The Plot

A 60’s obsessed modern day fashion student finds herself seemingly magically transported each night from her bedsit to the lurid and dangerous world of 1960’s London nightlife. Her visions of the mirrored life of wannabe singer Sandie quickly posing strange questions about whether these are purely figments of imagination or a genuine ghostly connection across generations.

The Good

Edgar Wright is a director of distinctive and unique style. His flair for eccentric visuals, compelling camerawork and pop culture infused musical masterclasses have been long celebrated. They’re all tools that make him ideally suited to breathing surreal dream like life into a script from Oscar nominated screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns.

The films unapologetically dizzying descent into flashbacks of a neon drenched nighttime wonderland of London’s swinging sixties heydays is a unique form of frenetic escapism. Those that have habitually enjoyed Wright’s past cinematic treats will welcome his unleashed explosion of imagery and ideas.

Wright’s best loved work has always toyed with an alluring mix of cinematic nostalgia and jukebox musical charm. In a way this latest offering boldly stretches this even closer to being a full blow musical that is lush, eerie and evocative by equal measure. Packed with plenty of familiar cinematic references for enthusiastic film buffs the combined result is a truly original creation driven by deeply personal undertones.

Alongside the film’s lurid visual charms competent performances from stars Thomasin  McKenzie and Anya Taylor Joy and menacingly murderous perils of London’s toxic underbelly make the experience even more compelling.

The Bad

While the film’s explosive barrage of ideas, themes and visuals is an initially immersive and rewarding escape, it’s also fair to admit that the film as a whole is somewhat overwhelmed at times by the sheer weight of its combined elements. It’s clearly hard beyond a certain point for the film to sustain it’s early exhilaration and service the competing needs of being a nostalgia drenched surreal musical horror thriller..

Though the film’s purposefully sleazy and dark edged underbelly does inject a sense of peril to proceedings it obviously also prohibits the film from being the kind of whimsically escapist fun that might be more universally appealing. Likewise the swirling mess of ghostly dreams within dreams makes it a little difficult to sustain a coherent conventional plot. Audiences hoping to cling to a simple narrative structure and straightforward message might find this film’s hazy fog of ideas much harder to grasp hold of.

The Ugly Truth

Director Edgar Wright delivers another eccentric musical masterclass with a luridly dream like dive into the delights and darkness of 1960s London nightlife. For fans of his past work and those similarly drawn to this alluring period of the past it will be an especially crowd pleasing if sometimes nightmarish dream.