So a fashion student lodges in Slaughterhouse, UK…

Last Night in Soho, 2021, 116 mins, 4K UHD

Oh, this one was crazy. Crazy good or crazy bad, I’m not sure. On the one hand, considering its obvious Giallo inspiration, I suppose I should cut it some slack for some of its excesses, its avoidance of all things sensical. I’m no expert (nor particularly a fan of) that Italian horror sub-genre that champions surreal and dreamlike imagery, and visual atmosphere over narrative, but its obvious in much of Last Night in Soho‘s cinematography and increasingly silly plot that it might not be working its drama and narrative in the same way as I would hope, and that some might consider that a positive.

Well, I came to it pretty blind, knowing little all about it other than much of it apparently was set during the 1960s, and that some kind of time travel might be involved, and early on, I anticipated it might be some kind of horror spin on Tom’s Midnight Garden, and was rather relishing the prospect. Well, I was way wrong on that…

To suggest that Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho goes off the rails somewhat, would do disservice to just how utterly bonkers it gets, going all Suspiria by way of The Shining and with a cup of tea in 10 Rillington Place. 

There does seem a trend in modern cinema, and television too, to some extent, which seems to originate in an instinctive need to outdo previous films and television shows, along the lines of bigger = better, more= better, to just go further, louder. Its like restraint simply isn’t a thing anymore. and consequently as things get more bonkers, there seems to be a split in the audience regards if this is a good thing or bad- indeed some love it. Most of the time it just makes my head hurt, because internal logic seems to be the first thing that goes out the door. People think I’m being ridiculously anal when I moan about new Star Trek, with the Enterprise ‘hiding’ under the ocean instead of safely unseen in orbit, or folks teleporting to a ship in warp or indeed from one star system to another, across the galaxy, indirectly suggesting starships are actually no longer necessary. Its always something done for effect, for surprise, for spectacle and thrill, but at the expense of making sense.

So in Last Night in Soho, it isn’t enough to have our sensitive fashion student haunted by a ghost, she has to be haunted by a whole pack of them, and its not enough to have one body under the floorboards, it has to be a few dozen, and our unassuming boarding house has to be a slaughterhouse, and the ending literally a conflagration, a bonfire of the horror vanities if you will, and our heroine suddenly becoming flame-proof, because you can walk through flames if you want to, and you can inhale super-hot air and toxic smoke without poisoning and burning your lungs, because. Because.

Even there, the film can’t stop. We have to have a coda in which our heroine is fine, and her boyfriend (stabbed in the stomach and left to bleed out, unconscious in the burning building (smoke etc. I know, boring details, go get a life, Ghost..)) is obviously fine, and not only that, but she has to have the literal applause of her peers at her fashion show getting her absolute vindication in its success (from copying designs she saw in visions of what happened in the 1960s, so hardly original designs, but hey, maybe that’s a subtle commentary on how films now replicate films of old and expect to be applauded for it). Maybe whether its brilliant or not depends on personal taste, obviously, but crikey, its just one bonkers scene too far for me, spoiling anything I could have forgiven before.

Revisiting Baby Driver (but in 4K!)

Last night I finally took my 4K disc of Baby Driver out of its shrink-wrap and rewatched the film. My original thoughts are here, from back when I watched the film on a rental from Amazon- I enjoyed the film immensely and purchased the 4K disc when it featured in a sale not long afterwards (ah, the good old Zoom days…) but isn’t it strange when it takes so long to rewatch even a film one enjoys? Baby Driver is one of those clever films that just clicks, a twist on the musical genre and a brilliant reinterpretation of the use of source music in films that dates back to American Graffiti. If anything, I enjoyed the film so much more this time around- no doubt because of the image quality of the 4K and perhaps even more so its superior sound too. Yeah, streaming is okay but its definitely sub-par in so many respects.

And of course, in another example of the argument for physical media, they may not be on the 4K disc, but there’s lots of special features on the accompanying Blu-ray disc bundled with the 4K. This includes two commentary tracks which I think will prove to be highly informative regards the use of the music and the decisions regards selection.

I read recently that Edgar Wright has spent lockdown finishing the script for Baby Driver 2 (which I presume involved listening to his entire music collection and writing for specific tracks/beats) so I look forward to seeing what comes of that. Baby Driver is a fairly self-contained film and doesn’t need a sequel but I’m certainly open to more if its as good as the first film. I also see that Ansel Elgort (who should have been hired by Disney to play Han Solo in its Solo flick) is starring in Spielberg’s West Side Story due in December; he’ll be absolutely huge after that if it proves as good as it hopefully is.

