LAST NIGHT IN SOHO : Tuesday 23rd November 2021.

'LAST NIGHT IN SOHO', which I saw at my local independent movie theatre this week, is an MA15+ Rated British psychological horror film Directed, Co-Produced, Written and based on a story by Edgar Wright, whose previous film making credits are 'A Fistful of Fingers' - his Directorial debut in 1995, then 'Shaun of the Dead', 'Hot Fuzz', 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World', 'The World's End', 'Baby Driver', and the doco 'The Sparks Brothers' released earlier this year. The film saw its World Premiere screening at this years Venice International Film Festival on 4th September 2021, before its release in the UK and US on 29th October. The film was originally slated for release at the end of September 2020, but was delayed to 23rd April 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before being delayed again to 22nd October, then again to the following weekend, before being released in Australia last week. So far the film has grossed US$20M off the back of a US$43M production budget and has garnered generally favourable Reviews. 

Here, an aspiring fashion designer Eloise 'Ellie' Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) who has a love for everything from the Swinging Sixties relocates from her home town of Redruth in Cornwall to London to attend the London College of Fashion. Her mother was also a fashion designer, committed suicide, and whose ghost she sees from time to time in mirrors, although the apparition never speaks to her. She lives with her grandmother Margaret Turner (Rita Tushingham) in Cornwall. 

Once in London and located in the halls of residence, she is paired up with snobbish roommate Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen). It is only John (Michael Ajao) another student who shows Ellie any empathy. Ultimately, after one too many rowdy parties and put downs Ellie moves out and into a bedsit owned by the elderly Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg, in her last screen acting role before her death in September 2020).

That night, Ellie has a dream whereby she is transported back to 1965 London, and in particular Soho. At the famed and popular Cafe de Paris, she observes a confident young blonde woman, Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), making enquiries about becoming a singer at the club, saying that she will be the next Cilla Black. Sandie embarks on a relationship with the charming manager, Jack (Matt Smith). The next morning while in class at college, Ellie begins to design a dress inspired by Sandie and discovers an unexplained love bite on her neck.

The next evening in another dream, Sandie successfully auditions at a Soho nightclub, arranged by Jack, before returning to the same bedsit that Ellie has rented. Inspired by her visions of Sandie, Ellie dyes her hair blonde, changes her fashion style, uses her as an inspiration for her dress designs and gets a job at a pub in order to make ends meet and pay for her rent and the original '60's clothing she has purchased. She is observed by a silver-haired man, who recognises her similarities to Sandie. In other dreams, Ellie discovers Sandie is not living the life she had wished for, and Jack begins to pimp Sandie out to his mostly middle-aged male clientele.

Back in the present day Ellie is disturbed by more and more menacing apparitions that resemble Jack and the men who abused Sandie. John persuades her to go to a Halloween Party, from which she later flees after the spirits attempt to accost her. John returns with her to her bedsit, where she has a vision of Jack murdering Sandie. Ellie decides to track down the silver-haired man, who she believes is Jack. She goes to the Police, and recounts her story in full detail, but she is taken for an unhinged crank.

Ellie visits the university library to find newspaper reports about Sandie's murder but is unsuccessful, instead finding plenty of stories of local men who mysteriously vanished seemingly without a trace. The spirits again manifest themselves, and attempting to flee the scene again, she nearly stabs Jocasta in a blind panic believing she was stabbing a spirit, but was prevented from doing so by John who intervened. Believing she must avenge Sandie's death, Ellie confronts the silver-haired man, who regularly drinks at the pub where she works. He angrily denies killing Sandie but is hit by a London cab and killed while leaving the pub. The pub landlady (Margaret Nolan in her last screen acting role before her death in October 2020) reveals the man's name to be Lindsay (Terence Stamp), and Ellie recalls coming across him in her dreams (as portrayed by Sam Claiflin) when he was an undercover vice officer who tried to help Sandie escape her life of prostitution. 

