If my dreams for an Anya Taylor-Joy-led film could manifest just in time for theaters to reopen and summer to reign, they would look much like, “Taylor-Joy playing a wannabe singer,
her high heels clacking along the asphalt in a 1960s-era London awash with neon light, while some poor girl awakens at the stroke of midnight, heartbroken to find she is not, in fact, Taylor-Joy.” Or, anyway, something like that.
I’m not sure that's the exact plot of Last Night in Soho, Taylor-Joy’s newest film, but it’s not terribly far off. The psychological thriller features The Queen’s Gambit star as Sandy, that wannabe singer whose dazzling beauty doesn’t betray the darkness within—at least, not initially. Thomasin McKenzie plays Eloise, a girl able to time-travel (at least, in her mind?) to 1960s-era London, where she encounters and is transfixed by Sandy.
The film, directed by Baby Driver filmmaker Edgar Wright and starring Shadow and Bone breakout Jessie Mei Lei—as well as Matt Smith; the late, great Diana Rigg; Terence Stamp; Lisa McGrillis; and the Phelps twins from Harry Potter (?!!)—does not yet have a release date, but a second trailer is expected this week.
According to Taylor-Joy, who chatted about Last Night In Soho during an episode of the podcast Happy Sad Confused in 2021, “It’s very claustrophobic. The colors are so intense. It’s a really well-directed acid trip. I think people will really like it. You definitely will not be bored.”
A well-directed acid trip sounds delightful after a year in quarantine, and, quite frankly, I love not being bored! If you, too, would like to not be bored, catch the teaser trailer below.