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I find the complete absence of 'Last Night in Soho' from your lists puzzling. Did you see it?
Yes, I saw it, and though I enjoyed it I thought it was a mess, possibly my least favorite Edgar Wright film, my favorites being The World's End and Scott Pilgrim (and I like Baby Driver enough to have seen it three times in the theater despite the gaping hole of negative charisma that is Ansel Elgort. But at least he dances well).
I do have it on one of the lists - the final screen appearance of Diana Rigg was one of my favorite things of the movie year. I originally had it among my own Production Design picks but I ended up putting Tragedy of Macbeth in instead.
My main take after seeing Soho was I would have liked it more with fewer "mean girl" scenes and fewer ghost appearances, though I might like it more on a second viewing. I appreciated the ambition of it while finding it ultimately unsatisfying - Wright's films tend to be so tightly controlled that the out-of-control nature of this one was refreshing - while I only guessed two-thirds of the big twist, so I felt smart yet still pleasantly surprised.
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I find the complete absence of 'Last Night in Soho' from your lists puzzling. Did you see it?
Yes, I saw it, and though I enjoyed it I thought it was a mess, possibly my least favorite Edgar Wright film, my favorites being The World's End and Scott Pilgrim (and I like Baby Driver enough to have seen it three times in the theater despite the gaping hole of negative charisma that is Ansel Elgort. But at least he dances well).
I do have it on one of the lists - the final screen appearance of Diana Rigg was one of my favorite things of the movie year. I originally had it among my own Production Design picks but I ended up putting Tragedy of Macbeth in instead.
My main take after seeing Soho was I would have liked it more with fewer "mean girl" scenes and fewer ghost appearances, though I might like it more on a second viewing. I appreciated the ambition of it while finding it ultimately unsatisfying - Wright's films tend to be so tightly controlled that the out-of-control nature of this one was refreshing - while I only guessed two-thirds of the big twist, so I felt smart yet still pleasantly surprised.
My take:
A young country girl comes to London to study at the College of Fashion. The young lady loves all things 60’s and both she and the film revel in period-perfect music and fashion from that decade. The naive and deeply sensitive girl’s adjustment to the harshness of big city life does not go well. Things take some terrible, surreal and truly mind-blowing turns as the line between so-called reality and what is possibly fantasy become blurred in the extreme. What follows is a kaleidoscopic frenzy of psychedelic sound and imagery which in the first hour is pure delight but soon veers into the truly horrific.
‘Last Night in Soho’ is very hard to ‘review’ because so much depends on us NOT knowing what is actually going on or where things are going. Therefore I’ll focus on the following: There are three perfect performances which anchor the film and three supporting roles filled brilliantly by three 1960’s icons of British cinema.
In the central role, Thomasin Mackenzie gives us a full realization of the potential she displayed in ‘Leave No Trace’ and ‘Jojo Rabbit’. Her complex and piercingly emotional work as the citystruck teenager is simply fantastic and should bring her award notice from every quarter this year. On par with her performance is Anya-Taylor Joy (‘Emma’, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’) who once again does an utterly charismatic job as the ‘swinging London’ glamor girl who initially appears to be Thomasin’s alter-ego. The third characterization is by Matt Smith (who plays the Duke of Edinburgh in TV’s ‘The Crown’). Smith plays an oily denizen of the London deep who ingratiates himself with the female characters.
In a triad of excellent supporting performances, it was a delight to watch Brit 60’s stars Rita Tushingham ('The Knack'), Terence Stamp ('The Collector') and Diana Rigg ('On Her Majesty's Secret Service' and TV's 'The Avengers'), all three who rather exemplified the whole Carnaby Street mood themselves, do their finest work in years. Both Stamp and Rigg could be up for some serious awards notice as well.