Distraught, Ellie decides to leave London and return to her Grandmother in Cornwall. John offers to drive her there, but first he drives her back to Ms. Collins' house so she can tell her that she's leaving and collect her belongings. Ms. Collins tells her that a female detective came by earlier in the day asking about Sandie's murder before revealing that she is actually Sandie. She explains that Ellie's vision of Sandie's death was in fact a vision of Sandie killing Jack when he threatened her with a knife. She then lured the men she was pimped to back to her room and killed them, hiding the bodies under the floorboards and in the walls of the house. Ms. Collins also reveals that she drugged Ellie's tea with the intention of killing her to prevent the truth from getting out.

In the ensuing scuffle, a cigarette from Ms. Collins' ashtray falls into a box of '60's LP records and begins to smoulder and burn. John comes to Ellie's assistance but Ms. Collins stabs him in the stomach as she lets him in through the front door. Ellie, in a semi-conscious drugged up state by now, makes it up the stairs to her room, where the spirits of Sandie's victims beg Ellie to kill Ms. Collins, but she refuses. With flames now taking hold over the house Ms. Collins enters Ellie's room, where she too witnesses the spirits and is slapped by the ghost of Jack. With the Police outside, she attempts to slit her own throat saying she will not go to prison, but is stopped by Ellie, who tells her she understands why she killed those men. Ms. Collins, as Sandie, tells Ellie to save herself and John from the increasing fire. Sandie remains sat at the end of Ellie's bed as the fire rages out of control all around her. 

Later, Ellie enjoys success as her '60's inspired dresses are showcased at a fashion show. She is congratulated backstage by her grandmother, other college students and John, now her boyfriend. Ellie sees her mother's spirit in a mirror smiling at her, followed by a vision of Sandie, who waves at her and blows her a kiss.

Edgar Wright certainly knows how to create a genre bending film that is a nod to all things that London had to offer the Swinging Sixties; to the Hammer House of Horror movies that dominated cinema from the mid-'50's til the mid '70's; to time travel; the mix of Italian and British horror thrillers of the era; to the soundtrack straight out of the '60's songbook; the great performances from an ensemble cast of young players and senior practitioners; and the surprising plot twists and turns that in the final analysis I never saw coming. Whilst this is touted as a horror film, horror it might be in the 1960's sense of the term, but it never left me feeling on the edge of my seat, or biting my nails in eager anticipation of what comes next, or offers up anything that can be truly defined as scary. Additionally, the timing of the final fashion show sequence is a bit off, with Ellie's hand still bandaged up from being slashed by Ms. Collins/Sandie indicating it is just a week or two since, while John seems to have made a complete recovery from the stab wound to his gut. That said, the stunning visuals, the stylish thrills, and the mash up of genres make for a highly entertaining couple of hours spent in a darkened room with a bunch of strangers all gawping up at a giant screen. 

'Last Night in Soho' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

LOST GIRLS : Wednesday 25th March 2020.

In these very trying and testing times for us all that has seen many cinema's, Odeon's, and movie theatres around the world close their doors for the foreseeable future because of the escalating threat of the COVID-19 Coronavirus taking an ever increasing hold on the world at large, many film and television productions halted in their tracks indefinitely, and new film releases pushed back to some future date when some sense of movie going normalcy is expected to resume, I have, needless to say, had to adapt to this new world order. And so with my usual Reviews of the latest cinematic releases being curtailed, instead I will post my Review of the latest release movies showing on Netflix until such time as the regular outing to my local multiplex or independent theatre can be reinstated.

In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Lost Girls' which I saw from the comfort of my own sofa on Wednesday 25th March.

'LOST GIRLS' is Directed by the American documentary filmmaker, Producer and Writer Liz Garbus, whose previous notable works include 1998's 'The Farm : Angola, USA' which was nominated for an Academy Award, 'The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib' which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special, 'Bobby Fischer Against The World' which opened the Sundance Film Festival Premier Documentary Section, 'Killing in the Name' also nominated for an Academy Award, 'Love, Marilyn', and 'What Happened, Miss Simone?' again nominated for an Academy Award. This is Garbus' first full length feature film debut after her previous 30+ documentary outings. This film is based on a true unsolved murder mystery as recounted in the book 'Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery' by Robert Kolker. The film saw its World Premiere showing at the Sundance Film Festival in January this year, and was released in mid-March on Netflix.

