This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
UAL website: “Your safety is our first priority.”
Plot Overview
Cornwall provincial Eloise
“Ellie” Turner (Thomasin McKenzie) is thrilled to be accepted
at University of Arts London (UAL,) College of Fashion. She packs her homespun
duds, her pop records, and her childhood dreams into a pint-sized
suitcase and flies to London where her new roommate Jocasta
(Synnøve Karlsen) & companions are far too hip for her
“born again Christian
vibes,” so she takes up residence with an elderly
Miss Collins (Diana Rigg) in answer to her ad.
Hers is a haunted house
and Ellie a sensitive who in dreams gets transported back to
the 60's where she shares an alter ego's experience trying to make
it as a headliner in a nightclub. The Café de Paris
is too rich, so Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) cum Ellie starts doing burlesque
at the Rialto Revue.
She (they) catch the gentlemen's attention and must make a decision whether
to sacrifice honor for success. Their egos split in different directions on
this, but the visions multiply and a dark side of the city emerges.
Ideology
LNIS though limited in scope offers sound guidance on success, along the lines of, (Prov. 30:24) “There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:”
(Prov. 30:25) “The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.” It's good to start earning early, in the summer of life as it were. Ellie takes a job as a barmaid at The Toucan Bar, serving drinks to its denizens, when she needs the money. Sandie on the other hand would not start as a hat-check girl at The Café de Paris as did the current headliner but took direction from her manager Jack (Matt Smith) for a shortcut.
(Prov. 30:26) “The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.” London is the happening place for both mods and rockers. Petula Clark's hit “Downtown” sung as Sandie's audition also pegs a desirable location.
(Prov. 30:27)
“The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by
bands.” It's important to make contacts for an informal support
network. Both girls had problems in this area, which is the source
of much of the film's drama. The taxi driver (Colin Mace) who picks
up Ellie at the airport offers her gratuitous advice—he's
got a cabbie's “knowledge”—about London, but she declines
and gets out early (“Suit yourself.”) Likewise, from a Negro
hanging out in her neighborhood. And Sandie could have saved
herself oodles of trouble had she heeded the advice of a gentleman
to look at herself in a mirror. He was a vice cop who meant her
good. Ellie supported him by pounding from her side of the mirror,
but the time travel communication was not two way.
A crucial incident can only be properly
understood from a scene that was edited out—or maybe not
shot at all—but can be derived from UAL's home page. There are on it pictures
of beautiful people modeling their fashions. Beautiful White women
and beautiful blacks in separate pictures. There's even one picture
of both in the same frame, but the darkie is obscure, low-lit in the
background. In a separate section honoring Black History
Month, is a trog
in mufti sitting in front of her village in the fuzzy background.
She appears homely but with her features darkened and blurred. The
same special effect is done in LNIS on the troubling spirits come to haunt Ellie.
These dark ones multiply. Ellie can't talk about them, because people would think she's nuts. Except for her classmate John (Michael Ajao) who's “a good listener” and of African descent where voodoo was practiced. Being black he resembles the dark spirits that trouble Ellie, yet he is not disembodied but has substance. To gain control over the spirit realm, Ellie decides to hop into bed with him, which would be a bad career move accomplishing for her reputation with one black what it took Sandie a whole passel of Whites to do. It's similar to a situation with a headlining magician couple described in a Berger novel:
After the act was finished and they were back in the dressing room, he struck her with the old one-two. Her husband was show-business all the way: he never gave her a beating the effects of which could not be concealed by make-up or costume. He never caused her to limp. Nor did he make a commotion— (173)
Audience members passing personal items to a male assistant to be identified by a blindfolded enchantress on-stage, are not going to want them touched by violent hands for fear some of it will rub off. Similarly, an elegant lady is not going to fork over good money for a gown whose designer is mounted nightly by a butt ugly Negro. Some repugnance might bleed through. If Ellie would but look in the mirror, she'd see that this guy who brought her home had dropped straight out of the ugly tree. Ellie has a leading lady's pixie loveliness, but John a bit part's Neanderthal features, i.e. low brow, jutting jaw, protruding teeth.
Ellie's grandmother Peggy (Rita Tushingham) in her white Cornwall home is too far away to intervene. Ellie's (ex-) roommate is herself too compromised to bother. If Ellie is to be saved from herself, it will be by Miss Collins the landlady who has a strict rule about no male visitors after 8:00 (“We'll talk about this in the morning.”) We see there are other, White fellows interested in Ellie. In all of London, can't she find one suitable?
(Prov. 30:28) “The spider taketh
hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.” The spider spins
her web to make a niche for herself in the big world. Ellie's
first headlining fashion show is a success and the first strand of
a place in the fashion world. John gives her a collegial hug.
Production Values
“” (2021) was directed by Edgar Wright. Its story was by Edgar Wright & screenplay by and Krysty Wilson-Cairns. It stars Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Terence Stamp, and Diana Rigg—this last passed away after an illustrious career, not long after its shooting. Marvelous performances were had from Anya Taylor-Joy & Thomasin McKenzie. They could sing, dance and act … and look beautiful doing it.
MPAA rated it R for bloody violence, sexual content, language, brief drug material and brief graphic nudity. Steven Price produced an incredible mix of great music. Chung-Hoon Chung's cinematography, Marcus Rowland's production design, and Odile Dicks-Mireaux's costumes expanded the envelope of great pictures. The other-worldly mirror effects were remarkable.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was a great combination of genres. The audience got more than their money's worth. The connection to Black History could have been clearer, but maybe we're supposed to know that stuff. The 60's music alone outdid many musicals we've seen. It's satisfying on many levels and can please a diverse audience. Not to be missed.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Absolutely amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Made to order for Halloween. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations are from the Authorized King James Version (KJV.) Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769. Software.
Berger, Thomas. Killing Time. Copyright © 1967 by Thomas Berger. New York: The Dial Press. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org