BABY DRIVER (2017) aka, the Edgar Wright/Ansel Elgort/Kevin Spacey/Jamie Foxx pop-song-and-car-chase Walter Hill homage(?)

I haven't seen this yet, and I'm not sure I have forgiven Wright for the vile Scott Pilgrim yet, but this did solid B.O. over the weekend, which is downright amazing for a non-franchise summer release. Reviews have been glowing. Thoughts?

it's fine.

in more words: great supporting cast (esp Foxx and Hamm), the pathos and romance didn't really land for me (really doesn't help that Lily Collins is more of a MPDG than anyone in Scott Pilgrim was) but it's fun and clever. an extra 15-20 minutes (aka Hot Fuzz length) or jettisoning the romance could have done it a world of good.

Intrigued by this new tinnitus cure, "listen to everything incredibly loudly forever", don't know why I haven't tried that

hahaha

I'm glad you started this -- I was about to...

Tremendous fun. I'm in love with Ansel Elgort and his sunglasses and skinny jeans. First-rate editing and casting (Spacey's best work in many years, close to Hamm and Fox's best0.

My idea of a smart summer blockbuster, I guess.

Elgort dancing to "Harlem Shuffle" while getting coffee >>>>>>> all of Drive

It was great fun but I think the handful of five-star reviews I skimmed beforehand led me to expect more. Not sure there's a huge amount of depth to it, but I'd have to watch again to be sure.

i liked the romance, it felt very sweet and genuine. I'd be much more inclined to cut the scene in the diner digging into Foxx and Hamm's backstories, neither of those characters was interesting even though Hamm was fun to watch.

the opening scene and really the first half-hour or so are so dazzling, I wish that kind of goofy spirit could have been maintained throughout, the film turns more and more generic the longer it plays.

let me be the first to say that

SPOIIIIILLLLLLEEEERRRR

Spacey's third-act turn didn't work for me, and was the sort of thing I'd like to have seen a little groundwork laid down for (I don't think the scene with the nephew suffices)

i enjoyed this. opening car chase was one of the best I've seen

some of the most inept movie cops I've ever seen tho

It's suggested that Spacey has a crush on Baby; he gives him a couple once-overs.

The nephew's one of the few recent plausible smart aleck movie kids. I did roll my eyes at the insistence on Baby's innocence (the nursing home scene at the end almost belted me out of the theater).

more like Edgar Wrong

I liked the way Foxx (or was it Hamm?) undercuts Baby's supposed innocence by pointing out that he didn't say word one about them endangering civilians until Debora showed up

I'm a little surprised folks seem to be mostly OK with Debora being such a thin character who mostly just waits around for Baby to show up

She bored me. I liked how she apparently doesn't own a cell phone.

I'm in love with Ansel Elgort and his sunglasses and skinny jeans.

My husband is too, which is why I am anticipating a rare (for us) trip to the cinema for this one.

yeah she was a cipher pretty much

the opening scene and really the first half-hour or so are so dazzling, I wish that kind of goofy spirit could have been maintained throughout, the film turns more and more generic the longer it plays.

this is an endemic problem with scriptwriting. it's much easier to be creative in your setup than in your resolution. life would be more rewarding for writers if audiences didn't demand resolutions in the third act, but were satisfied with a full exposition of unresolved complications.

I have long accepted that I am always going to love the set-up of a pop entertainment movie more than the resolution. It is why I was able to enjoy the goofy final-act revelation in Get Out, to pick the most recent example.

yeah she was a cipher pretty much

tbh romance has never been Wright's strong suit. he's much better at dealing with friendships.

The scene with Hamm in the diner in the last third was excellent.

I like Edgar Wright a lot, but there is nothing about this that looks remotely appealing to me. It seems like a parody of some post Tarantino 90's movie, except by most accounts it's not a comedy?

It's hilarious in spots. I don't often laugh watching movies.

Also, Wright is way more fun than Refn and Tarantino.

"Romance has never been Wright's strong suit" is the most charitable way to possibly account for the toxicity of Scott Pilgrim (though I'm assuming the source material is largely to blame as well), but that's another movie and another discussion.

Like, is it really another one last job ensemble heist movie?

The movie's at the service of the soundtrack, I might argue, but Wright's such a shrewd editor that Elgort moves with way more grace than Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone ever did in LLL.

