Last Night in Soho, 2021

TRAILER

Last Night in Soho is a 2021 British psychological horror film directed by Edgar Wright and co-written by Wright and Krysty Wilson-Cairns. It stars Thomasin McKenzie as a naive teenager who moves to London to study fashion design; there she is haunted by visions of Sandie (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), a glamorous young woman who had lived during the Swinging Sixties. The cast also features Matt Smith, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Terence Stamp and Diana Rigg. It marks the final film appearances of Rigg and Margaret Nolan, who both died in 2020, and is dedicated to their memories.

PLOT

Eloise "Ellie" Turner, a sweet and naive teenager with troubled mental health, loves the music and fashion of the Swinging Sixties and dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Her mother, also a fashion designer, killed herself in her childhood, so Ellie was raised by her maternal grandmother. She occasionally sees her mother's ghost in mirrors, something her grandmother is aware of.

Ellie moves from her rural home near Redruth, Cornwall to London to study at the London College of Fashion, where she has trouble fitting in with her peers, especially her bullying roommate Jocasta. Only John, another student, is kind to her. Unhappy in the dormitory, she moves into a bedsit owned by the elderly Ms. Collins.

 

That night, Ellie has a vivid dream where she is transported back to the 1960s. At the Café de Paris, she observes a confident young blonde woman, Sandie, inquire about becoming a singer at the club. Sandie begins a relationship with the charming Mod manager, Jack. The next morning, Ellie designs a dress inspired by Sandie and discovers a love bite on her neck.

Ellie has another dream in which Sandie auditions at a Soho nightclub, arranged by Jack, before returning to the same bedsit that Ellie has rented. Inspired by these visions, Ellie dyes her hair blonde, changes her fashion style to match Sandie's, and gets a job at a pub. She is observed by a silver-haired man who recognises her similarities to Sandie. In further dreams, Ellie discovers Sandie is not living the life she had hoped for, now being pimped by Jack to his male business associates.

Panicked, Ellie goes to inform Ms. Collins that she is leaving London. Ms. Collins tells her she knows she went to the police because the "nice police lady" came to check up on her. She then reveals that she is Sandie. Ellie's vision of Sandie's death was actually a vision of Sandie killing Jack when he threatened her with a knife. Sandie then lured the men she was pimped to back to her room and killed them, hiding their bodies in the house's floorboards and walls. Ms. Collins has drugged Ellie's tea with the intention of killing her to ensure her silence.

 

In the ensuing scuffle, Ellie knocks over an ashtray and starts a fire. John comes to Ellie's aid, but Ms. Collins stabs him and continues after Ellie, who hallucinates Ms. Collins as the younger Sandie, and that they are ascending a glass staircase. Ellie kicks Ms. Collins, sending her down the stairs. She flees to her room, where the spirits of Sandie's victims plead with her to avenge them, but she refuses. Ms. Collins enters Ellie's room, where she also sees the spirits and is struck by "Jack". With the police outside, she attempts suicide but Ellie stops her, understanding why she did what she did. Sandie tells Ellie to save John and herself, remaining in the building as it burns.

Ellie enjoys success as her designs are showcased at her end-of-year fashion show and is congratulated by her grandmother and John. Ellie sees her mother and a vision of Sandie in a mirror. Her mother smiles at her and Sandie blows her a kiss.

Persuasion, 2022

TRAILER

Persuasion is a 2022 American historical romantic film based on Jane Austen's 1817 novel of the same name. It was directed by Carrie Cracknell from a screenplay by Ron Bass and Alice Victoria Winslow. The film stars Dakota Johnson, Cosmo Jarvis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Richard E. Grant, and Henry Golding.

PLOT

The story begins seven years after the broken engagement of Anne Elliot to Frederick Wentworth, then a young and undistinguished naval officer. Wentworth was considered clever, confident and ambitious, but his low social status and lack of wealth made Anne's friends and family view him as an unsuitable partner. Furthermore, Lady Russell, a distant relative whom Anne considers to be a second mother to her after her own died, also saw the relationship as imprudent for one so young and persuaded Anne to break off the engagement.

