How does Last Night in SoHo depict the terrible reality of women in the show biz?
by Jaskiran Kaur | Wed, 06 Apr 2022 18:38:25 GMT
Anya Taylor-Joy plays the character of Sandie, a singer from the 60s in Last Night in Soho

Last Night in Soho is a great psychological thriller by Edgar Wright. The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy in the lead role and reveals how women have to do double the hard work when they want to make a name in the entertainment industry. 

The film is British psychological horror, which is co-written by screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns and directed by Edgar Wright. Last Night in Soho paints a very vivid picture of how hard women have to try when they wish to excel career-wise in the world, most importantly in the entertainment industry. 

The movie focuses on a very violent yet realistic portrayal of a character wishing to make a name for herself in a man's world. Not only does she have to break out of her internalized trauma and fear of living as a man's possession for years but also grows out of her own limitations. 

Hence, Last Night in Soho tells the story of Sandi, a star in the making in the 1960s, played by Anya Taylor-Joy. While Sandie slowly works towards her dreams, reaches them in quick succession, and then faces a terrible downfall, there is another character, dreaming to make it big in the fashion designing world. 

The character, Elloise "Ellie" Turner hails from a small town and is played by Thomason McKenzie. She is working towards her goal of becoming a famous fashion designer. Soft-spoken and optimistic, Ellie symbolizes the immense struggles any woman in the dazzling world of entertainment society has to face, let alone the battles of famous celebrities and actresses. 

There are instances as to when Ellie is making her way to a fashion school and is verbally harassed by an older cab driver. Feeling unsafe and creeped out, there is only little that she can do stuck in such a situation. Though she makes it safely to her destination, the incident makes clear how women are not entirely safe ever, even in something as normal as a taxi ride to one's location. 

Even the most important steps taken by women can be held against them. Ellie was entirely at the mercy of the cab driver at the moment and though it needed to be that way for passengers, the experience must have been horrifying for the young girl. 

But men are not the only obstacles that women face during their journey towards achieving their goals. it is mostly other women who stand in their way, making it so much more difficult to achieve even the remotest happiness. 

For Ellie, her nemesis in the film is Jocasta, her brutal roommate in the fashion school she attends in London. Jocasta is played by Synnove Karlsen and is shown as a mean person whose main goal is to demoralize Ellie to the maximum.

Unnecessarily cruel and mean, Jocasta keeps pulling Ellie back and is not a very favorable roommate when it comes to living in the same space and going through the same dream of becoming a fashion designer. Finally, Ellie can only bear so much before she chooses to leave the place and rent her own space in another house. 

She starts living with Ms. Collin in her house, which was played by Diana Rigg, but sadly passed away after the final performance in this film. Here in her room, Ellie dreams that she has finally met Sandie, a gorgeous young lady and that they together are going for a club-hopping night. 

At the club, Sandie comes across Jack, who is played by Matt Smith. Smith promises to make Sandie into a star and offers his managing services for making her dreams come true. But he takes advantage of the unassuming young girl and pimps her to his peers in the industry. 

The incident is highly reminiscent of popular Hollywood stories that retell the horrifying tales of men controlling women in the entertainment industry with the hopes of making them stars. This fraud was much trending in the 1960s and powerful men were easily making fools out of gullible yet starry-eyed ladies. 

It is even sad to see that many women willingly say yes to such atrocities, in the hopes that they will get to make it to the top with their sacrifice. Sandie is one of them and believes that she will only need to do Jack's bidding for a while and then will be in control once she gets her big break. However, Sandie is thoroughly betrayed by him and she never gets to realize her dreams. 

The dreams of Sandie become a nightly staple for Ellie every time she sleeps as she lives through the terrible life of the wannabe star through a secondary narrative. Needless to say, Ellie is extremely disturbed by the plight of Sandie and becomes increasingly suspicious of powerful and dangerous men. 

Eaten away with paranoia and anxiety, Ellie can not function well in daily life. Having seen what men do to vulnerable women, Ellie's mentality goes under a terrible change. Hence, the film succeeds in clearly depicting the lasting effects of trauma on women's psychology, not only the ones who bear the pain but even those who witness it. 

The film utilizes a bold design by the director paired with an equally terse writeup. The pain and the helplessness of the women are shown with ceaseless frequency, drilling the terrible plight of the ones who make it to the entertainment industry. It is simple to see how there is no line left drawn when it comes to experiences or shared trauma.

Last Night in Soho debunks the popular belief that everything is glamourous in the show biz. The real reality is a lot less appealing.

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