Review: 'Last Night in Soho' is a hallucinatory time trip that goes from '60s swing to psychological terror

With the deliciously surprising “Last Night in Soho,” director Edgar Wright delivers a movie that slips through genres — romantic fantasy, psychological thriller, murder mystery and revenge drama — with  subtle elegance and ferocious power.

Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is an aspiring fashion designer who’s leaving her life in rural England to study clothing design in London. It’s a culture shock for the shy Eloise, who makes regular phone calls to her grandma (played by ’60s screen icon Rita Tushingham) and tries not to notice her visions of her late mother (Aimee Cassettari) when she looks in the mirror.

After a disastrous night in student housing, Eloise decides to get a flat in Soho — a simple attic room in a house owned by the gruff Ms. Collins (Dame Diana Rigg, in her last role before her death in September 2020). The flat also seems to serve as a portal, transporting Eloise in her imagination to 1965.

It’s in this dreamy rendition of Carnaby Street, where the movie house is debuting “Thunderball,” where Eloise first spots Sandie (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), an aspiring singer who catches every man’s eye in the dance club. Soon, Eloise is getting an upclose look at Sandie, because she has turned into Sandie’s reflection in the mirrors of the swanky club — and, in one fantastic sequence, Sandie and Eloise pop in and out of the picture while dancing with Jack (Matt Smith), the man who’s going to make Sandie’s dreams of stardom come true.

At first, Eloise luxuriates in this ‘60s dream scene, and starts letting Sandie’s style influence her design-school work. Eloise even gets her hair bleached blonde to match Sandie’s, and gets a job as a Soho barmaid to get closer to the scene. But Eloise slowly sees that Sandie’s dreams turned sour, as Jack reveals his true, dark nature.

Wright (“Baby Driver,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) and screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns (“1917”) masterfully shift tones, as Eloise’s fascination with Sandie’s glamorous life curdles into concern for her muse in her downward slide — and into fear that she’s losing her mind to a paranoia that makes her suspicious of everything, namely the smooth-talking old man (Terence Stamp) who hangs out at the bar where she works. Wright’s imagery grows more unsettling, his mood more Hitchcockian, with some spectacular twists before the end.

Wright’s pacing is dynamic, the camera work (by “Oldboy” cinematographer Chung-soon Chung) is hallucinogenic, and the period details are seductive. Populating this ‘60s-fueled story with icons of the era — Rigg, Stamp and Tushingham — is a calculated risk that pays off big. So does Wright’s knack for picking the perfect ‘60s radio hit for every moment, from Petula Clark’s “Downtown” (which Taylor-Joy re-creates into an eerie ballad) to James Ray’s “I Got My Mind Set on You.” (And all this time I thought George Harrison was the first to record that song. Live and learn.)

What makes it work are the twinned performances by Taylor-Joy and McKenzie. Taylor-Joy (“The Queen’s Gambit”) has the more showy role, the hyper-confident performer manipulated into sleazy doings. (Side note: A smart producer would be working on a movie where Taylor-Joy and Emma Stone play evil sisters.) Meanwhile, McKenzie (“Old,” “Jojo Rabbit”) burrows into the role of the mousy Eloise, and reveals an inner strength to confront the ghosts that her visions have stirred up six decades later.

“Last Night in Soho” is an intoxicating movie, a thrilling ride down a darkening road on the strength of dream logic and masterful storytelling and movie craft. It’s a time trip like no other, so hop on as soon as you can.

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‘Last Night in Soho’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, October 29, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for bloody violence, sexual content, language, brief drug material and brief graphic nudity. Running time: 116 minutes.