Tag: Edgar Wright

Last Night in Soho

Posted on by victorfraga

At long last after multiple delays, Edgar Wright’s next fiction feature film is out. This year the world saw Wright’s first feature documentary with The Sparks Brothers. This is another first to add as Wright ventures toward the a psychological horror genre. A match made in heaven.

Last Night in Soho tells the story of Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie). She studies fashion, lives in university accommodation, and spends a lot of time in the library. One night, she is inexplicably transported to the 1960s in the body of a night club singer named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). This is where she starts a romantic relationship with Jack (Matt Smith).

Nostalgia is the movie’s central pillar. It affects both Eloise and the audiences. Our protagonist loves all things old: 60s’ music, vintage fashion (which she creates herself) and even her vinyl record player. She doesn’t fit in with her modern-day roommates. So she seeks a new place to live, and ends up time travelling in the process.

Eloise’s rose-tinted glasses are soon shattered. The Swinging ’60s are not as glamorous as she expected. Instead of a relaxing retreat, the past becomes a stressful and even scary place. A dream morphs into a horrific nightmare. Eloise is haunted in her fashion class and the university library, with a few good scares that will keep you in the edge of your seat. But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some genuinely funny moments, including a remarkable gag about North London and South London. Wright’s signature comedic style is still there for everyone to enjoy – from films such as Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007) and The World’s End (2013).

There are many other directorial trademarks: the fast-paced editing (credit also to Paul Machliss, a frequent collaborator), the energetic use of diegetic and non-diegetic music, the intricate sound design, the love for musical cues, needle drops and synchronisation, the focused use of Chekhov’s Gun, and the attention to detail during scene transitions.

The passion for the location also takes centre stage. Last Night in Soho is a realistic and relatable tribute to the British capital. It’s guaranteed to please Londoners of the present. And perhaps also the ones of yore.

Last Night in Soho releases in cinemas on Friday October 29th. Swing quickly into a cinema near you. No time travel required.

On various VoD platforms on Monday, January 31st. On Sky Cinema and NOW on Friday, June 17th.

The Sparks Brothers

Posted on by victorfraga

Sparks are a band like no other, and they don’t fit any specific genre. Founded in the late 1960s, Sparks were originally called Halfnelson and were centred on the creative core of brothers Ron and Russell Mael. After their second album came out, Sparks did a tour of the UK and began a small cult following in London. Although they were not a glam band by any stretch, that theatrical rock scene in the UK helped to get them going. One of the long-running jokes about Sparks is that “The best British band to ever come out of America”, because almost all their influences were from the British Invasion bands of the ’60s. They also sound vaguely British. You just can’t quite place them with precision.

The documentary is from British director, Edgar Wright, who also directed Shaun of the Dead (2004), Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010) and the upcoming Last Night in Soho. This is Wright’s first documentary, and the result is a long but very entertaining two hours and 15 minutes, and one of the best music documentaries I have ever seen. The outcome is an album-by-album story with every side project they’ve ever done. Sparks have made 25 albums in a career spanning five decades, hence the length. No fans will be able to say: “why did you leave this out?”

At the centre are the two very odd characters themselves, the brothers. Ron, author of most of the music and lyrics, writes all the songs from his own point of view but his brother Russell is the one who sings them. That arrangement alone makes the band an odd set-up especially with Ron’s very idiosyncratic point of view. They’ve had some hits, mainly in the UK and Germany as they never had a top 40 hit in the US. Sparks were a big influence on everything that came after, though: the punk and the new wave bands loved them. They’re not a comedy band, but they do write hilarious songs.

The interviews Wright chooses are truly solid. They include people Sparks have worked with, like Jane Wiedlin, Todd Rundgren and Giorgio Moroder. Then you have everyone from Weird Al Yankovic and Patton Oswalt to Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert from New Order, Neil Gaiman and Thurston Moore. You might not think of Sparks and Moore together, but if you listen to the early Sparks you realise they were a big influence on Thurston’s guitar playing in Sonic Youth. It’s a good mix of people from all over the map. There’s also tons of great archive stuff. Ron’s a big film nerd, so it’s probably from his personal archive.

