I have been highly anticipating Last Night in Soho, but if I had my doubts about Edgar Wright after Baby Driver, I now have glaring concerns after the even worse Scott Pilgrim. His style of self-aware absurdity, heavily leaning into tropes for comedic effect, completely doesn't work for me. Yes, it's clear that everything happening on screen is mimicking a video game fantasy, role play and fighting to get to the heart of a girl. The fact that Wright is constantly reminding us of how everything happening is a video game doesn't make every scene feel any less hollow. The plot doesn't make any sense, and even if it's intentionally exaggerated from Scott's perspective it still doesn't provide any insight into his mind (he likes games? He gamifies dating? If that's what he was going for, Wright has absolutely nothing to say about it with the resolution). I'm not going to go through a laundry list of the various plot points that were simply stupid, but I will mention that the mind control reveal is almost hard to believe that something so stupid could be written into an actual movie. They seem to recognize its ridiculousness, as they mention it and do nothing with it. Even if the fights are these silly exaggerations, how does Scott end up being a more than competent fighter in them? Also, WHY would any of Ramona's exes care about Scott at all?? With the fighting 7 exes plot having absolutely nothing of substance beneath it, nothing else of note really happens in the film and there is no character development or anything that could hint at thematic underpinnings. Simply put, the film is an absolute mess.
I will discuss the characters for a minute. Here's what I'm really perplexed by: every single character in the film is a static, one-dimensional, nuance-free caricature, except Ramona. All the performances in the film clearly lean into their character's singular role (which of course I find stupid as it's nothing like the real world), but Winstead actually gives a decent and layered performance as Ramona. It's so odd to see her interact with Scott and other characters, as they all play up the absurdity and stupidity of the scenes and she wrestles with her past and her emotional stability. The performance is so out of place in the film that I don't even know how much it can help - it ends up sticking out as an insane contrast to the utter lack of substance in the rest of the film. It's really bizarre that people seem to quite like this movie, as honestly nearly nothing happens and the things that do happen have no thematic or character resonance and don't make sense.
I will discuss the characters for a minute. Here's what I'm really perplexed by: every single character in the film is a static, one-dimensional, nuance-free caricature, except Ramona. All the performances in the film clearly lean into their character's singular role (which of course I find stupid as it's nothing like the real world), but Winstead actually gives a decent and layered performance as Ramona. It's so odd to see her interact with Scott and other characters, as they all play up the absurdity and stupidity of the scenes and she wrestles with her past and her emotional stability. The performance is so out of place in the film that I don't even know how much it can help - it ends up sticking out as an insane contrast to the utter lack of substance in the rest of the film. It's really bizarre that people seem to quite like this movie, as honestly nearly nothing happens and the things that do happen have no thematic or character resonance and don't make sense.