly manipulating as a reaction to her trauma. That's just my take on it.
This movie immediately jumped to an all time favorite. It just super spoke to me, and I ended up seeing it in theaters 5 times since it just...neeeeever left my mind. Such an amazing movie ahhh, I absolutely love it :')
Same here
I actually love the idea of ghosts in this movie; how they're more like the trauma and energy soaked into the environment and the objects around where it all happened. You don't see that very often in media, and I love it. I didn't know that there was a term for it, but I'm glad I finally learned it.
I liked the movie, and I'm glad I saw it. There's some stuff that's a little rocky for me in it, but it's such a beautiful movie, and Sandy really was a great and tragic character in this that I'll definitely be returning to it soon
I love watching your videos! A lot of these movies are about topics that are just too heavy for me, especially the themes of sexual exploitation and assault that just bring up bad memories, but watching you talk about them sates my curiosity. I know they're good movies and I wish I could experience them in full, but your synopses are actually very detailed and the way you present stuff is always fun and engaging.
I loved the worldbuilding that is casually mentioned that could allude to bigger meanings. Like her mom killing herself after moving to a city, her drastic change in appearance to a very emotional look, it’s all building towards a psychic/medium arc and coming into that power with a very personal connection with a victim and the traumatic events. A common thing about psychics in media is that their parents are usually dead or unknown due to this traumatic ability that can make you insane and/or dangerous.
I think this video has helped me appreciate the film more. The first half was really amazing but I felt disappointed when it ended, but your analysis make sense of some of the things I glossed over while watching
I absolutely loved this movie! The acting, the cinematography, that dance scene, the overall message! STUNNING!!
I was one of two people at a showing in my local theater. I’m so glad I was able to see Last Night in Soho on a movie screen. I can be sensitive to blue lights and they were handled so well here! Whoever designed those visuals managed to make them work for the film, especially the bedroom scenes, without being migraine inducing!The ghost men were the first time a horror/thriller actually managed to disturb me in a loooong time. I knew I was going to enjoy Anya and Matt Smith in this, but I was impressed with how well the cast did overall. I was excited for this one for awhile and I’m glad it didn’t disappoint.
So did Sandy keep the remains hidden in the walls of the loft? Her older version mentioned that the room had an odor during hot days.
Floorboards
So towards the start of this movie I opened Wikipedia to check an actor, and ended up spoiling for myself that Ms. Collins was the older Sandy. I was a little crestfallen that I'd spoiled what I realized was going to be a big twist, but that ended up working in my favor by the end. I bought no question that Terrence Stamp was Jack, even before that running shot where they juxtapose the two; the cop had less than 5 minutes of screen time before so I never even considered him. And I kept trying to figure out how Sandy was "haunting" Ellie despite not being dead, so the one-two punch of the old man being the cop and Sandy being a serial killer got me, and I loved it.
I really liked Last Night in Soho, and gave it a 4 out of 5 on our website. It was an original take on the ghost story, where the haunted house was, in a way, a city, and the rain-slick streets and dingy nightclubs the various rooms. Hard to watch at times too, especially the sexual assault and harassment scenes.
The movie was phenomenal. I'm glad i decided to watch it before continuing your video :)
Also , i strongly believe her former roommate was supposed to be a witch. In the bathroom scene , when they go out on the first night, you can see a queen bee ( she's from Manchester) and arrow towards a pentagram. She also joked about her jacket's designer selling her soul . And her name... I think she's Jack's granddaughter. Idk... fun Easter eggs :)
I love your way of discussing the film! This has become one of my favorites films. I watched it opening weekend and it was amazing. I had a short obsession during its first week but then Eternals came along and my obsession shifted but now ITS BACK AND I LOVE IT SM.
I don’t feel like this movie is scary in anyway, but just sad. I don’t think any characters have happy stories and it’s really sad to see how life screws over everyone nearly.
Sandie is truly a tragic character.
Good assesment
As always the Queen Diana Riggs goes out on her own terms!
i like the idea behind it and just for the scene where ellie breaks the mirror to hug sandy, only to weak up immidietly
I never noticed the cinematography until you mentioned it now😍😍 it's indeed gorgeous! So pleasant to watch
Always awesome when Amanda gives her take on something of quality.
First of all, I genuinely and truly value and love your work. You're just very ...chill but funny. You have great perspectives and are clearly just all around great at what you do. So I mean this in the most wholesome way. Anytime someone asks what kind of girl I'm attracted to, I ask them if they've heard of you.
FINALLY got around to seeing this awesome movie and this is the first place I came to once the credits started to roll. I wanted to be surprised so when you warned us within the first 30 sec about spoilers, I clicked out and waited until I saw it…a year later 😂. Thank you Amanda! It was so worth not knowing anything about the movie before going into it!