"Romance has never been Wright's strong suit" is the most charitable way to possibly account for the toxicity of Scott Pilgrim

yes Scott Pilgrim has its own thread, but I would add that SP (which I recently rewatched) contains about 10,000 references to its main character being an asshole which really helps

I kept thinking this must have been an exacting nightmare to edit but I'm sure Wright was slick enough to make it as easy as possible

I think the main reason the movie disappointed me (even though I really enjoyed it for the most part) is the trailer made me think more of the film would be Baby and his love interest escaping his former life rather than it being tacked on at the very end.

some other details too bothered me, like why the corrupt cop gunrunners wouldn't first disarm the people they were planning to sell to.

this movie is v much not grounded in reality but v much a universe that exists only in crime movies (and it's a good thing in this case cos grounding woulda sunk this one fast).

it's a good thing in this case cos grounding woulda sunk this one fast).

and yet Baby likes the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

funny to see Sky Ferriera play Baby's mom, I can't recall if she had any dialogue but I guess for whatever reason it was important to Wright that the woman singing on the MOM tape was the same one actually playing the character.

One of the things I really like about Wright's movies and screenplays is how they tend to be strongly anchored by an actual moral, without ever feeling overdetermined or po-faced about it (being really funny helps). This keeps him in sharp contrast to his snarky/nihilistic, heavily postmodern peers. You could argue that "passivity is tantamount to complicity" is the moral to BD but the love story gets in the way of that and undercuts that strength a bit. (I should stress again that I liked this, it's just my least fave of his features.)

an awful lot of fatal car accidents happen in movies while people are driving and arguing simultaneously

also did I miss it, but why did Spacey talk about how he never uses the same crew twice other than Baby and then he re-uses Hamm and Gonzalez again 30 minutes later?

or did he just mean "exact configuration" i.e. Batts was subbed in for Griff so that = "new crew" even tho it was only 25% diff

also did I miss it, but why did Spacey talk about how he never uses the same crew twice other than Baby and then he re-uses Hamm and Gonzalez again 30 minutes later?

― Charles "Butt" Stanton (Neanderthal)

would you ever work with Flea again?

can I just

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5e/f1/bb/5ef1bb3bfa7be1814b910ba59bd6e647--ansel-elgort-fun-facts.jpg

or did he just mean "exact configuration" i.e. Batts was subbed in for Griff so that = "new crew" even tho it was only 25% diff

this is how I took it.

First half great

Second half shit

Scott Pilgrim is a perfect, incredible movie.

I really wish the MIchael Myers mask thing hadn't been in the trailer cos it woulda been a lot funnier just showing up cold mid-movie

I feel like blind foster dad shoulda been like "dude I am already not ok with u robbin shit but at least if yr gonna do i can I like benefit from it and live somewhere decent"

Every character in this is a cipher fyi

I kind of expected that going in tho

this wasn't too horribly different from Driver other than I feel like this was a better movie and Gosling's character liked to use stealth rather than do doughnuts on the highway

It was transporter more than driver but it isn't as subtle or as adult in its themes or relationships as transporter

Wished the movie kept up the energy of the first half hour but whatcanyado. It was still a fun watch

Is it named after the Simon & Garfunkel song?

yes it plays over the credits

Lily Collins is more of a MPDG than anyone in Scott Pilgrim was

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Monday, 3 July 2017 18:43

Lily James.

I enjoyed this, it moved along well but I do wish it had something a little bit more to it.

Only complaint is Hamm doing the "you can't hide from me" thing later on.

I do wish it had something a little bit more to it.

yeah, i don't want a ticket purchase for this to result in more films like it being made.

you chuckleheads should be discussing Walter Hill's The Driver rather than that ludicrous POS Drive, get yr titles right.

that kid's legs are too thin, Alfred.

yeah, i don't want a ticket purchase for this to result in more films like it being made.

― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius),

What, decent Hollywood froth for once?

that kid's legs are too thin, Alfred.

So were McCrea's.

Wright's a big Hill fan, but I see Streets of Fire in this more than The Driver.

i need to watch Streets of Fire, thx

sacrilege to compare a boy to Joel McCrea

You're in luck: SOF recently got a Blu-ray reissue, I believe.

And you can dream about it.

