Baby Driver
Director - Edgar Wright
Writer - Edgar Wright
Starring - Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Lily James
Edgar Wright has retired the car chase movie for his work here simply cannot be topped. Wright and company craft absolutely thrilling car chases completely choreographed to the songs Baby (Elgort) cues up on his iPod in a dazzling display of craftsmanship. Baby Driver opens on a heist and chase scene set to "Bellbottoms" by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion setting the bar for the action to come over the next 100 minutes. And oh boy does it ever clear that bar with each subsequent chase. The action largely comes sparingly in the first two-thirds, occurring only when the story dictates they happen, before the large multi-faceted chase involving seemingly every character that takes the entire final third of the film.
The beauty of Wright's musical cuing abilities isn't limited to action sequences. He crafts long takes as characters complete simple, everyday tasks as dances set to pop music. In addition to these smaller musical numbers, Wright fills nearly every scene with pop music either setting the mood (eg "Lets Go Away for a While") or developing character relationships (eg "Deborah") and does so with aplomb. Baby Driver could very well be the absolute best jukebox movie of all time.
With the amount of style and direction Baby Driver contains it would require literally nothing else to be an entertaining summer diversion but the great characters and performances elevate it to the level of Wright's other films. Ansel Elgort impresses as Baby, the quiet getaway driver thrust into the world of crime during his tragic past. Kevin Spacey delivers perhaps his best performance since American Beauty as Doc, the business-like crime lord planning all of the heists. Jon Hamm continues to shine in more "lightweight" post-Mad Men roles as Buddy, one half of Baby Driver's modern update of Bonnie and Clyde (Eiza Gonzalez plays Darling, Buddy's Bonnie). Jamie Foxx is appropriately unhinged as Bats, the loose cannon of the group, constantly raising the danger level of every job he is assigned to through his own actions. Lily James is Debora, Baby's love interest as she excels in an underwritten part. Debora is not much more drawn out than as a sort of Oedipal love interest for Baby working at the same diner his mom used to work at.
The story is not much more that a standard heist thriller but it certainly doesn't need to be. Baby owes money, Baby drives to pay back debt, Baby gets caught up in one last job. The rest of the pieces fall around that. Baby meets Debora, Baby works with Buddy and Darling and Bats all working for Doc. There are several nice shades of character and plot amongst the tropes and cliches that come as pleasant surprises (such as Griff's (Jon Bernthal) place in the story). The script is incredibly quotable though and as such reminds me of Mad Max: Fury Road. Baby Driver is a summer car chase movie with an immensely quotable script playing out on top of a largely unimpressive storyline.
With Baby Driver Wright largely limits the comedy that was at the forefront of his earlier work. This is not a Hot Fuzz-style action comedy. This is an action-musical-comedy or maybe a musical-action-comedy. Either way the comedic element, while still vital, is clearly a secondary element working to boost the characters, their relationships and storylines while staying out of the way of the action. This allows the action to truly shine as the apex of car chase cinema.
Schurmann Score - 9/10
With the amount of style and direction Baby Driver contains it would require literally nothing else to be an entertaining summer diversion but the great characters and performances elevate it to the level of Wright's other films. Ansel Elgort impresses as Baby, the quiet getaway driver thrust into the world of crime during his tragic past. Kevin Spacey delivers perhaps his best performance since American Beauty as Doc, the business-like crime lord planning all of the heists. Jon Hamm continues to shine in more "lightweight" post-Mad Men roles as Buddy, one half of Baby Driver's modern update of Bonnie and Clyde (Eiza Gonzalez plays Darling, Buddy's Bonnie). Jamie Foxx is appropriately unhinged as Bats, the loose cannon of the group, constantly raising the danger level of every job he is assigned to through his own actions. Lily James is Debora, Baby's love interest as she excels in an underwritten part. Debora is not much more drawn out than as a sort of Oedipal love interest for Baby working at the same diner his mom used to work at.
The story is not much more that a standard heist thriller but it certainly doesn't need to be. Baby owes money, Baby drives to pay back debt, Baby gets caught up in one last job. The rest of the pieces fall around that. Baby meets Debora, Baby works with Buddy and Darling and Bats all working for Doc. There are several nice shades of character and plot amongst the tropes and cliches that come as pleasant surprises (such as Griff's (Jon Bernthal) place in the story). The script is incredibly quotable though and as such reminds me of Mad Max: Fury Road. Baby Driver is a summer car chase movie with an immensely quotable script playing out on top of a largely unimpressive storyline.
With Baby Driver Wright largely limits the comedy that was at the forefront of his earlier work. This is not a Hot Fuzz-style action comedy. This is an action-musical-comedy or maybe a musical-action-comedy. Either way the comedic element, while still vital, is clearly a secondary element working to boost the characters, their relationships and storylines while staying out of the way of the action. This allows the action to truly shine as the apex of car chase cinema.
Schurmann Score - 9/10
Great assessment! I am hardly a car-chase fan. In fact, that's usually when my brain checked out. But this movie was pure choreography from beginning to end. I just watched it for a second time and picked up so much more. It is an exquisitely done movie. Yes, there are flaws, and some of the acting is over the top...but I loved it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a great review.