Baby Driver Review & Edgar Wright Interview

Baby is not slow. He might seem slow, but he moves at speed to the beat of his own drum. Edgar Wright’s passion project is a mix of high-revolution, gear shredding getaways so sweetly and precisely intertwined with a fantastic soundtrack backbeat that completely captivates.

The LACMA’s appreciative audience began by applauding as soon as the Pegasus Logo showed up on the screen and continued to noisily approve the Northern Soul backed set pieces and the belly laughs. The movie delivers a confident balance of laughs, dancing and clutch melting car chases, with plenty of bang.

After the showing, Wright, the English Writer/Director and brains behind the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy twinkled his way though a 20 year virtual road trip of the movie’s pre-production with the innocent joy of a five year old who’s just been to the toyshop.

He tells the story of how the movie developed over time, including the first script from 1997, an early attempt which became a music video and a road trip he made from New York to LA while listening to state specific artists some of which were used in the final production.

A highlight of the Q & A was the quasi-unplanned participation of technical consultant, Joe Loya, an ex con, who robbed 30 banks and had provided Wright with insight into the domain. Clearly comfortable with each other, Wright and Loya took turns to upstage with anecdotes from their past (Loya), the making of the movie (Wright) and their first meeting (both).

Loya’s best shtick centered around his after robbery music tastes. Early in his career, he figured Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson was a good choice, but then he realized the subject matter wasn’t appropriate for a noble Robin Hood and instead decided to zone out to the post coital Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd for the next 28 heists.

But back to the movie – The movie jump starts with a Bond-esque opening action sequence, controlled with consummate aplomb by Ansel Elgort as the eponymous Baby, who chauffeurs robbers to work off a debt to the insidious Doc, played by the permanently peerless Kevin Spacey.

Baby seems like a constant intern to the rogues gallery of Doc’s perpetually revolving list of accomplices led ably by John Hamm, Jamie Foxx and The Chilli Peppers’ Flea; but he has baggage, reaching back to his childhood and his embedded first iPod. Wright describes Baby as being just a kid fooling himself but tuning out the fact that he is committing crimes.

He lives with his ironically deaf, invalid foster dad but tunes out the hum in his drum by tapping and dancing through his own backdrop, even under the pressure to commit crimes or better said, because of it.

The tempo moves from Allegro to Presto when Baby meets Debora and flavours of True Romance crash into Vanishing Point.

The story progresses further to a potentially apocalyptic end with Baby’s talent for balletic car chases set to Queen’s high pitched Brighton Rock, but Baby is no Pinky and he eschews the violence with the skill behind the wheel.

Edgar Wright pays tribute to his own unique style developed with the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy but adds new dimensions to provide a multifaceted movie of depth that should stimulate the most demanding critic.

In summary, Baby Driver is a Northern Soul-Italian Job-Bullitt-French Connection-Blues Brothers-True Romance mixed tape for your new girlfriend.

What would be your getaway heist song…..

by Henny McClymont

Want To Write About Film?

Okay, listen up. I just quickly wanted to update everyone with the upcoming events at the site in the coming months. The year in film has pockets of varying sizes at a hand’s reach when you make it your mission to provide motion picture covfefe. And I am constantly thinking / dreaming / antagonizing about what to cover on the site, when I am not actually writing like a maniac or fretting about site traffic. For example. So with the following blurbs of upcoming projects in mind, I want to also reach out to contributors, casual or demanding, to help fulfill the promises I set myself and all of you. Anyway, have a read, soak it up, and get involved however you see fit.

Another 100 Films Made By Women – That’s right, another 100 films made by women to follow the previous two huge adventures (and 200 female directed films). A fresh batch of films, then, which is easier than it may sound given the flourish of women filmmakers hitting the ground running in the last few years. Finding 100 more films from the ladies we have not covered yet should be enthralling rather than challenging. The previous 200 entries will be re-posted in the meantime in the coming weeks.

100 Essential Film Soundtracks For Your Playlist – Some rare, alternative music selections are welcome here as well as the popular favorites. And a mixture of song compilations and film scores will make up the series of 100 film soundtracks. Old stuff , new stuff, tracks you can’t stop listening to, pieces of music that inspire you, help you work, write, daydream, music that stirs memories, that are personal to you, movies you love etc. We’ll say why we picked what we did and post videos, playlists of each soundtrack. Let’s get those feet tapping.