Sir Walter Elliot, his debts mounting, decides to lease Kellynch Hall, the family estate, to Admiral Croft despite Sir Walter’s objection to having a naval man in his house. Sir Walter and Anne’s sister Elizabeth, along with the widowed Ms Penelope Clay, go to Bath while Anne is instructed to care for her sister Mary who had taken ill. Admiral Croft and his wife arrive, where it is learned that Admiral Croft’s wife is Wentworth’s brother and he is also expected to be in the area. While visiting Mary, the Admiral, his wife and Captain Wentworth are expected for dinner; Mary miraculously recovers from her illness for the dinner and Anne volunteers to miss the dinner to sit with Mary’s injured son. Unknowing of their previous attachment, Mary’s sister in law Louisa encourages Anne to pursue Captain Wentworth but ends up pursuing him herself.

 

The group, including Mary’s family, Anne, Louisa and Wentworth travel to Lyme to enjoy a holiday by the sea and meet some of Captain Wentworth’s naval friends, including Captains Berwick and Harville. Louisa’s infatuation with Wentworth is obvious, and Anne tries to hide her feelings. She and Wentworth agree to be friends, and the group encounters a mysterious gentleman who seems to be interested in Anne. They discover his identity after he has departed to Bath; the gentleman is William Elliot, cousin to the family who stands to inherit everything.

Louisa, in a misguided attempt at flirtation, has Captain Wentworth catch her as she jumps down the last stairs of a staircase. She tries to repeat the gesture, despite Wentworth’s objections, and is seriously injured. Captain Berwick fetches a doctor and Mary resolves to stay with her while Anne goes to Bath.

In Bath, Anne is reacquainted with William Elliot, who appears to pursue her, while also stating that his intention in Bath is to ensure Anne’s father does not marry Ms Penelope Clay thereby creating the potential for an heir which could displace him. Anne learns that Louisa is engaged to a sailor and believes this to be Wentworth given their previous attachment. Wentworth arrives to Bath and is piqued by William Elliot’s apparent pursuit of Anne, especially as William leads Wentworth to believe he and Anne are engaged. William Elliot does in fact make her a marriage proposal, although Anne has not given an anseer. Anne’s sister Mary and family also soon arrive to Bath. Captain Wentworth has been made an offer of a ship and is deciding whether to take it, and overhears Anne and Harville discussing the relative faithfulness of men and women in love. Deeply moved by what Anne says about women not giving up their feelings of love even when all hope is lost, Wentworth writes her a note declaring his feelings for her and departs. Anne runs after him, along the way seeing William Elliot in an embrace with Mrs Penelope Clay. Anne and Captain Wentworth embrace. The wedding of William Elliot and Penelope Clay is shown.

A Rainy day in New York, 2019

TRAILER

A Rainy Day in New York is a 2019 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen, and starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna, and Liev Schreiber. The film follows the romantic exploits of two young college students, Gatsby and Ashleigh (Chalamet and Fanning), while on a weekend visit to New York City, Gatsby's hometown. He hopes to deepen their relationship while she is in the city to interview a film director (Schreiber) for their college newspaper.

PLOT

Gatsby Welles, the brainy but eccentric son of wealthy New York City-based parents, is a student at Yardley College, a liberal arts school in upstate New York. He is also a successful gambler. When his girlfriend, Ashleigh Enright, a journalism major from Tucson, has to travel to Manhattan to interview esteemed independent film director Roland Pollard for the student newspaper, Gatsby tags along, planning a romantic weekend in the city, while trying to avoid his parents who are holding a gala in the evening, and with whom he has a conflicted relationship.

