#was this an excuse to draw nearly every scott pilgrim character?

[mttonex]

Scott & Ramona & their (Evil) Exes ★

also happy new year loll 😜🎉 (first post of 2024 😈)

[theantisocialcritic]

The AntiSocial Critic Reviews… Baby Driver

It’s hard to approach Edgar Wright’s newest film Baby Driver with clear eyes. Wright is one of the best directors in the current scene of modern moviemaking. His high octane style of directing is perfectly suited to the current style of blockbusters that demand fast pacing and big emotions. What sets him apart from many other directors is that the style isn’t a crutch or an excuse for vapidity. Scott Pilgrim vs The World, The Cornetto Trilogy of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World��s End alongside his inaugural TV show Spaced all boil down to very humanistic and sympathetic films when all the quick cuts and tone shifts are left to the side. Like the best of genre films they use their central story mechanic as a means of exploring humanity. 

The lead up to his latest film Baby Driver has been an agonizing four year process as the fallout of Wright’s departure from Marvel’s Ant-Man left a huge void of one of our most skilled directors going years following the Cornetto Trilogy without a new film to speak of. At the same time this was going to be his first film without the benefit of his longtime collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost other than Scott Pilgrim (which was an adaption and wasn’t his story in full). Given the slightly gimmicky nature of the film, it’s questionable casting choices that alternating between “inspired” and flashy and it’s years of anticipation I went into this film very worried by what I was ultimately going to see. 

I’m still processing my experience having seen the film now. I don’t wanna make a clear statement of it’s placement in Wright’s overall filmography until i’ve had the chance to let it settle in and work through the process of letting people dig into the film and see how it ticks. My first reaction to it was just how muted it feels compared to the other Wright films (relatively speaking). It’s an immaculately shot film with Wright’s useful sense of visual propulsion that keeps the camera centered exactly where Wright wants to you look. What’s missing is the breathlessness of films like Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim where every transition and moment to moment story beat flowed constantly into the next one. Viscerally it feels like more of a problem than what it really is but it definitely makes it feel like the least “Edgar Wright-ish” film he has made since Spaced. It feels borderline “normal” (kind of in the sense that The Road Warrior is a “normal” film compared to Fury Road when in reality it’s absolutely bonkers).  The flow and motion of the story is still there but it doesn’t quick feel like it. 

I’d wager that the film is attempting a slightly more toned down story from the usual Wright style given the source material. The film is drawing upon the same style of get away/heist thrillers that have become something of a novelty as of late. Much like it’s contemporaries like Nicholas Winding Reffen’s Drive and Jason Statham’s Transporter franchise it’s drawing from the style of Walter Hill’s seminal 1978 crime thriller The Driver. The tropes, neon visual style and basic setup is all laid out fairly straight forward. 

The story follows our name dropped hero Baby, a getaway driver working for Kevin Spacey who is the best he is at what he does. He wants out of the business but he owes a debt and is stuck driving getaway cars until he is able to pay him off. As he nears his goal of escaping the world of crime he finds himself drawn to a beautiful woman he has just met and starts to fall head over heals for just as his series of final jobs starts hitting road bumps that threaten to drag him down. 

Functionally there is plenty to chew on here. The first half of the film feels rather weightless before the actual drama starts kicking in and investments start paying off. There isn’t much at work in terms of traditional storytelling via characters but the story instead chooses to use the events of the story to slowly unreel and dig into the characters to reveal what they ultimately choose under pressure. Its hard to tell how much this forgoing of traditional dramatic storytelling really works in the film’s benefit. The romance which sits at the heart of the film is undercooked. It works enough to raise the tension in the back half but the chemistry isn’t quite there. Nearly half the film’s run time is dedicated to setting up the stakes for the film’s finale with much time dedicated to the romance and ultimately most of what we end up getting out of it is fear of the lead actress’s safety as opposed to fear for her from Baby’s perspective. They haven’t been together long enough to fully develop what’s suggested on screen seemingly. 

Even with these issues i’m still struggling to fully put into words my ultimate thoughts on the film. Edgar Wright films are never merely skin deep. They are layered bites of humanity working through the lens of genres that they embody. There is so much here to dig into and process. This is a film I wish to see again and dig into further. I sincerely hope Baby Driver does well at the box office. Wright’s films have never fully gotten the acknowledgement they deserve and that is a shame. This is a film that deserves to get talked about. 

Thank you all for reading! if you would like to see more reviews, articles and podcasts lemme know by tweeting me at @AntiSocialCriti or commenting below. Also be sure to check out my review show The Fox Valley Film Critics! Live long and prosper!