Baby Driver

George Lucas is naturally best-renowned for the impact that Star Wars had on the film industry back in 1977, but thats ignoring the pioneering use of source music in his earlier film American Graffiti– the end-to-end parade of rock and roll songs played on the radio formed an evocative and groundbreaking soundtrack/soundscape through the film that revolutionised the subsequent use of source music in film-making.

So I found myself thinking of American Graffiti whilst watching Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver. The use of source music -updated from radio airplay to ipod/smartphone mp3 streaming, naturally- is as integral a part of what Baby Driver ‘is’ as much as the music was in Graffiti. Indeed, what gives Baby Driver its own identity is that its taken it one step further, with the performances and editing timed specifically to the beats of that infectious soundtrack of songs. In some ways it seems almost a much a musical as, say, La La Land.

So whilst it owes so much to a film from decades past it also comes across as being refreshingly original, and excitingly new. Perhaps it’s just a natural progression of how source music has become such an integral part of film over the years since Graffiti, particularly in how some sequences in films often seem to be pop videos in how they are shot , edited and soundtracked with pop songs. The clever conceit of Baby Driver is in how the central character needs the songs in order to function as the titular driver of the film, his skill for driving and spectacular stunts behind the wheel wholly dependant on the flow and beat of whatever he is listening to. Its almost genius in its execution.

The fact that there is actually an involving and thrilling film independent of those frenetic chases is the biggest and most welcome surprise of the film. Indeed, the actual screen time of those car chases is surprisingly small regards the whole.

Alden Ehrenreich must offer something pretty special as Disney’s new Han Solo in his year’s Star Wars anthology movie, because Baby Driver is surely Ansel Elgort’s 2-hour statement for being the best young Solo that we’ll never see. He offers a vulnerability and charm that so often brings to mind a young Harrison Ford/Han Solo that its almost irresistible- intensified perhaps by his costume design in this film, practically wearing Solo’s Star Wars wardrobe like some cosplay nut. No doubt this was a deliberate ploy by Edgar Wright, Baby so obviously evoking the Han Solo look and the sense that Baby and his cars is like Solo and his Millenium Falcon. I recall back in 1977 the sense that the Falcon was like a hotrod in the stars- a novel thing back then so pedantic now. Wright must have been so aware of that when writing/shooting this film.

Isn’t it weird to be referencing old George Lucas films so much when discussing this film? It’s almost as if this film is a love-letter to Lucas, and makes me sadly reflect on how great a film-maker the 1970s George Lucas was (lets not forget the ingenious sound design of THX 1138 or the fact that the 1970s Lucas also cemented the Star Wars saga making The Empire Strikes Back and the creation of the matinee-throwback heroics of Raiders of the Lost Ark).

Is Baby Driver the last hurrah for Kevin Spacey in a mainstream Hollywood movie? I suppose only time will tell but this film is a welcome reminder of how great he is as an onscreen bastard (his offscreen credentials in that regard seems to have nixed his future career somewhat). His charisma and coldness here forms a fulcrum for the film; so much seems to revolve around him and he is so convincing it makes me a little sad that we will lose some great future performances/films re: his probable absence from film-making in future. That’s purely a selfish consideration as a fan of film though rather than any moral judgement on what the actor himself deserves- we’ll just have to see how all that plays out in future.

So soon after enjoying her performance in Cinderella, Lily James appears here as Baby’s love-interest, the charming if rather under-written Deborah. At least the two actors share some convincing screen chemistry,  the lovestruck youngsters evoking a clean cut version of True Romance‘s Clarence and Alabama (Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette). Who would have thought when watching Downtown Abbey that she, in particular, would be the performer whose star would subsequently rise in film?

Anyway, Baby Driver was a surprising blast- great to look at and listen to and a pleasure beyond its car chases and stunts. The clever conceit and importance of its music was exciting and at least felt original and new, which can’t be underestimated in this era of ‘me-too’ cgi blockbusters and superhero flicks.  And while I’d love to see where Wright could take the characters and that conceit with a Baby Driver 2, it’s so nice that the film feels so self-contained and wrapped-up, a new film that feels wholly of its own that doesn’t depend upon or tease a sequel or franchise.