Ashleigh's interview with Pollard is supposed to last one hour, but the director invites her to a private screening of his new film, which ruins her plans with Gatsby, much to his dismay. Strolling alone through New York, Gatsby bumps into a film student friend who is shooting a short film and who asks him to stand in for a missing actor for a shot that involves kissing his co-star. To Gatsby's surprise, the actress turns out to be Chan Tyrell, the younger sister of a former girlfriend. The two of them run into each other again when they both hail the same cab. Gatsby's romantic plans with Ashleigh are further delayed by Ashleigh getting increasingly involved with Pollard, who is having a creative crisis, and his long-suffering screenwriter, Ted Davidoff.

Feeling abandoned and without an itinerary, Gatsby accompanies Chan to her parents' apartment where he sings "Everything Happens to Me" on their piano. They discuss their love for New York and agree that on rainy days it is one of the most romantic places. They visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Chan confesses that she used to have a crush on Gatsby. A chance encounter with his aunt and uncle at the museum forces Gatsby to attend his parents' gala later that evening.

Meanwhile, while searching for a vanished Pollard, Ashleigh and Ted stumble upon Ted's wife, who is having an extramarital affair. While Ted confronts his wife, Ashleigh goes to the studio where she meets film star Francisco Vega, who invites her out for dinner. Gatsby, meanwhile, uses his gambling skills to win big at a poker game his brother had arranged earlier in the evening. Back at his hotel room, he sees Ashleigh on the television news hailed as Francisco's latest fling. Distraught, he goes for a drink at the Carlyle Hotel's cocktail lounge, where he meets an escort named Terry, whom he hires to impersonate the absent Ashleigh at his family's gala.

Francisco takes Ashleigh to a film business party, where she reconnects with Pollard and Ted, who both declare themselves smitten with her. Afterwards, Francisco and Ashleigh retire to his apartment, and as they begin to have sex, Francisco's girlfriend arrives unexpectedly, driving Ashleigh to leave through the backdoor into the rain, wearing only a raincoat over her bra and panties.

Gatsby arrives at his family's gala with Terry, but his mother sees through the charade. In an intimate talk, she reveals to Gatsby that she was an escort when she met his father, and that her earnings were the seed capital that resulted in their wealth. Her personal history is the reason she has pressured Gatsby into intellectual and artistic endeavours, education, and refinement that she acquired as an adult. This revelation changes Gatsby's perceptions of his mother. At the end of the night, Ashleigh finds a despondent Gatsby back at the Carlyle, assuring him that nothing happened with Francisco, despite her lack of clothing.

The next morning, before their planned return to Yardley, the pair take a horse-drawn carriage ride in Central Park. Ashleigh, however, is disappointed by the misty weather, and when Gatsby mentions a Cole Porter lyric, she misattributes it to Shakespeare. Realizing their incompatibility, Gatsby abruptly ends their relationship and announces that he will withdraw from Yardley to stay in New York. He later goes to the Delacorte Clock, outside the Central Park Zoo, re-enacting a fantasy he and Chan previously shared. As the clock strikes six, Chan arrives, and the pair kiss in the pouring rain.

Rating: 10 Stars

Ehrengard, 2023

Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction is a 2023 Danish romantic comedy period drama written by Anders August and directed by his father Bille August. It is based on the novel Ehrengard (1963) by Isak Dinesen. 

Cast

Alice Bier Zandén as Ehrengard

Mikkel Følsgaard as Mr. Cazotte

Sidse Babett Knudsen as the Grand Duchess

Emil Dorph as Prince Lothar

Emilie Koppel as Princess Ludmilla

Jacob Lohmann as Mr. Marbod

Sara-Marie Maltha as Mrs. Marbod

Christopher Læssø as Mr. Podolski

Night Teeth, 2021

Night Teeth is a 2021 American vampire thriller film directed by Adam Randall from a screenplay by Brent Dillon. The film stars Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Debby Ryan, Lucy Fry, Raul Castillo, Sydney Sweeney, Megan Fox, and Alfie Allen.

TRAILER

PLOT

The movie reveals that vampires have co-existed peacefully with humans for centuries, feeding only by consent.