Director Edgar Wright, who has given us some of the most truly amusing comedies to come out of Britain in the past few decades (‘Shaun of the Dead’, ‘Hot Fuzz’, ‘The World’s End’) turns deadly serious here. While the actors are great, this is still truly a director’s picture and Wright completely masters his visually and conceptually complicated subject. For him, it’s a tour de force.
Enough can’t be said about the use of music. The soundtrack is a veritable ultimate greatest hits package of English 60’s pop music, all of it used most effectively. The original, orchestral score - which gains more and more prominence as the film descends into a gotterdamerung of madness, is by Steven Price who composed ‘Gravity’’s oscar-nominated soundscape and grows in both power and presence as the film unfolds.
Some films try to be a lot of things, become muddled, unfocused and fail. ‘Last Night in Soho’ IS a lot of things and succeeds admirably. It’s part swinging-60’s romp, part coming-of-age drama, part groovy-musical, part murder mystery and part may-or-may-not-be-a-ghost story. It works on all of these levels and never misses a beat. Another testimony to Wright’s skill. If I had one sharp criticism it would be that it could have ended 5 minutes sooner. In it’s only nod to commercial concerns, the film ends rather surprisingly on a high note. This is one of those rare instances where I actually wish they had left me hanging - in the dark.
It’s a fantastic movie.
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I always look forward to your year-end lists, Scott, and it's gratifying to see mentions of The French Dispatch and C'mon C'mon here - I'm afraid these two films have gotten "lost in the shuffle" re this year's award-giving. Is Lady Gaga still viable as Actress after House of Gucci turned out to be a turkey? I thought she was very good, but I'd rather see Alana Haim from LP get nominated.
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DUNE is widely predicted to feature in the Best Picture nominations (as it did at the Golden Globes).
SInce it's in your favorites list there's no need to be pessimisitc. I think it will score a couple of major nominations (as well it should). To me, it was the only truly memorable film of the year (and should look even better once the sequel completes it).
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To address various people's points -
-Clearly we'll have to agree to disagree about Last Night in Soho. As an Edgar Wright fan, I wanted to love it, and I have to appreciate a film partly set in swinging London that features Barry's "Beat Girl" theme, a gigantic Thunderball billboard, and roles for Diana Rigg, Rita Tushingham and Terence Stamp, but it just didn't come together for me.
-I think Gaga is still viable for Actress (certainly a nomination, anyway, as it's not a super-crowded field and she was lots of fun in Gucci).
-But I certainly wouldn't mind Alana Haim being nominated, as that was truly the movie of the year for me.
-Much as I wished Spielberg had made a different musical, I really enjoyed West Side Story. You could see he really cared about it (much more than say, The Post), and I thought even Ansel Elgort was effective.
-Sing 2 wasn't awful, just left me cold. And I thought the entire story was poorly motivated - our musical animal heroes have a smash hit in their home town. Why is it so important for them to conquer Vegas as well, to the extent they have to lie to get their new show up?
-David Holmes was definitely channeling Mancini's percussion from Charade, as well as some sounds from Goldsmith's Chinatown.
-Would be very happy for Dune to get a Best Picture nomination, though I didn't love it the way I loved Blade Runner 2049. The best thing about the expansion of the Best Picture category has been how science-fiction films are now "legit" enough for the category - Avatar, District 9, Inception, Gravity, Her, The Martian, Arrival. (I may have forgotten one or two)
-I hope to see French Dispatch again, and on second viewing won't be distracted by a small girl running up and down the auditorium stairs during the first half, with her father doing nothing to stop it. During an R-rated film, by the way, with a "red-band" trailer for Antlers beforehand.
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And what about 'Mass'. Just saw this last night. Good God what a powerhouse film! Now my #1 of the year.
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And what about 'Mass'. Just saw this last night. Good God what a powerhouse film! Now my #1 of the year.
I would have liked to see Mass but it only played a few weeks in LA, and there was simply too much else to see in those weeks.
I also really wanted to see The Humans, but like Luca it played one week only and a rare week I happened to be out of town.
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