If I can hold it just right!

i didn't like this at all really. clever-clever w/o being clever. careless about violence. terrible dancing. cutesy and shallow instead of 'archetypical' or w/e. 90s in a bad way. jamie foxx was great though.

i did like how it was really in atlanta instead of an anono-city, but that only highlights some unappealing racial attitudes in the thing.

no you're a terrible dancer

Anyone see Triple 9, the John Hillcoat Atlanta set Heist Thriller with Casey Affleck and Gal Gadot?

Jamie foxx was as bad as everyone else

in the Michael Jackson sense

I was hoping for more from this, but the first hour was fun. It didn't stay as funny as I'd have liked.

spoiler alert - obv all the non white ppl die in this. which is very 80s just like most of the movie. good to know edgar wright absorbed the decade well. i thought foxx was actually very good, though obv his character is an arsehole. jon hamm proved he can only really act as don draper, even when playing a bank robber. i liked the film overall, the car park battle was a bit too cartoon tarantino, and excessive in a way the rest of the film wasnt, and something i thought edgar wright was above, but hey, its hollywood. i like that he got to make this in the structure he wanted, it was a lot of fun to watch, and kind of sweet, but the film was also a little culturally/emotionally empty in a way his british films havent been. the other odd thing i found was that apart from the bank job in the red car, many of the car sequences werent actually that amazing to watch. this might be as i find very few race/car action sequences as amazing as many seem to think (unless its the delorean in back to the future), but i thought wright would pull something more kinetic and inventive out the bag. tarantino did it better in death proof IIRC. the sequence of baby just walking around listening to music on the street when he goes to order coffee was more memorable than any of the car scenes.

(spoiler) Hamm and Spacey die and the black foster dad doesn't, so I don't think that first point really holds up.

jon hamm proved he can only really act as don draper, even when playing a bank robber.

This is a plus! Also, he's way more handsome when elegantly wasted than in the suits.

yes, also very much reminiscent of 80s racial tropes. the non white character gets to live... but only if hes sufficiently harmless and non threatening to warrant being saved/spared. got to have One Good Minority character. good in this case meaning perfect by way of being adorably deaf.

SPOILERS

the point is not that 'oh hey! white ppl die too! all lives matter! okay?!' but that no non white characters live except the one no one could ever dislike. because there is no way he could every harm anyone. thats how perfect the non white good guy has to be.

*ever

Spoilers

Most ppl die in this movie

just realised, my comment should have read 'obv all the non white ppl die FIRST'

Yes it's now an excellent review of this bad movie

jon hamm proved he can only really act as don draper, even when playing a bank robber.

― StillAdvance, Monday, 10 July 2017 15:30

That's unfair, I thought they were very different. Similarities were just Jon Hamm playing a bastard.

And Lily James wasn't manic or unattainable or teaching Baby much at all, she was just really cute.

Last point to Simon H

main thought i had watching this was edgar wright is directing like this like someone who just saw MTV for the first time in the early 80s and thought 'what if someone did this in a movie?!'

other recurring thought: i need to get my old ipod repaired. i liked that dial much better than the replacement.

i loved that the 56 second intro to Geogaddi - Boards of Canada was in this. AND maybe a mid/late period Stereolab track?? there was s song playing when he went record shopping that sounded just like something from Dots and Loops or Cobra and Phases.

Ok, so now I guess I'll have to watch this movie

this movie was great, probably gonna be my favorite of the summer. as good as any of Wright's other films, imo. a better musical than La La Land. don't miss it.

Car chase to "bellbottoms" at the start was exhilarating. I enjoyed it although I do think by the end it swallowed a lot of action movie cliches.

Regurgitated them in some interesting new flavours though.

Anyone see Triple 9, the John Hillcoat Atlanta set Heist Thriller with Casey Affleck and Gal Gadot?

I did; it was OK. Not great. The robbery sequences were well done. Kate Winslet's really good in it.

Was quite pleased they gave Focus - "Hocus Pocus" a good spot.