The film opens at night, with a girl running and screaming down a deserted dirt road being pursued by a vehicle behind with its headlights glaring. The girl frantically runs into scrubland, never to be seen again. It is May 2010. Fast forward a few days, and mother of the 24 year old girl in question Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) has been leaving text messages for her daughter Shannan Gilbert, and her sister Sherre (Thomas McKenzie) has been leaving voicemail messages all of which have gone unanswered. Mari visits the local Police Station who reveal to her that Shannan made a 911 call from Oak Beach, Long Island at 4:51am, the alleged night of her disappearance. Playing back a recording of that call it sounded as though Shannan was panicked and running at the same time, although the Police authorities took over an hour to respond to the call arriving at the scene at 6:10am by which time there was no trace of the girl.

Shannan we later find out was a sex worker, and was put into foster care when she was twelve years old by her mother who couldn't cope with her daughters bipolar disease and who as a single mother struggled to make ends meet, as she still does, working two jobs and on occasion has asked her daughter for a handout, while remaining mute about where Shannan gets her money from, although secretly knows the truth. This secret however, rises to the surface once Shannan is officially declared a missing person, leaving Mari to reveal the truth to daughters Sherre and Sarra (Oona Laurence).

While the Police undertake a search for Shannan within the Oak Beach community, they come across the remains of a body, then another, then another. Soon in the fullness of time, ten bodies are recovered in a stretch of wasteland bordering the affluent Oak Beach gated residential community. Mari crosses paths with Police Commissioner Richard Dormer (Gabriel Byrne) who is handed the case, and ploddingly goes through the motions in an attempt to locate her missing daughter and uncover who is behind the murders.

In the meantime, the hardworking, angry and determined Mari has become the surrogate leader of the mothers of the other identified girls whose bodies were discovered in the process of searching for Shannan. They decide to hold a vigil at Oak Beach - all of them feeling ignored and demoralised by the lack of support from the authorities, until one year in, and Mari persuades Dormer to dredge the swamp which was the one place that the Police had not looked because it was practically inaccessible. In the intervening period, a local tip off had alerted Mari to Dr. Peter Hackett (Reed Birney) the local overseer of the Oak Beach gated community who seems to have plenty of circumstantial evidence stacking up against him, but nothing concrete.

Eventually, Shannan's body is discovered in the swamp, but more than twelve months after her reported disappearance, and all because the swamp was deemed too hard to search by the Police. Had it not been for Mari's dogged determination and relentless pressure on the Police to do something, perhaps Shannan's body may never have been uncovered. The Police and public at large didn't seem to take Mari and those other mothers seriously because they're women, perhaps from a less well off background, and because her daughter in particular was involved in an often dangerous profession with a history of being judged and often condemned.

Before the closing credits roll we learn that still eight years on the Long Island serial killer who Police believe was responsible for between ten and sixteen murders over a period of twenty years still to this day remains unsolved. Investigators believed that Shannan died of an accidental drowning that was unrelated to the crimes of the Long Island serial killer, but Gilbert challenged the finding and fought to have the case reopened as a murder investigation. An independent autopsy sought by Gilbert’s family found that Shannan may have been strangled to death. We also learn that on 23rd July 2016 Mari Gilbert was stabbed to death by her daughter Sarra who suffered from schizophrenia. Sarra was charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree possession of a weapon, convicted of murder, and sentenced to 25 years in jail in August 2017. A truly sad case in every respect!