The Sparks Brothers gets into one of the strangest non-collaborations that ever happened. Sparks always wanted to make a film or score a film with their songs. They purchased the rights to an manga called Mai, The Psychic Girl, and at some point Tim Burton became involved, shortly after Edward Scissorhands (1990). Eventually he left to do Ed Wood (1994) and other work, and that was a real blow to Sparks. Frances Ford Coppola got involved for a while, too. The little-known pieces of information make this an excellent documentary.

French filmmaker Leos Carax has just finished a musical with Sparks, who wrote the script as well as the the score. For a band that has had some serious ups and downs, having two movies you’re involved with come out in one year shows they are as vital as they’ve ever been. The Sparks Brothers is both funny and entertaining. It works as a perfect introduction to the band. If you’ve heard a couple of the albums before, you’ll be downloading the ones you haven’t heard right afterwards.

The Sparks Brothers played at SXSW. It premiered earlier this year at Sundance. In cinemas on Friday, July 30th.

Baby Driver

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Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway driver so good that criminal mastermind Doc (Kevin Spacey) uses him every time even though Doc never uses the same crew twice. Baby doesn’t listen to instructions. He listens to music 24/7 on his iPod. This includes when he’s at work. He doesn’t need to listen to orders, either. He can lip read. He has to, because he and his cherished, ageing, deaf foster father (CJ Jones) communicate in sign language.

This is a character and indeed a film driven – no pun intended – by music. Far from being an empty exercise in style, Baby Driver is about a damaged loner’s interior world. Baby knows exactly how long is each piece of music on his iPod. So he uses (for example) The Damned’s song Neat Neat Neat as a template around which he synchronises to the second his meticulously planned automotive getaway journeys.

When the sync is disrupted, he stops his iPod, rewinds a few bars of music and presses play to carry on the fully choreographed getaway. As the narrative proceeds and the world around Baby starts to spiral out of control, his music library remains his one constant until that, too, is taken from him.

Many elements threaten to disrupt Baby’s can’t-put-a-foot-wrong existence. The bad ones all seem to relate to cars. His childhood involved his parents in a car crash. Doc observed Baby stealing Doc’s car, which is why Baby is now working for Doc (in order to repay the debt). One last job and everything’s repaid. But Doc isn’t going to let go his regular driver so easily. He insists Baby take more jobs, further breaking Doc’s own rules to reunite his driver with his former crew of Buddy (Jon Hamm), Darling (Eiza González) and Bats (Jamie Foxx). Bats has a nasty habit of killing people and Buddy and Darling plan to kill Bats once the job is over.

To muck the situation out still further, enter Debora (Lily James), the diner waitress whose dream is to drive across the country listening to music without looking back. Baby wants to help her live that dream, but if the others find out he’s sweet on her, the whole thing will turn into a nightmare.

Playing fast and loose with every cliché you’ve ever seen in a gangster or a heist movie, the piece turns those genres on their head as stunt choreography, violent shoot-outs and breakneck car chases are upstaged by a boy meets girl romance and back again. And all edited to die for to the strains of a well thought out music soundtrack. Writer-director Wright fully understands the many genres with which he’s playing in order to deliver far-beyond expectations in all of them.

It’s a movie which looks shiny and clean on the surface, just like a fast car. But lift the lid of the bonnet and you’ll find dirty Baby sitting there like an overly powerful, supercharged motor fitted in the wrong vehicle. Should he find himself or his newfound lady love on the bad side of his fellow gang members, you know there will be trouble. Behind its facade of escapist entertainment, Baby Driver deals, on a near subliminal level, in dirt. A thoroughly subversive vision.

Baby Driver is out in UK cinemas on Wednesday, June 28th (2017). On Netflix on January 1st (2023).