Ok, so now I guess I'll have to watch this movie

― Moodles, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 1:24 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha to be fair it could've easily been a piece of exotica/lounge music that Stereolab referenced or absorbed.... BUT it really sounded like the first part of Refractions in the Plastic Pulse, or Velvet Water.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/982d0a4f3a0142aa1270df0f16181865/tumblr_n6k7a8Qwru1sskn9qo2_250.gif

I liked some of this, I didn't like some of this, I loved part of it, I hated part of it. So I guess that makes it ... a wash?

it makes it a regular movie

Well, it feels more inessential than average, let's put it that way. A diversion, little more than that. I think I would have preferred a PG-13 rating and full musical, minus bloody violence, which felt out of place, given the tone.

That Hollywood can still produce diversions in the years before the sea rise deluge is enough.

You know what I remembered as I was watching it? That better than it should have been Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Michael Shannon bike messenger vs. cop comic thriller "Premium Rush."

the trailer for this made it look so good, but it was so lame. the script sucked, the kevin spacey twist at the end was totally unbelievable and out of place, the romance was lame (hmm yes let's drag this poor woman who you've hung out with exactly twice into your drama without asking her first), the choreography was dumb. the whole thing was just so... try-hard. it was like the director watched john wick and thought he'd try making a super slick, stylish, effortless crime caper too but ended up failing miserably.

?? what 'twist'?

The thing where we've been set-up all movie to believe one thing and another thing happens - the technical name for that is a twist.

Drops coffee mug referentially

this is one of those uncanny valley films that seemed so totally geared towards my own tastes and sensibilities (especially some of the music choices - 'Egyptian Reggae' and Blur's 'Intermission' were staples on any mixtape I made back in the days when I used to make mixtapes), that I'm not sure how much I did enjoy it. I definitely thought it was fun and a well-made film, but except for the fact driving is the most anxiety-inducing thing I have to regularly do, it's like the film of me, and I don't know how much I like that.

Was quite pleased they gave Focus - "Hocus Pocus" a good spot.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, July 19, 2017 3:50 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This one too. I liked how the gunshots went in time with the music

I think if I have any real criticism of this film is that it could have been just a little bit funnier. The funny bits were really really funny though.

The thing where we've been set-up all movie to believe one thing and another thing happens - the technical name for that is a twist.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, July 24, 2017 3:04 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes, smartass, but I don't recall anything like that happening in this movie

Guys..

The music in a film is not a measure of the film

I'm sorry that's just how I feel.

at the same time let's not kid ourselves about this film being much more than an excuse to have a bunch of cool tunes set to car chases with a fairly standard plot draped on top.

I've noticed a lot of fatal car accidents happen in movies when people don't know how to drive and argue with their S.O.s at the same time

It's actually a shit plot.

Wright hasn't written a good plot since at best Hot Fuzz and tbh that was also over obsessed with symmetric wank payoff in lieu of plot

at the same time let's not kid ourselves about this film being much more than an excuse to have a bunch of cool tunes set to car chases with a fairly standard plot draped on top.

― Shat Parp (dog latin), Monday, July 24, 2017

i.e. most chase movies starring Steve McQueen?

Plot gets in the way of this one

not seen many of his films. TGE obvs. Not even sure I've seen Bullitt.

The whole 'this guy listens to headphones while driving fast cars' thing is such a naff gimmick that the film quasi-lampshades it several times. If it wasn't pulled off with: A. actually decent music picks; B. quality casting; C. great editing, it would fall right through. You could say pretty much the same thing about Drive, except I loathed Drive and I enjoyed this a fair bit.

xp

re: Hot Fuzz and "symmetric wank payoff", I believe the term you're looking for is "jokes"

That's why I said I wish this was PG-13 and less violent, that it tried harder to be funnier than it tried to be a convincing action movie. Which it wasn't.

Neanderthal - sorry for being a smartass, I was trying to dance around it, but it appears under a

SPOIIIIILLLLLLEEEERRRR

in the tenth post here, so: Doc tells Baby that he'll let him go after he pays off his debt, which we're primed to believe will never happen, and indeed when Baby's debt is paid off, Doc doesn't let him go. And then in a surprising twist, he does - and more!

https://filmability.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/ansel_elgort_en_baby_driver_1-imgo.gif

in the tenth post here, so: Doc tells Baby that he'll let him go after he pays off his debt, which we're primed to believe will never happen, and indeed when Baby's debt is paid off, Doc doesn't let him go. And then in a surprising twist, he does - and more!