Benny, a freelance chauffeur driving in place of his brother Jay, is hired by friends Blaire and Zoe to drive them to several popular Los Angeles nightclubs. Unbeknownst to him, the girls are both vampires.

Unbeknownst to Benny, Jay is secretly part of the human council charged with maintaining the peace between vampires and humans.

Victor, a wealthy vampire lord who has grown bored and discontented with his life, is planning to subvert the system by kidnapping Jay's girlfriend, breaking the truce with Boyle Heights. As Jay and his allies begin hunting down all of the vampires in LA, Victor executes a plan to wipe out his fellow lords and seize power for himself while tasking Blaire and Zoe with creating as much chaos in the city as they can to distract the vampire hunters and peacekeepers.

When Benny drops the girls off at a hotel, he discovers that the hotel is actually a feeding ground for vampires and realizes what Blaire and Zoe are using him for. The girls threaten his life, but spare him so they can get to Jay. During a visit to one of their targets, the girls are trapped by vampire hunters, but Benny decides to help them escape and lets them hide at his home. Benny then learns that Victor has his brother, who lost to the vampire in hand-to-hand combat while trying to slay him.

Benny drops the girls off at the last location on their list and discovers that the home belongs to Victor. Blaire urges him to leave, but Benny refuses to abandon his brother. Inside the house, Benny finds several human prisoners being kept by the lord as "blood bags" for him to feed on, including Jay, but is captured by Victor while trying to free him. Victor and Zoe then threaten to kill him, leading Blaire to turn against Victor and Zoe, after realizing that she has feelings for Benny. In the struggle that follows, Zoe stabs Blaire and in retaliation, Benny remotely activates his brother's car, smashing a window and exposing sunlight which kills Zoe. Victor then attacks Benny using Jay as bait, and manages to bite Benny before Jay tackles him into sunlight, killing him. Benny soon transforms into a vampire and the brothers go their separate ways after Jay decides to start training as a professional vampire hunter and tells Benny that he expects him to fight by his side when the city plunges into chaos. Later that night, Benny meets Blaire for an evening out.

CAST

Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Benny

Debby Ryan as Blaire

Lucy Fry as Zoe

Raul Castillo as Jay

Alfie Allen as Victor

Alexander Ludwig as Rocko

Sydney Sweeney as Eva

Megan Fox as Grace

Marlene Forte as Abuela

Ash Santos as Maria

Bryan Batt as Gio

Alfie Allen died when the sun rises. 

The men kidnapped serving as blood bag

Megan Fox is the Queen of the Vampires in L.A

Beny and Zoe

Beny's brother Jay and his girlfriend 

Insatiable, 2019

For years Patty was overweight, which caused her to be bullied, ignored and underestimated by the people around her. But she is now thin and seeking revenge against those who ever made her feel bad about herself through fat-shaming. Enter Bob Armstrong, a disgraced attorney with a passion for coaching beauty pageant contestants. As one of the only people who sees Patty's potential, he takes her under his wing -- first as a legal client, then as a pageant contestant. Bob hopes to coach Patty to the top of the pageant game, but he and wife Coralee have no idea how deep her rage goes or how far she will go to exact revenge on the people she feels have wronged her.

Patty Bladel and Bob Armstrong. 

PLOT

17-year-old Patty Bladell was bullied at school for being overweight, but after a violent encounter with a homeless man and a summer of liquid diet, she becomes thin and determined to exact revenge on her bullies at the start of her senior year. Bob Armstrong, a disgraced civil lawyer and beauty pageant coach, discovers Patty's potential and sets out to convert her into a beauty queen.

You will be horrified by the crimes Patty committed. Later we find her as a Vampire in the movie "Night Teeth" where she bit some men and watches Greyjoy die (Alfie Allen). 

CAST

Debby Ryan as Patty Bladell

Dallas Roberts as Bob Armstrong Jr.

