Last Night in Soho (2021)

One of Wright’s lesser efforts—at least in terms of success—is 2021’s “Last Night in Soho.” It is a technical and visual achievement, as one would expect coming from Wright. However, it manages to overcome his tendency towards style over substance. Only “Shawn of the Dead” had more to offer in terms of message.

The story is a complex one. Ellie is a fashion student in Soho, obsessed with the style and mythos of the London neighborhood from the 60’s era. When she moves to Soho to start her studies, she begins to have vivid dreams of a girl who lived there back in her ideal era. She quickly realizes that very bad things happened to that girl, Sandy, and she begins to delve into her dreams to try to find answers and the perpetrators of the bad things. So, your basic psychic, supernatural, mystery.

The themes and messages of the story are many.

Beware of glamorizing the past (or distant places, or any other alternate reality)! It is always not what you thought, and certainly not better than your own reality.

Nostalgia and regret are both powerful lies if we let them dominate our lives. You can’t change the past!

Presumptions are also dangerous illusions. It is easy to go with the status quo and the conventional wisdom. They often lead your down a blind alley!

The “victim-wrongdoer” narrative is also often not nuanced enough. People are capable of terrible things, and we too often are quick to put people into categories. “Good” and “bad” are rarer than “flawed.” This last issue may be a big reason why the film had less success than expected. People like their characters to fit the dichotomy these days. They don’t like victims to become villains nor villains to be sympathetic.