Though best known for films that meld comedy and action, Edgar Wright’s latest takes a detour. 2021’s Last Night in Soho veers into the realm of psychological thriller.

Young Eloise “Ellie” Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) dreams of a career as a clothes designer and also obsesses over the “Swinging London” of the 1960s. She remains haunted by the death of her mother (Aimee Cassettari), though, as her mum killed herself years earlier.

When Ellie gets into fashion school in London, she finds reality doesn’t match with her fantasies, mainly because she encounters cruel, unwelcoming peers in her dorm. Due to this hostile climate, Ellie moves into a room for rent run by Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg).

As she sleeps, Ellie dreams of the neighborhood in the 1960s, which she sees from the viewpoint of sexy aspiring singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). However, Ellie soon starts to feel that she experiences these visions for real via some sort of time portal, and she needs to find a way to cope with these bizarre experiences – as well as wonder if these images represent a decline in her psychological state.

With Soho, we get a movie that starts pretty well but loses a lot of steam as it goes. Some of this stems from the screenplay, as it can’t find enough real substance to sustain the viewer.

Soho boasts a clever premise that allows it to feel like a slick mix of Hitchcock and late 1960s British pop filmmaking. Wright finds a way to channel the vibe and energy of 1960s London, and with his talent for wit, these elements become energizing and vivid.

Once Soho explores the psychological thriller elements, though, it starts to collapse under the weight of its own confusing perspectives. In particular, the film sets up questions about Ellie’s mental state that it then largely ignores.

Early in the story, we learn that Ellie occasionally experiences actual visions of her dead mother. These imply that the young lady lacks a firm grasp on reality, and this notion allows for us to question he nature of her “trips” back to the 1960s.

However, Soho can’t leave well enough alone. While I won’t provide spoilers, I will reveal that the movie eventually settles the issue of reality vs. fantasy for the viewer.

That becomes a disappointment, as a version of Soho that keeps open the door to questions would feel more satisfying. The film tosses out a pretty nutty premise and it doesn’t flesh this out in an especially clever way, so narrative collapses as it progresses.

I do like the “period energy” Wright brings to the project, as he elicits the vibe of “Swinging London” well. We also find a fine cast.

McKenzie can go a little too manic at times, but she does well for the most part, and Taylor-Joy brings a sexy sense of mystery to Sandie. Toss in old pros like Rigg and Terence Stamp and the actors add spark to the proceedings.

Unfortunately, they do so in the service of a movie that works better as an idea than a finished product. While Soho comes with enough verve to make it watchable, its inability to maintain that dynamic impression as it goes makes it a disappointment.

Last Night in Soho appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39>:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a largely solid presentation.

For the most part, sharpness worked fine. Occasional slight instances of softness occurred, but these stayed minor, and they usually felt like stylistic choices anyway.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to appear.

In a refreshing twist, Soho avoided the usual orange and teal. Actually, those tones appeared at times, but the palette expanded to a wide assortment of pinks, reds, greens, blues and other hues. These offered solid vivacity and dimensionality.

Blacks felt deep and tight, while low-light shots appeared reasonably smooth and concise. This became a pleasing image.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack of Soho also sparked to life. With a mix of club scenes and supernatural elements, the audio came with a lot of chances to shine.

The soundfield took advantage of these and created a dynamic and wide spectrum. These scenes offered appealing immersion and impact, as they formed a solid soundscape.

Audio quality worked well, with speech that came across as natural and concise. Music varied somewhat because the film featured so many 1960s songs, but the tunes and score nonetheless usually felt broad and rich.

Effects boasted a good bang, with material that sounded accurate and dynamic. Overall, this became a more than satisfactory soundtrack.

When we shift to extras, we get two separate audio commentaries, the first of which comes from writer/directoe Edgar Wright and writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns. Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters/screenplay, inspirations and influences, historical elements/period details, cast and performances, personal connections, various production elements, and related topics.

At times, Wright and Wilson-Cairns ladle on the self-praise a little too heavily. However, they give us plenty of good information and engage in a likable manner, factors that make this a pretty solid chat.

