Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.

Last week’s experiment with the crew of Dune made sense once again this week with Edgar Wright’s stylish new film Last Night in Soho. An original work from the man who directed the Cornetto Trilogy, the film follows a young fashion designer adrift in the London nightlife who finds herself waking up in the body of a 1966 nightclub singer who may be careening towards a horrible fate at the hands of her abusive boyfriend. The trailer is superbly crafted and the music video released for the downtempo version of Petula Clark’s “Downtown” as performed by Anya Taylor-Joy make this look like the most visually stunning horror movie of the year. In celebration of the craftspeople behind the film, I’m taking another week to look at the five best films by the crew of Last Night in Soho.

The Red Violin (1998)

Of the careers behind Edgar Wright’s film, Judy Farr’s is the most extensive with 31 set decorating credits going back to 1995. While films like The Brothers Grimm, My Week with Marilyn, and her Oscar-nominated work for The King’s Speech, The Red Violin gave her the most extensive series of backdrops to create. The film begins in 1681 as the titular violin is crafted by prominent artisan. It then proceeds to 1793, the 1890s, the 1960s, and finally into the 1990s as the journey of this simple instrument embellishes and enhances all of the lives it’s touched over the centuries, even if tragedy follows along as well.

Getting to explore the Italian Renaissance, 18th Century Vienna, 1890s Oxford in England, the Chinese cultural revolution, and modern Canada, Farr has a rich tapestry of styles and settings to appoint and she does a wonderful job. The film itself is a cinematic marvel, covering centuries of this single violin and its strange history along with the mysteries of its creation. That each of the film’s segments are filmed in the languages of those areas and periods, it’s a wonderful experience. The exquisite original score by John Corigliano would be the film’s only Oscar and win, an award it richly deserved.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Director Edgar Wright’s big screen career also began in 1995, but it wouldn’t be until 2004’s Shaun of the Dead that he gained his current prominence among cineastes. Although that film and his subsequent Cornetto films, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, are great times at the theater, it was his fourth feature film, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World that is to date his best, followed closely by the riveting Baby Driver.

Scott Pilgrim is based on a popular graphic novel about a young man who begins dating the girl of his dreams only to discover that he must subsequently defeat, in combat, all of her prior lovers. This interesting and unique concept is enhanced by the film’s use of video game techniques and motifs to sell the vibrant action of the film. Michael Cera stars alongside Kieran Culkin as his best friend, Anna Kendrick as his sister, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as his girlfriend, and the likes of Jason Schwarzman and Chris Evans as her past romances. Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, and Mark Webber have other prominent roles. Not a film that everyone can love, but anyone who appreciates the forwardness of the style and the conviction of the direction will surely be impressed by the film as a whole.

Gravity (2013)

While his big screen career began shortly after Wright’s, composer Steven Price didn’t get his first composition credit until 2011’s Attack the Block before he scored Wright’s The World’s End and subsequently Baby Driver. His best work to date was for the film Gravity, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination and victory for his all-encompassing score of the space-set picture.

Alfonso Cuaron’s sci-fi spectacle is about two astronauts who struggle to survive after an unfortunate accident leaves them stranded in space. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the film earned ten well-deserved Oscar nominations, taking home seven of them, losing out only in Production Design, Actress (Bullock), and Best Picture. Gravity is a terrific film in the vein of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, exploring human nature in a controlled environment and the drastic perils that face astronauts if just one thing goes wrong. A visual spectacle, it is easily one of Cuaron’s best films.

Brooklyn (2015)

23 credits. 1994 to present. Odile Dicks-Mireaux has the longest career of the five artists I’m highlighting this week, but only by a year. As costume designer, Dicks-Mireaux has had a strange array of credits from modern films like Dirty Pretty Things and The Constant Gardener to the unusual High Rise and to more recent period efforts like An Education and Brooklyn. This latter film marks the best work she’s done to date.

Starring Saoirse Ronan as a young Irish woman who decides to strike out to America in hopes of having a better life, the film is a gorgeous piece of filmmaking by John Crowley. Ronan ably carries the film on her young shoulders, a performance that seems so effortless, but requires a great deal of focus and control in order to make it look so. The film asks audiences to understand that opportunities don’t come without sacrifice. It’s a simple, evocative film that explores the depths of human nature and of love in richly expressive ways.

Baby Driver (2017)

Many of the craftspeople who were selected for this list have had multiple jobs with Edgar Wright. Many directors have their go-to creatives who help make their films look and feel terrific. Paul Machliss is one of the newest additions to Wright’s stable. Having begun his big screen career in 2006, Machliss has already edited four of Wright’s film, 50% of his personal filmography. While those films were engaging in their own ways, Machliss really set himself apart with his co-editing Oscar nomination for Baby Driver.

The last major film Kevin Spacey filmed before his sexual assault allegations came out, the film works not because of him in his crucial supporting role, but because of the gifted actors around him. Ansel Elgort stars as a getaway driver doing one last heist for the crime boss (Spacey) who coerced him into working for him. The heists he drives for are always put together with a different group of people, including groups with Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Jamie Foxx. As Elgort’s character falls in love with a waitress (Lily James), he decides it’s time to make a break lest he and his girlfriend find themselves inside a pine box. The film is engrossing and exciting with its fast-paced action sequences impeccably timed to a marvelous soundtrack. In terms of pure enjoyment, Wright delivers here even if some of his other output can be modestly disappointing.