I equate Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver with when one of your longtime, amazing friends finally becomes successfully, and you’re happy for them because the person is your friend and talented, but you liked the person more when the person was poor, had the first wife and used the lesser cuts of meat to make a meal that was better than the five star restaurants that the person takes you to now. The friendship is still great, but something is missing. This beautiful marriage of a Tarantino-esque gangster film and music videos is missing Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
I intellectually understand that it is unfair for me to want Pegg and Frost to be in every Edgar Wright film, but when they are, I love EVERYTHING about the film and can watch it two to three times in a row. My favorite Edgar Wright films are Hot Fuzz, which was his take on Wicker Man, and Shaun of the Dead, which was his take on the zombie film. There is one thing missing from his genre mashup: the comedy or wit. It is probably unfair, but I expect more from Wright. I know that Wright is moving away from it because The World’s End, Wright’s take on alien invasion films, which starred Pegg and Frost, was more bittersweet than funny.
Baby Driver is an amazing marriage of music and mayhem with heart, a new take on the gangster heist genre. Every scene is meticulously choreographed with the music, the actors’ movement and the plot. I knew that Wright could do that as far back as his TV series Spaced, specifically episodes Help and Epiphanies. Wright finally has an opportunity to show that he is equal parts conductor and director; however real people used to populate his films, not well done tropes, and even in the midst of all the action and flash, there is always humor. I want to laugh, but there is little room for humor.
I remember when I saw True Romance, which Tarantino wrote and Tony Scott directed, in theaters in 1993, Reservoir Dogs in the Science Center when I went to Harvard College or the premiere of Pulp Fiction at the Carpenter Center in 1994. So I understand what my fellow audience members are feeling when they saw Baby Driver. It is that same breathtaking glory at seeing someone’s new way of looking at the world which makes everything that came before seem dull and slow, but I’m too old to feel the thrill at yet another heist film. The only surprise for me was how exactly everything was going to fall apart, but there is never just one more job followed by freedom. Give me a break. Watch a movie or two, kid. After around 50 minutes, I was just going through the motions and waiting for the end. I’ve seen too many movies so I know where this road takes me.
Baby Driver has a stellar cast. I would watch Kevin Spacey knit a sweater. Jaimie Foxx does a great job, but I am tired of genius crime bosses hiring someone who is clearly going to frack up your whole operation. I correctly predicted the resolution to his character’s hijinx. There is a huge Oedipal oddness to the film between Baby, his memories of his mother and his attraction to the waitress so basically the denouement is a way for him to exorcise his daddy issues, stop the trauma from happening again (at least in part) and become a man. Oy vey. I guess that just getting therapy would be less fun to watch. I did not completely buy that the same character who went above and beyond to block out the violence that he was associated with (moves the car to block his view of heists) would be so comfortable at going to the next level. He does not have a choice, but he was a bit too proficient for my tastes.
I’m really happy that Wright is getting the financing, talent and attention that he always deserved, but for me, Baby Driver was a stellar, creative and technically proficient lip syncing music video, paint by the numbers gangster heist film. I did not want to judge a movie by its title, but I should have followed my instincts and stayed away. I’m too old to find this new and exciting for longer than fifty minutes.
Side note: why was Baby called Baby? Either I’ve completely forgotten or it is never explained in the movie.