For the second commentary, we hear from Wright, editor Paul Machliss and composer Steve Price. All three sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion of nuts and bolts production issues like locations, editing, music, photography, and connected domains.

Despite an emphasis on technical areas, this turns into a lively chat. Wright helps keep things light and loose, and we learn a lot about various choices in this engaging discussion.

Featurettes follow, and Meet Eloise runs 10 minutes, five seconds. It offers notes from Wright, Wilson-Cairns, choreographer Jennifer White, costume designer Odile Dicks-Mireaux, and actors Thomasin McKenzie, Michael Ajao, Anya Taylor-Joy and Synnøve Karlsen.

As expected, “Eloise” looks at the main character as well as aspects of McKemzie’s performance and some other roles/actors. Despite a little of the usual happy talk, this becomes a fairly informative reel.

Dreaming of Sandie goes for nine minutes, five seconds and offers info from Wright, Taylor-Joy, Wilson-Cairns, and actor Matt Smith.

“Sandie” takes the same approach to that character and connected domains that we saw with “Eloise”. It becomes another useful piece.

With Smoke and Mirrors, we find a 12-minute, 36-second reel that features Wright, White, McKenzie, Taylor-Joy, visual effects supervisor Tom Proctor, and production designer Marcus Rowland.

“Mirrors” looks at color and photographic design, various effects and the depiction of the “shadow men”, and the movie’s “mirror” scenes. This offers a lot of solid material about these topics.

On the Streets of Soho spans eight minutes, 36 seconds and brings comments from Wright, Wilson-Cairns, Rowland, McKenzie, and supervising location manager Camilla Stephenson.

Here we cover sets, locations and design choices. “Streets” brings another informative segment.

Finally, Time Traveling goes for 10 minutes, 45 seconds and involves Wright, McKenzie, Price, Dicks-Mireaux, Taylor-Joy, and Rowland.

In this show, we learn of the various 60s elements such as music, costumes, sets and other visual design topics. We find plenty of good details in this tight program.

Six Deleted Scenes occupy a total of nine minutes, 16 seconds. Most of these give us some more character basics/background, with a lot more of John. They’re mildly interesting but not especially compelling.

Under Animatics, we find four segments that take up a total of 13 minutes, six seconds. These cover “First Dream” (7:00), “Shadow Men” (1:40), “Murder” (3:51) and “Final Confrontation” (1:15).

The “Animatics” display filmed storyboards accompanied by audio. The art seems higher quality than usual for the format and these become an enjoyable extra.

Within Extras, we find five components. “Hair & Makeup Tests” (7:26) let us see footage of various actors together and individually as they display various “looks”. This seems like a decent addition, but it would fare better with commentary to discuss the choices.

“Lighting & VFX Tests” (6:20) works the same, as we see sample footage to illustrate some of the concepts. This also works okay but would become more informative with commentary.

“Wide Angle Witness Cam” (1:54) allows us to view one scene from a “God’s eye view”, and this mans we can watch the work done to achieve final photography. I like this more than its two predecessors, though again, narration to discuss what we view would help.

“Acton Town Hall Steadicam Rehearsal” (1:24) shows stand-ins as they work out the dance scene featured in “Witness Cam”. Expect another interesting clip that would also benefit from explanation.

“Extras” concludes with “Steadicam Alternative Take” (1:45), another view of the same sequence featured in the last two clips. It remains semi-enjoyable.

Next comes a music video for “Downtown” as performed by Anya Taylor-Joy. It mixes movie clips with shots of Taylor-Joy in the studio. Yawn.

The disc opens with ads for Stillwater, Road Runner, Halloween Kills and Cop Shop. We also find two trailers for Soho.

As a twist on the psychological thriller genre, Last Night in Soho starts well. However, it tends to sputter as it goes and ends up as a not especially compelling tale. The Blu-ray boasts very good picture and audio as well as a fine collection of bonus materials. Parts of Soho demonstrate potential but the end product doesn’t really connect.