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, July 24, 2017 2:31 PM (forty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, that didn't feel like a twist so much as a strange bit of nonsense. Unless of course he really was in love with Baby and on seeing Debora, he just thought 'screw it' and let him go?

when he says "I was in love once" or whatever he throws Baby a rueful look. Also, Spacey really digs calling him Baby.

yeah that's not really a twist because Doc never actually said he wouldn't have to do more jobs after he was paid up, that's how Baby interpreted it. but when Baby was confirming that he'd be out after the next job, Doc was careful with his words, he corrected Baby with something like "we'll be straight" which implied to me 'you won't owe me more money but I didn't say no more jobs'.

The twists were

Spacey not having double-crossed everybody. This was the clear setup, and while Wright might have been delighted to sell the audience this dummy he focused so much on what he wasn't going to do that what he ended up doing was sloppy, careless, messy.

Spacey taking pity on baby, lame move completely inconsistent with character so far and rendered an already lazily drawn and performed character even less interesting

Madman being the nutter out to kill baby

This movie had serious coherency issues and delighted in them.

Hope everyone involved dies, actually

I'm sure that some of the cops who got killed in Bats' shoot out turned up again in a later scene towards the end. Didn't understand that.

Xpost again, not twists, inconsistent plot points maybe but w/e.

I'm surprised people were saying this was like a nostalgia film or a 90s-retro film. Didn't feel particularly 90s to me?

Beyond iPods, Beck references, people making phone calls on landlines? Let alone all the post Tarantino winky riffs on violent action movies?

This owes nothing to Tarantino.

I would grab that emergency brake, spin out, then quickly back away from the word "nothing."

Didn't Wright write this movie way back when? Like 20 years ago? I assume that accounted for all the off-kilter references, like to Jon Spencer and Midnite Vultures-era Beck.

Anyway, if it was first devised 22 years ago, as Wright has claimed, that brings us back to 1995, which is peak post Pulp Fiction. Any action movie devised then was infused with Tarantino juice.

iPods didn't first come out til 2001 and a few seconds of someone making a call on a landline doesn't really scream NINETIES, or even particularly retro to me.
Guess the only bit that had me was the two stoner kids listening to Young MC.
The music seemed to be from all eras on there (lots of 70s stuff, so if 90s = 70s retro then fair enough). Didn't think it was particularly Tarantino-esque either, or at least no more so than any other action film that has absorbed Tarantino from the vernacular of action movies.

Yeah, I mean, that's fair. It's pretty movieland PoMo in its own right. But it definitely has the stylized too-cool-for-school crime violence, colorful criminals and romance thing going on, a la something like True Romance. All the diner stuff I kept thinking of Pulp Fiction, yeah, for surface reasons, but still.

BTW, lol at me that I can't even remember when iPods were introduced, and I was there!

Where were you picking up on Spacey double-crossing everyone, Darragh? That he always has new crews, or that he always has new crews apart from this one time? It passed me by but I can see the argument.

I think the crews was a ref to specifically the makeup of each one.

But

And I may not bother to remember detail or order correctly u understand

Foxx shoots up cops at weapons deal. Which may or may not have been a setup. We might not be meant to know either way but it had the air of stink before he acted. No explanation of why spacey wouldn't have dropped a hint as to the fact they'd be dirty cops which would seem cogent.

Dude weaponed up and ready to ambush the cru at the van holdup. Again, the direction, detail and the long looks we're given of this guy in advance of him turning into a have a go hero are all redolent of a plot thread that......goes nowhere? Never see him again.

Spacey's character has no thread we can follow that fits anything but a meta stooge wildly swinging the plot from one direction to the next, which I'm sure I've seen work when done well.

Foolishness to claim that my feeling that this was not done well validates or invalidates the unfollowed links of plot above, but what can I say? Didn't work for me at all once the bad guys became good guys and the good guys became bad guys and they all did the most stupid things possible in order to give us a messy conclusion after respective lifetimes spent as successful career criminals and fifty odd minutes of a pretty but pretty dumb driver dude ordering food in a diner.

I watched the trailer for this. Is the whole thing full of bad "Southern" accents like Lily James'?

that's all it is. just people doing bad southern accents at each other for an hour and a half

Great, I'm sold!

Any particular reason for thanks to Tarantino in the credits to Baby Driver?

— Paul (@reev0) June 27, 2017

He gave me car chase advice, general support and one cool script idea.

