Britney, too, just wanted to sing. That was her big dream. Much like Sandie’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. What no one told either of them was that in order to be deemed “fit” or even considered for the “role” of singer, they had to be put under the thumb of a misogynistic charmer. A man with “capital” to back up her aspirations. In Sandie’s case, Jack (Matt Smith) at least tries to feign being charming…at first. Whereas Jamie Spears never bothered to put out the vibe that he even vaguely gave a damn about his daughter/meal ticket, apart from her potential to “buy him a boat.” Which is why he always expected a “return on his investment” for “allowing” Britney to go to New York with her mother and take a slew of singing, dancing and acting classes. For Jack, it takes a bit more “wining and dining” to assure Sandie that his intentions are “pure,” both romantically and in terms of wanting to help her get her career off the ground.
That’s why, upon encountering her that first night, Jack is sure to defend her honor when a skeevy old lecher at the Café de Paris keeps trying to paw at her. When Jack returns to the dance floor to “reclaim” her, the man has the gall to tell him that he shouldn’t pretend this girl is anything but another whore. Sandie won’t fully understand how literal the man is being when he says this, the entire street crawling with women of the night, most of whom Jack seems to be pimping for. But he wants to, at least for a little bit longer, make Sandie believe that his interest in her is about her singing talent, not her potential to make him an extra wad of cash as part of his arsenal of prostitutes.
It doesn’t take much more time for Jack to end the honeymoon period between himself and Sandie, therefore ending Ellie’s (Thomasin McKenzie) honeymoon period with romanticizing the past. After getting her an “audition” at the Rialto for another perverted club owner (played by Terence Frisch), during which she sings a spine-chilling version of Petula Clark’s hit of the day, “Downtown,” all the pretenses are washed away. Foreshadowed when Jack eagerly agrees to be Sandie’s “manager.” We all know what that word infers among prostitutes. Of which Britney was forced to become thanks to her own desire to simply be a singer. And yet, for whatever reason, just like the title of “actress,” men “in charge” seem to think that being a singer is tantamount to being down to hook, or, at the bare minimum, being a “slut.” For a prime example, look no further than that memorable scene from another British movie, Notting Hill, when a group of men in a restaurant are talking about Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) having that “twinkle in her eye” because she’s “absolutely gagging for it.” One of the douches at the table near Anna’s concludes, “Do you know that in over fifty percent of languages, the word for ‘actress’ is the same as the word for ‘prostitute’?” It would appear that Jack and Jamie feel the same way about singers like Sandie and Britney.
In point of fact, Britney was branded a slut the second she shed her “innocent act” (by shedding too many clothes to be palatable for Midwestern parents). Something that honestly didn’t stick for an extended period after that iconic David LaChapelle photoshoot of Britney doing her impression of a hyper-sexed Lolita in her childhood bedroom for Rolling Stone. And yet, even if Britney was “cool” with this, one has to wonder how much the shoot was orchestrated by her own “managers” (read: pimps). The ones who wanted to sell the idea of a virginal girl to be deflowered with just the right mixture of “coquetry” and “purity.”
When Spears went “too far” by fully embracing what the public wanted her to be—complete with tooling around town without any underwear or, perhaps worse still, showing up with underwear that was period-stained prominently displayed through her fishnet stockings—that’s when everyone turned on her. She was no longer a “little lamb” to be protected, but one to be gutted and sacrificed. Precisely as Sandie is by Jack as she finds herself going down a path he forged for her that she can no longer turn back from. This path, too, resembles the one of conservatorship that Jamie (and Lynne) orchestrated for Britney after her fame and fortune alone wasn’t enough for them and they wanted to actually control it.
As Sandie finds herself being capable of things she never thought possible at the hand of someone else forcing her to do them, so, too, did Britney as she felt obliged to go along with her father’s orders under the restraints of the conservatorship. While Jamie was able to use Britney’s sons as manipulating leverage, Jack is able to wield the “possibility” that if Sandie keeps “playing her cards right” by obliging these “important” men who have nothing to do with her career, she might one day become the singer she dreams of—even giving her the “privilege” of being in the proverbial chorus line while someone else takes centerstage at the Rialto. The expectation being that after the show, she’ll mingle with the crowd, homing in on a client. Or rather, the client homing in on her.
Sandie, like Britney, is aware in the back of her mind that she’ll likely never get off the hamster wheel that she’s been put on by someone else. Her agency summarily stripped from her merely because she had talent that translated to a desire to be in entertainment. A word that male puppeteers always seem to want to repurpose into “prostitution” (whether “metaphorical” or more all-out literal).
Over time, Sandie’s soul and spirit begins to erode away. The hollowed-out look in her eyes is one we all recognize from Britney’s cries for help on her Instagram. And yes, incidentally, Sandie finally decides to bite back in a very primal way just as Britney has. The glaring difference being, obviously, that Britney hasn’t killed anyone (or paid someone else to…yet).
As for Sandie’s one-woman #FreeSandie movement, Ellie, she comes to find that the accepted behavior and circumstances of the past is what led Sandie to be in this position. To transform her into an unrecognizable version of herself. In this regard, both Sandie and Britney’s case serves to remind the women who came after them that it was their blood, sweat and tears—their constant persecution—that has blazed a trail for those in today’s world to speak out on their behalf, as well as women everywhere who experience abuse and exploitation. Ensuring, in many respects, that decades like the 60s and 00s aren’t viewed as “groovy” or “hella good.” Their glamorization by certain types gradually waning with a hindsight-laden reassessment.
