Baby Driver

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Remo D
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Baby Driver

Post by Remo D »

Okay... meat and potatoes premise. "Baby" (Ansel Elgort) is the best getaway driver since Ryan O'Neal and Ryan Gosling, and he thinks that "one last job" will get him out from under the thumb of crime boss Kevin Spacey. Nothing new here.

Gimmick. Baby has tinnitus (and plenty of residual emotional issues) stemming from the car crash that orphaned him as a child. So he has a constant soundtrack playing on his various iPods; and his songs of choice coincide beautifully with whatever action he takes. Hmm... interesting.

Complications: Baby has an aging foster father with whom he communicates via sign language and musical vibrations. He's allowed a romance to develop with Debora (Lily James), a waitress at the diner he haunts. And various crime compadres (Morgan Brown, Eiza Gonzalez, Jamie Foxx among them) are pressing much too close for comfort... "I just do the driving" isn't going to be good enough much longer.

You just have to see, hear and absorb how beautifully Edgar Wright handles this material for yourself. Just about anybody could make a passable, generic crime/chase thriller with this material, but BABY DRIVER demands attention (and more than one viewing--there's no way you could catch every enhancement, every detail, every little treat in one go). Wright clearly loves and cares about his protagonists as he hopes we will, so he goes the extra "mile" to make sure that their travels are followed well past the point at which most writer/directors would simply roll credits.

And if my highest recommendation isn't quite good enough to convince you? Three words. Paul. Freaking. Williams.
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Chris Slack
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Re: Baby Driver

Post by Chris Slack »

Better late than never, I am sure glad this was still in theater. I loved everything about it, the music synchronization was the icing on the cake. Paul Williams too, fan for life since Phantom of the Paradise.
"Regrettable... I was hoping for a colleague, but at least we have
another experimental subject..." -Mesa of Lost Women
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