"Baby Driver" is the Coolest Movie You Will See this Summer: Review

Film Review: Baby Driver

The latest film from director Edgar Wright, Baby Driver is the perfect summer movie. Slick, stylish, and action-packed, Baby Driver soars with a rhythmic energy other movies can only dream of achieving. It stars Ansel Elgort as Baby, the getaway driver for an Atlanta crime boss (Kevin Spacey), who longs for a fresh start, out of the criminal world. As he discovers, getting out is harder than it seems.

Baby Driver features some of the most engaging car chase sequences I have ever seen on film. Unlike the CGI-heavy ugly spectacles of most modern action movies, the chases in Baby Driver look and feel distinctive and unique. Wright's screenplay, while not groundbreaking, is incredibly sharp and can be quite funny at times. A lot of movies have great soundtracks, few of those movies use their soundtracks as effectively as Baby Driver. Baby is rarely without his earbuds, as he uses music to drown out the tinnitus he's suffered from since childhood. We hear what Baby hears, putting us in his head, and without any dialogue, tells us so much about how he experiences the world around him.

Image result for baby driver

The cast is another high point of the film. For Elgort, this is a great start at distancing himself from the trash sick-lit adaption that was The Fault in Our Stars. Spacey brings glacial precision to the role of the crime boss Baby is indebted to. Lily James plays Debora, a diner waitress and Baby's love interest, with just enough off-kilter appeal to make their love story seem plausible and worth caring about. Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, and Eiza González are all fantastic as colorful fellow bank robbers, especially Foxx who gets some of the film's funniest lines.

Baby Driver doesn't try to reinvent the wheel. In a lot of ways, it's a straightforward crime movie, owing greatly to the movies that came before it, namely Walter Hill's The Driver. But Wright has remixed just enough the components (the soundtrack, the man-of-few-words archetype, the supporting players) for it to feel fresh and worthy of your time. Depending on how much you like action movies, you may feel the movie goes on for slightly too long. For me, this would be the perfect 90 minute movie. But even at 112 minutes, it's still pretty great.

What did YOU think of Baby Driver? Let me know in the comments below!

Comments

"My Mind Turns Your Life Into Folklore": Why Taylor Swift's "Gold Rush" Is a Song About Songwriting

"My mind turns your life into folklore." That line, from the song "Gold Rush," is the only time the word "folklore" is spoken on either of Taylor Swift's 2020 records, Folklore and Evermore , the latter of which is where the song appears. The presence of the line indicates that "Gold Rush" is a pivotal song not only in Swift's lockdown duology, but in her maturation as a songwriter. Swift's early albums often drew heavily from her own experiences, with fans and the media scouring her lyrics for clues as to which ex-boyfriend her numerous breakup songs referred. Her tumultuous dating life made as many headlines as her music, in part because it informed so much of the music. The discourse was often ridiculous and reductive, and thankfully, that period of her career is over (Swift has been in a relationship with the actor Joe Alwyn since 2016). Both of her 2020 albums have their fair share of autobiographical songs, but they also see

The Ten Best Movies and TV Shows of 2021

No explanations. No apologies. These are the lists and they ARE definitive. Top Ten Films 10. The Last Duel (Scott) 9. Halloween Kills (Green) 8. No Sudden Move (Soderbergh) 7. Cry Macho (Eastwood) 6. West Side Story (Spielberg) 5. The Dig (Stone) 4. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (Greenbaum) 3. CODA (Heder) 2. Bergman Island (Hansen-Løve) 1. The Lost Daughter (Gyllenhaal) Top Ten Television Shows 10. Invasion (AppleTV+) 9. Evil (Paramount+) 8. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Bravo) 7. Ghosts (CBS) 6. Maid (Netflix) 5. It's a Sin (Channel 4 in the UK, HBO Max in the US) 4. Couples Therapy (Showtime) 3. Succession (HBO) 2. Mare of Easttown (HBO) 1. The North Water (BBC Two in the UK, AMC+ in the US)

Paramount+ Review and Breakdown

Paramount+, the rebranded CBS All Access streaming service from ViacomCBS, launched today. It got me thinking about this photograph. Are you familiar with it? If you aren't, perhaps you're wondering why Tom Cruise is standing next to Charlton Heston who is standing next to Penny Marshall who is standing to Bob Hope who is standing next to Victor Mature who is standing next to *squints* Elizabeth McGovern who is standing next to Robert De Niro. The whole photo is full of weird combinations like that - Shelley Long next to Jimmy Stewart, Molly Ringwald next to Dorothy Lamour, Gregory Peck next to Debra Winger. This photograph was taken in celebration of Paramount's 75th anniversary in 1987. But you're forgiven if you didn't guess that, because who looks at all these people and thinks immediately that what they all have in common was working for Paramount at one point? Certainly not I. And therein lies the problem with Paramount+'s marketing strategy. Paramoun

ChannelTim

Search This Blog