Christopher Gorham as Bob Barnard

Sarah Colonna as Angie Bladell

Erinn Westbrook as Magnolia Barnard

Kimmy Shields as Nonnie Thompson

Michael Provost as Brick Armstrong

Irene Choi as Dixie Sinclair

Alyssa Milano as Coralee Huggins-Armstrong

Arden Myrin as Regina Sinclair (season 2; recurring season 1)

Paradise Hills, 2019

TRAILER

Paradise Hills is a 2019 Spanish science fantasy thriller film directed by Alice Waddington in her feature directorial debut. It stars Emma Roberts as Uma, a young woman sent to Paradise, a mysterious behavioural modification centre for women who have displeased their families, alongside Danielle Macdonald, Awkwafina, Jeremy Irvine, Arnaud Valois, Eiza González, and Milla Jovovich.

PLOT

At her wedding, rich socialite Uma is toasted by her guests, who compliment her new attitude. Later, she is pinned to a bed by her husband, Son, who happily remarks on how much more obedient she is.

Two months earlier, Uma awakens in a strange room and realizes that she is trapped on an island called Paradise. She runs away from her captors, but is caught and returned by a fellow patient, Amarna. It is explained to Uma that Paradise is essentially a sort of treatment center for rebellious young women; in Uma's case, she was admitted to the center for rejecting a marriage proposal her mother wants her to accept. Uma becomes friends with her roommates Chloe and Yu, as well as befriending Amarna, a well-known singer sent to Paradise after clashing with her management company.

As Uma adjusts to life on the island, her boyfriend from the mainland, Markus, sneaks onto the island posing as a gardener and promises that he can rescue her. A jealous Amarna tells Uma to be careful and reveals that she has her own secret plan to escape as her fans have smuggled her a rowboat she and Uma can use to leave. Before they can put their plan into action, Amarna is informed that she has graduated early. She tells Uma to rescue herself and Markus. Before she leaves, Amarna also reveals that the milk the women drink each day is drugged so they sleep through the night. Amarna parts from Uma with a kiss.

After a treatment during which Uma is forced to watch old news reports of her father's suicide, Uma reacts badly and is drugged and put into solitary confinement. She awakens two weeks later and meets with the Duchess, who runs the Paradise program. Learning that she will be sent home the next day, Uma decides to leave and convinces Chloe and Yu to run away with her in the night. Before they can escape, Yu is taken to an operating room for a final treatment. When Uma and Chloe try to rescue her, the doctors attack them, and the women are forced to kill them.

Uma, Chloe, and a badly injured Yu manage to escape. They stumble into a control room where they learn that their therapy has not been to rehabilitate them, but to replicate them. Uma learns that Markus never intended to rescue her, but was hired by Paradise to determine her behavior in sexual situations. As Uma and her friends run from the guards, they stumble into a room where they meet their "replicants"; poor and lower-class women who have undergone extensive plastic and cosmetic surgeries and been trained to mimic the voices and personalities of the patients so they can assume their identities. Yu dies and Chloe and Uma are forced to move on without her, but before they go, Uma leaves behind her memory locket of her father for her replacement and tells her that in order to fully embody Uma, she must hate Son, the man responsible for her father's death.

Uma and Chloe make their way into a garden where they see the lifeless bodies of former Paradise captives, including Amarna, ensnared in rose thorns. Uma sees the Duchess, who is revealed to be a vampiric rosebush, feeding on Chloe's body and is wrapped up in vines as the Duchess prepares to make her her next victim. However, Uma's replicant saves her by pretending to be the real Uma, distracting the Duchess enough so that Uma can fatally stab her with a scalpel. Uma and her replicant, Anna, manage to escape in the rowboat. Anna reveals she cannot return to her former life and so she and Uma develop a plan. Anna returns to Uma's wealthy family pretending to be Uma, and marries Son. On their wedding night, she remains downstairs while Uma herself seduces Son and stabs him before they can have sex. Anna is thus free from blame as she was downstairs among many witnesses when the murder occurred. Anna "discovers" Son's body and screams for help, now free to live her life as a wealthy widow. Uma, having secured her revenge, flees into the night to begin a new life.