Baby Driver

Edgar Wright is getting better with every film and this one made me incredibly happy. Baby Driver is an incredible stylistic film with cult potential and could easily become a classic in 20 years. It offered me more or less everything I expect from a movie starting with an excellent cast featuring the likeable Ansel Elgort, the tough Jamie Foxx, the pissed off Jon Hamm, the terribly sexy Eiza González, the terrifying Kevin Spacey, and the cute Lily James. The soundtrack is very catchy and adds to the great atmosphere, the visuals are flawless, the cinematography is unbelievably clear, the action is top notch (the sound design of the shootouts is among the best I've ever seen). The breakneck pace, the occasional humour, the emotional underpinnings and the unexpected reveals made the film an extraordinary experience, where especially near the end I felt like grabbing my balls and throwing them at the screen for joy at what a blast it was. Along with Hacksaw Ridge and John Wick 2, I rank Baby Driver as one of this year's best cinema experiences. This doesn't end with one screening. 95% (11/07/2017)

Musicals can still be a lively genre not only in the predictable revival of classic works a la La La Land et al., but thanks also to the grasp of a formal master with ambition. Even though Baby Driver primarily mixes the elements gangster stories and romance, Wright’s concept of building the film’s overall style around the music is far more essential. Though this results in the characters singing and dancing only occasionally, cars dance to the music during chase scenes, shots are fired and banks are robbed in the rhythm of the soundtrack, and even loving looks have their own sound. In terms of the choreography of the actors’ movements, the camera and the mise-en-scène, and the harmonisation of all of these elements, the opening credits with the coffee run represents one of the absolute musical highlights. On a more general level, it is no less fascinating that the most youthful Hollywood film of recent years is the work of a man in his forties, which applies not only to the film’s formal freshness and feeling, but also to the unavoidable feeling of a generational litmus test. The trailer could evoke in thirty-somethings feelings of inappropriateness, which the film further reinforces with its overarching principle as a presentation of the inner feeling of youths growing up in pop culture, where everyone sees themselves as the star of their own video. Wright’s age is indicated only by his taste in music and the particular choice of songs, though like Tarantino, he has a chance to turn dusty old hits and obscure novelties into a generational retro soundtrack. At the same time, however, he also shows what an essential contribution Simon Pegg made to his previous films, because Baby Driver, unlike those works, lacks insight and the ability to not take itself too seriously. (05/07/2017)

Offering enjoyable summer fun, Baby Driver a sort of chipper, youthful version of Drive with action and serious scenes rendered less heavy by cool musical numbers. Especially at the beginning, we get to see a sensitive perception of violence through the eyes of the main character, Baby, and admire the purity of his romantic relationship with the girl. But the film lacks more pointed dialogue and more sophisticated and refined direction for the other characters. In short, it lacks Quentin Tarantino’s touch. OMG, now THAT would be a movie! (06/07/2017)

Despite Baby Driver’s occasional stumble and inconsistent perspective, I consider making an action film in which almost everything happens to the rhythm of the music that the protagonist is listening to or based on the current mood or occasion to be a great way to revive the musical genre (and, at the same time, to subversively foist it off on viewers who otherwise ignore musicals and for whom the year’s best film so far this year is Fast & Furious 8). We can reproach Wright for not being stylistically distinctive (he previously edited The World’s End), for not being capable of working with female characters, and, unlike his great filmmaking role-model Quentin Tarantino, for remaining, even in his forties, an immature nerd with a weakness for autotelic fetishisation of movie references (the road passing by like in Lost Highway, damaged sunglasses like those worn by Warren Beatty in Bonnie and Clyde) and repeatedly telling the same story about protagonists who have to grow up but can continue to have fun in essentially the same way, inhabiting their escapist worlds while being tremendously cool. Or we can simply enjoy an original summer blockbuster with a great soundtrack and some incredibly high-octane action scenes. Since I have no plans to grow up yet, at least in relation to pop culture, I choose the second option. 85% (13/08/2017)

Drive but for kids and teens who can't yet read between the lines of a movie and prefer, ideally, plenty of pop and an attempt at cool action scenes with characters you remember by their hairstyles and clothes, not by what they do or the attitude they represent. The cast is stellar, too bad about the untapped potential, though. Sloppy in every way. (30/09/2017)