I have to say that 'Lost Girls' is an attention grabbing, compelling film delivered in all its grey, gloomy overcast atmospherics. A standout performance from Amy Ryan as the fractured yet defiantly stoic and determined mother who by needs must rises to the occasion in which she has been unjustly thrust, also makes this a watchable film that straddles the line between documentary and narrative feature that Director Garbus has so deftly crafted here. In the end its a story without any closure or a happy ending, just a mothers grief at uncovering the dead body of her eldest daughter abandoned in a swamp, and ultimately the mother too died prematurely. It's hardly a rewarding watch, and at times the story plods along without really going anywhere had it not been for Mari's sheer resolve in frustratingly getting the local law enforcement to get up of their butts and take her case seriously, and for her disruption of the Oak Beach local community. This isn't your usual murder mystery procedural whodunnit in which the bad guy goes down and, in fact quite the opposite, as this case still remains very open ended with no convictions, no suspects, no persons of interest and very little evidence save for the corpses of sixteen  unfortunates, and it's this fact that elevates 'Lost Girls' above those others in the genre.

'Lost Girls' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

JOJO RABBIT : Thursday 2nd January 2020.

I finally saw the M Rated 'JOJO RABBIT' earlier this week, and this American satirical black comedy that is a send up of Nazi Germany during WWII is Directed, Co-Produced, Written and starring New Zealand's very own Taika Waititi, whose last film outing was the highly acclaimed 'Thor : Ragnarok' and before that 'The Hunt for the Wilderpeople'. This film is based on Christine Leunens's 2008 novel 'Caging Skies', and had its world Premiere showing at TIFF in early September where it won the top prize, the 'Grolsch People's Choice Award' before its wider release in the US in mid-October and in New Zealand in late October. The film has divided Critics, however, most seem to be praising the performances, the humour, the screenplay and the heart-warming story. Made for US$14M the film has so far grossed US$26M. It has so far picked up nineteen award wins and a further 99 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit, with many of those nominations still awaiting final determination.

Here lonely ten year old German lad Johannes 'Jojo' Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is living in Nazi Germany during the late stages of WWII with his mother Rosie (Scarlett Johansson). His father has been missing in action somewhere on the Italian front for the last two years and his older sister Inge died more recently of influenza. Jojo has an imaginary friend that he frequently speaks with, confides in and seeks advice from - a childish version of Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi).

Jojo and his best friend Yorki (Archie Yates) attend a Hitler Youth training camp for 10-14 year old boys and girls, run by Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell). When Jojo is ordered to kill a rabbit to prove himself by more senior ranking Hitler Youth members, he tries to release it and runs off crying after the other boys taunt him with the name 'Jojo Rabbit'. Following a morale boosting pep talk from Adolf, Jojo returns to his fellow young youth recruits with a new found enthusiasm and throws a Stickgrenade without permission, which bounces off a tree and explodes at his feet, leaving him with facial scars and a slight limp.

After Jojo has sufficiently recovered and is well enough to rejoin the cause, Rosie asks Klenzendorf, demoted after the incident for negligence, to make her son feel included despite his now healed but nonetheless scarred injuries. Jojo is given menial duties such as spreading propaganda material through the town, and rounding up scrap metal for the war effort.

One day, having arrived home before his mother, to an empty house, he hears noises coming form upstairs. Venturing to investigate he discovers Elsa Korr (Thomasin McKenzie), a teenage Jewish girl and a former classmate of his sister, hiding upstairs, behind the wall of Inge's bedroom. Jojo threatens to reveal her presence to the Gestapo, but Elsa warns that she, him and his mother would be killed for harbouring her. He agrees reluctantly to keep her hidden, on the condition she reveals her 'Jew secrets' so he can write a book for Klenzendorf. Elsa plays along by making up stories about the hidden powers that all Jews possess, including growing horns when they turn 21, mind reading, sleeping upside down like bats, and their preferred foods including chocolate, cookies and bread.

Jojo continues with his interrogation of Elsa, learning she has a boyfriend called Nathan with whom she wants to reunite when the war is over and live in Paris together. Jojo forges a letter from 'Nathan' and reads it aloud to Elsa in which he states that he has found someone else and wants to split up with her. Hearing her sobbing from behind the wall, Jojo writes another letter telling her to disregard the first one. Jojo and Adolf argue, with Adolf insisting Elsa is a monster, who can't be trusted. Later, while on one of his metal collecting trips, Jojo spots his mother leaving 'free Germany' postcards around town.

