#OnTheBigScreen: After Ever Happy and Last Night In Soho

After Ever Happy

The fourth film of the After franchise picks up where After we Fell left off: at the London wedding of Hardin’s mother. While Hardin stays behind to confront and reconnect with his past, Tessa returns to Seattle. There, she suffers a tragedy that leads to difficult, life-altering choices.

Hardin wants to help Tessa, but he’s so busy battling his own demons that he winds up
pushing her away. The revelations about his father have shaken his impenetrable façade to the core, and Tessa’s not sure if she can save him without sacrificing herself.

Tessa relies on friends like Landon to help her through the tough times—and she realises that to move forward, she needs to fight for herself. No longer the sweet, simple girl she was when she first met Hardin, Tessa has a better understanding of who she is and what she needs. When “Hessa” collide, there’s undeniable passion. But is their love worth fighting for—and at what cost?

Directed by Castille Landon and based on the best-selling book by Anna Todd, the film stars Josephine Langford and Hero Fiennes Tiffin

With this film, Landon wanted to remain faithful to the books while also taking the franchise in a deeper, more serious direction. “It taps into emotions that are universal,” she says of the global phenomenon.

In cinemas from 26 August.

Last Night In Soho

In Edgar Wright’s superb psychological horror Last Night In Soho, an aspiring fashion designer is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something darker.

While Wright was drawn to the idea of making a ‘60s thriller, a mystery full of the horror elements and show-stopping style of that time, he also wanted to tell that story through a contemporary lens. He didn’t want to simply glamourise the past or draw a veil over the grotesque reality of the seamy, sexist ‘60s. By putting a modern protagonist into the ‘60s story, he could bring a wariness to the milieu and perhaps avoid the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.

“Last Night in Soho is a love letter to that specific part of London, and to a bygone age when the Rolling Stones and Princess Margaret were hanging around,” says screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns. “It’s a love letter to the past, but a warning as well not to look back with too much nostalgia, or gloss over the seedy underbelly.”

Starring Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith and Terence Stamp.

From 26 August on Showmax

Read more here.

Read more about the latest and upcoming films here.