Sightlines · reception
How Last Night in Soho was received
2021 · Edgar Wright · Last Night in Soho on Sightlines
The arc
Premiered at Venice 2021 to notably mixed reviews and then underperformed at the box office — a rare stumble for Edgar Wright. It hasn't had a full flop-to-classic redemption, but horror fans have steadily reclaimed its first two acts, its needle-drops, and its two lead performances.
What’s debated
The perennial fight is over the third act: whether the film's take on nostalgia and the treatment of its women is sharp or muddled, with Wright die-hards and skeptics rarely meeting in the middle.
Its footprint
The mirror sequence — Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie swapping places mid-dance, done largely with practical choreography rather than CGI — is the endlessly clipped and shared image, alongside Taylor-Joy's haunting slowed-down cover of Petula Clark's 'Downtown'.
Where it stands
It sits as the divisive one in the Wright filmography — a Halloween-season Letterboxd staple that people log mostly to weigh in on the argument.
Did you know? It was Dame Diana Rigg's final film role — she died in September 2020, over a year before release, and the film carries a dedication to her.
Named by the director
- Repulsion (1965) — Wright repeatedly named Polanski's London psycho-horror as one of the film's two core touchstones.
- Don't Look Now (1973) — The other half of Wright's stated elevator pitch — Roeg's fractured, premonition-laced editing was a declared model.
- Peeping Tom (1960) — Wright cited Michael Powell's Soho-set shocker among the British horrors that fed the film, including in the BFI season he curated around its release.