100 Essential World Cinema Films For Your Watchlist – For this series of 100 films (outside of the English language) I want to garner a list of great / innovative / important movies from all over the world. And to that end, movies that stand outside of the mainstream or norm, movies many of us have not heard of let alone seen – but should as a matter of priority (there’ll be no Breathless, All About My Mother, Cinema Paradiso, et al in this extensive list). There are so many marvelous motion pictures from across the globe, from filmmakers we don’t know, as well as those we do, that we want to shine a bright light on.

Wanted: Film Content Contributor (Unpaid) – Looking for someone interested in film – I say interested, ideally they will be day-to-day obsessed – to write regular entries on the site regarding film related content. Primarily trailers, film news, awards announcements, and the like, the contributor will edit and publish these posts when needed. Looking for timely entries reflecting the world of film, they will also be required to embed videos, format articles, write and edit text, add images, with some social media engagement essential. An unpaid role, the demand of the role is by mutual consent. Please let me know if you or anybody you may know would be interested.

And The Rest – The rest of the site’s content will continue as normal, with a focus on expanding the range of input, the frequency of posts, the global popularity of the site – everything. As an alternative film website (it’s fine, you can call it a blog), I continue to strive publishing and publicizing corners of the film world like supporting Indie Film, displaying all my Film Honors data, revitalizing the Masterpiece Memo series, scouting for Interviews with folk from filmland, film Reviews, the usual awards coverage (like Cannes and the Oscars), as well as the continuation of regular features Listmania, the Podcast (thanks to Al Robinson), and the Genre Blast run (thanks to Steve Schweighofer). And a whole host more without filling your brains with mush. Say tuned.

Please comment below or get in touch via the Contact tab at the top of the page if you have any questions, ideas, or general chit-chat.

Listmania: Al’s Big 5 Soundtracks

With the Academy Awards only 2 weeks from today, I have the music of La La Land still on my mind, and I thought it was time to go back and explore and rank what soundtracks have been my favorites and why.  Here are five that I think not only do I love, but many others too if you ask.

5. The Lion King – 1994

One of the greatest animated movies of all-time also has one of my favorite soundtracks as well. The centerpieces of the music in the movie itself is “Circle of Life” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, and the soundtrack includes the original versions from the movie and Elton John’s beautiful renditions as well. The soundtrack did a great job of incorporating choir music mixed with pop music.

4. A Hard Day’s Night – 1964

Even though A Hard Day’s Night was a movie, this soundtrack can also be considered The Beatles’ third UK LP.  Released in 1964, it was catching the band at its popiest best. At that point they were still in that boy-band-ish phase and writing and recording some all-time great music. Highlights of this soundtrack include “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

3. Pulp Fiction – 1994

Film director Quentin Tarantino knows how to stock his movies with great music, and he did especially well with Pulp Fiction. He incorporated music from the 1950s and 60s, and genres of rock and roll, surf rock, pop, soul, and country. Best songs here are “Misirlou” by Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, “Jungle Boogie” by Kool & the Gang, and “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” by Urge Overkill.

2. La La Land – 2016

This soundtrack will probably win the Oscar for Best Original Score, and for a good reason.  It’s full of super catchy musical numbers of pop and jazz. The songs were composed by Justin Hurwitz, who was director Damien Chazelle’s college roommate. The movie wanted to help bring jazz back into the forefront of popular music, but it only succeeds because of the songs themselves. Best songs are “Another Day of Sun”, “Someone in the Crowd”, and “A Lovely Night”.

1. Titanic – 1997

Titanic would be a great movie without the music, but it’s my all-time favorite partly because of it. It’s got a great orchestral score from James Horner, who composed gorgeous music to work perfectly alongside the movie. I love how the compositions at times single out instruments such as violin, piano, bagpipes and so forth. It all makes for a relaxing and yet haunting soundscape. But the soundtrack wouldn’t be complete without the breathtaking vocalization of Celine Dion doing “My Heart Will Go On”. It’s a perfect soundtrack.