Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Everything About “Baby Driver” is (Edgar) Wright: Best Movie of the Year So Far

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By now maybe you’ve seen Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver.” If not, today is the day. It’s the best movie so far of 2017, a real light touch tour de force that will leave you breathless and applauding at the end.

“Baby Driver” is powered by exceptional performances by everyone– Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey (worst toupee ever), plus Lily James from “Downton Abbey” (that’s right, Cousin Rose), and Eiza Gonzalez. CJ Jones is kind of a revelation, and there’s a small but memorable turn by Paul Williams (what a great idea).

Then there’s a soundtrack, the likes of which must have taken forever to clear the rights. The Simon & Garfunkel title track is the point of the whole film but you’ve got to work for it– you won’t hear it til the end. First we’re going to hear a lot of songs with the word “baby” most especially the amazing Carla Thomas singing “BABY (Baby)” plus a few versions of “The Harlem Shuffle” and Barry White writ large and placed perfectly. I want that CD! (There’s also Sam & Dave’s “When Something is Wrong with My Baby”– but not enough!)

Elgort plays Baby, an ace getaway driver who’s been blackmailed into work by Spacey (looking puffy). The rest of the aforementioned names work for Spacey as armed bankrobbers, and they mean business. They’re shot like villains from the Batman TV show, but Wright resists camp– well almost resists it because Baby’s flirtation with Debora, waitress in the diner where everyone comes and goes, is his nod to nostalgia. (I did love when Baby thought the song “Debora” by T. Rex was by something called Trex.)

Like Bruce Wayne, Baby has lost his parents in a terrible accident. But instead of becoming Batman, he’s just trouble. He lives with his foster father, implausibly by fabulously embodied by CJ Jones as a deaf mute.

All the actions and emotions are heightened, there’s lots of adrenaline, and more than enough character development– for so many characters, they are well delineated. We get a little of everyone’s history.  Hamm and Foxx are really outstanding. Hamm is like Don Draper on meth. Foxx just grabs his closeups. And Wright gives everyone their moment, even newish Gonzalez.

All the below the line stuff crackles– crisp cinematography, and mind blowing editing. I sure “Baby Driver” makes it to the Oscars because it’s full of life and originality. It’s what movies can be when no one is interfering. Bravo Edgar Wright.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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