Jojo is home alone one day when the Gestapo come knocking on his door, led by Captain Deertz (Stephen Merchant). Klenzendorf coincidentally arrives at the house a short time afterwards while it is being searched with his second in command, Finkel (Alfie Allen). Elsa reveals herself, making out to be Inge, and produces Inge's identification papers and confirms her birthday from memory to satisfy the Gestapo's line of questioning. They also pick up JoJo's 'Jewish Secrets' hand drawn book which Deertz thumbs through and finds it very amusing, helping to diffuse an otherwise tense situation. When they have all left Jojo is relieved, but Elsa later realises she recited Inge's wrong birth date and that Klenzendorf covered for her, but is certain the Gestapo will eventually come to realise their ruse.

Later that day, Jojo stumbles across his mother who had been hanged in the town square with three others. Devastated and distraught, he returns home and stabs Elsa in the shoulder with his standard issue Hitler Youth knife barely breaking the skin, and then breaks down sobbing. Elsa comforts him.

Later on Jojo runs into Yorki, who is now a fighting soldier, who tells him Hitler has committed suicide and that the Allies are gaining ground rapidly. Jojo encounters Fraulein Rahm (Rebel Wilson), and offsider of Klenzendorf, arming and sacrificing children as the battle closes in around them, and she gives him a soldier's coat and a machine gun, before being killed herself. Confronted by both American and Soviet forces, the city's German stronghold collapses and they surrender. The Soviets have rounded up several captured Germans into a courtyard when Jojo stumbles in, having taking shelter until after the cease fire, and encounters a wounded Klenzendorf who tells the young lad that his mother was a good woman. He saves him by removing his German Hitler Youth coat, calling him a Jew, and spitting on him, leading the Soviet guards to drag him away. The soldiers thrust Jojo into the street and tell him to go home. He runs off as several shots are heard in the background.

Jojo returns home, and to stop Elsa from leaving as he has now developed feelings for her, tells her that Germany won the war. Realising her despair, he recites a new 'letter' from Nathan claiming that he and Jojo have figured out a way to smuggle her to Paris where they can live happily ever after. Upon hearing this, Elsa reveals that Nathan died the previous year. Jojo tells her he loves her, and she tells him she loves him in a 'little brother' kind of way. A beleaguered Adolf sporting a bloodied bullet hole through the head angrily confronts Jojo for siding with Elsa, and Jojo promptly kicks him out the window never to be seen again. Jojo takes Elsa outside, where she sees the Allies have won after witnessing American soldiers driving up and down the street flying the US flag. She slaps Jojo in the face for lying, and then they proceed to dance in the street to the sound of David Bowie's German Remix version from 1989 of 'Helden'.

There are some moments of real laugh out loud humour in 'Jojo Rabbit' just as much as there are some tender heartfelt emotional moments too, that keep the story grounded in all the horrors of WWII Nazi Germany. At its heart however, this is a black satirical comedy that demonstrates that despite the racial hatred, the indoctrination of an ideal from a very early age, and the brutality and horrors of war that love conquers all and a child can overcome adversity with acceptance and confidence. Roman Griffin Davis is perfectly cast in the role of Jojo and gives a revelatory performance, his best friend Archie Yates as Yorki does not a miss a beat in the delivery of his dead pan one liners and comedic turns and Thomasin McKenzie as Elsa is considered and even tempered in her delivery of raw emotion and satirical beats in her performance too. And as for the Director, Writer and star of the show as the imaginary man-child friend The Fuhrer, Waititi's performance is priceless ranging from the absurdest childlike actions of an eleven year old to the brutal and demanding rantings of the Adolf Hitler that we have all come to know and loathe. This is a quirky, whimsical film that only the off-beat humour of Taika Waititi could deliver that offers a breath of fresh air in this era of big action blockbusters that occupy so many of our cinemas screens these days, and is still a highly relevant story that resonates today as much as it did in 1944/45. It is easy to see why this film has divided audiences and Critics, but trust me, it is well worth the price of entry.

'Jojo Rabbit' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-