It's probably my least favourite Edgar Wright film, but I thought Last Night in Soho was still really good. All the performances were superb - obviously Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy were stellar, but I also have to praise Matt Smith's performance, speaking as someone who watched him on Doctor Who, seeing him play this seedy abusive monster hiding behind the façade of charm and friendliness really proves how versatile he can be. And of course, Edgar's direction was phenomenal, the dance scene is an obvious highlight, but the way he uses lighting to convey this horrifying dreamlike tone was magnificent, and as per usual the song choices were brilliant. I do think the story kind of peaks in the first act, and the third act explanations were a bit underwhelming, but I do appreciate what Edgar and Krysty Wilson-Cairns were going for with their script, even if the execution wasn't great. Still enjoyed it a lot though, and I'm sure this is one that will grow on me with future watches
Okay, in the beginning of the video I was like, okay, I don't know where to watch it in my country, probably I'll forget everything anyway, let's get started.
I stopped at 6:16, so I can look it up in any sort of place on the internet because it seems AMAZING and I don't wanna know anything more
Honestly thank you for doing these videos. I'm not opposed to spoilers. And these videos help me hear about movies I haven't seen or heard of. And I can't wait to watch this one
I went to the same fashion college as Ellie, but in the early 90's. Soho still had that personality, but it felt like the last of the old days. The Windmill Club which has now closed down was described as 'burlesque' definitely wasn't when I went in there to ask about using it as a film location - it was seedy, dark and the guys there were these greasy kind of individuals. AlthoughI was there over 20 years after the end of the 60's, the area still had that feeling leftover that all wasn't swinging and amazing in sixties London.
5:52 there is an online documentary about how ER directed the dance scene with the actors. Timing and movement is everything
The men reminded me of franscis bacon paintings of the mid century and the first song at the rialto being the sandy shaw puppet on a string was such a nice touch
FINALLY got around to watching LNISH and didn't even realize it was an Edgar Wright film until after I watched it. That's a lot of his fans went in with certain expectations and I luckily missed that. What a great, great movie. So well done.
My silly head thinks the perfect flow between the 2 main characters is partly due to Anya working opposite her namesake from The Witch 😋 and she just has a face that can pull off stunning looks.
I watched the entire movie thinking that the same actress played Eloise and Sandie, just with different hair and makeup.
What a neat film. Everything Edgar Wright does has that artistic touch I just love.
You might want to look up "The Stone Tape" by Nigel Kneale, filmed and broadcast in 1972. Its a play on your mind kind of horror.
It’s interesting to see different takes on this movie as personally I saw her visions to be schizophrenic hallucinations. It’s never fully confirmed as they only say her mother had mental health issues but perhaps she too was schizophrenic and passed it on to her daughter
I thought the ending was way too cheery until the Sandy reveal right before credits. Definitely the 70's horror vibe Edgar was going for.
I think it's possible she died in the ambulance. It honestly felt like it blacked out for credits -- and then the cheery fashion show scene happened. For me, at least haha.
But other than the ghost acting, I thought was friggin' great.
And both the dance scenes were so great!
I want to believe she didn’t die. But I really believe the last scene was a hallucination. It was a way too sweet ending and also, those dresses were ugly af I want to believe Ellie wouldn’t create that
There's a song called Witches Burn by The Pretty Reckless that reminds me of Diana Rigg's character taking revenge on her abusers.
obsessed with how you keep saying "Jacinta" when her name's Jocasta lmaoooo her character is so one-note it's hard to remember her name
Althought Edgar Wright's more recent "serious" movies haven't been hitting as hard as his comedies, I still love this movie. Wright is a master of paying off every setup with millimetrical precision and a great example of it is how Ellie set her vinyl reccords on fire while deffending herself from Ms Collins. A perfect metaphor of her abandoning her toxic nostalgia for the 60s to save her life... its not a _subtle_ metaphor, but in the hands of Edgar Wright, even the bluntest McGuffins have a certain elegance to them
This is one of those films that I wanted to see, but I just had too many things else to watch(I’m actually just right now getting to Luca). I thought it looked really interesting
I'd definitely recommend watching it once you get the chance to, especially if you like psychological horror! 👻😱
I absolutely loved this movie and wish moe people would've gone to see it in theatres, but at least now I can show it to all of my friends.
Thank you for this theory!
I was waiting for this video to come out! This movie looks absolutely stunning and I adore the cast, I can't wait to go see it in theatres.
I really loved the movie, but I'd also forgotten that it was Diana Rigg's last film and so I left the cinema extra-sad
I went into this movie pretty blind. I’d seen the trailer once but mainly took note of Anya Taylor Joy edits on Twitter lol. Completely missed how much horror was incorporated into the movie and brought my friend who could not do horror to watch it with me. She was not thriving, zero live laugh loves from her. Movie slapped though I had a great time
Omg I was totally freaked out by the men in the room. It was terrifying and got me fully into the idea of what I THOUGHT was going on.
I started crying at the end. I have no idea why, but something just made me cry and I never cry in public, let alone a cinema
I needed this review to make me appreciate the film more. I really didn't get all the excitement while watching it and in the end I was pretty disappointed.
Now I feel better about it. Not going to watch it again or anything but it's better than I thought for sure.
I just watched this and had to watch a good portion of it muted coz my dad was on the phone, but I still thought it was awesome and immediately jumped on RUclips to watch a deep dive of the film while I did the dishes 😅