— edgarwright (@edgarwright) June 27, 2017

lol I guess it owes something to Tarantino

good god, I loved this movie but didn't give it much thought after I saw it. why so much hand-wringing? it was fun. i loved that he made tape collages. some cool music choices. short, fun, original script. GREAT! end of discussion...

We don't take kindly to fun round 'ere

You can't spell fun without FU.

Didn't earn the fun

"The movie's at the service of the soundtrack, I might argue"

Yeah I just came here to say it's a soundtrack in search of a movie. Violently meh. So meh that I'm somehow really mad at it. I passed up Valerian and Laureline for this drivel.

Andrew - yes, that's what I was referring to
Neanderthal - I was just using "twist" as shorthand. There was absolutely nothing apparent to me that docs character was suddenly gonna go all soft, esp when he's had baby in his debt since he was a kid and threatens his life. He didn't just let him off the hook - he let him off the hook after he fucked up a heist AND he got himself killed to save baby

This movie looked like it was totally gonna be my jam - but it just felt lame from beginning to end. Also I disliked all the music.

lol I only thought this was OK but it's several orders above Valerian xp

Atomic Blonde better not let me down like this

Also I disliked all the music.

― just1n3, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:11

!!!

*shrugs* it's just not the kind of music i particularly like

I wasn't into a lot of it but none of it seemed bad

Foxx shoots up cops at weapons deal. Which may or may not have been a setup. We might not be meant to know either way but it had the air of stink before he acted. No explanation of why spacey wouldn't have dropped a hint as to the fact they'd be dirty cops which would seem cogent.

Spacey's character doesn't go wildly in for explaining his actual business to the hired help

Dude weaponed up and ready to ambush the cru at the van holdup. Again, the direction, detail and the long looks we're given of this guy in advance of him turning into a have a go hero are all redolent of a plot thread that......goes nowhere? Never see him again.

This guy has nothing to do with Spacey, the cru, or the holdup. He's a random passer-by who keeps guns in his car bcz he's an ex-soldier nutbag and Georgia is an open carry state. We never see him again because we follow Baby, the titular character of the film, after the encounter, rather than branching off to follow this rando and examine his unhappy home life.

Agree that this film was a messy disappointment.

I'd lazily claim that that's all fine except for Wright clearly directing the movie to draw attn to these things then leave them dangling. That kind of chaotic confusion works in the tone of a Ronin or similar, for me it was smartypants messing in this one.

the first two times we see deborah she's rocking out to her own music, on her own headphones. baby's instantly drawn to her. a woman listening to her own music, that you can't hear, gives her a kind of power and independence, which is awesome, and it seems like baby responds to that, which is awesome. and then the movie just.. totally gives up on that dynamic. she knows more about music than he does (lol "trex") but somehow we end up with a "let me school you about music lil' girl" scene anyway. and then as noted upthread she just waits around in her ridiculously short costume dress in this impeccable, empty diner. where baby's blonde mom used to work! was anybody else just a liiitle bit skeeved out by that? just me? oh and she also pops up in baby's jimmy dean picture-postcard fantasies, draped over a mean set of wheels. it's so schematic that it's almost brechtian or something. it's absurd. but all played totally straight, no comment on the paper-thin pulp unrealness of it at all. which is maybe for the best, i dunno. it's a good point about the sickening violence of the climax feeling really out of place with the rest of it. i'd almost show it to my kids if it wasn't for kevin spacey getting graphically reversed over several times.

i really liked baby needing to rewind the song if something slowed down the heist, but it didn't add up to anything really?

lily james kept reminding me of a young jennifer jason leigh - the comparison didn't flatter her

but yes, i too am now in love with ansel elgort, i won't lie

oh and the movie i saw just prior to this, on the airplane, was guardians of the galaxy, whose hero also has a mother who died too young and left him an old cassette tape that he's willing to risk his life for. ??!

agree that spacey's turn at the end felt v lightly earned - and i was disappointed that baby never got to face him down. on the contrary, they became, like, buds!? after spacey set all this in motion and ruined his life? fuck outta here! hamm's just a random menacing heavy. i'm no expert in script mechanics but to this unfrozen caveman it was a fatal deflation of the stakes

I don't recall it being that violent.

the rebar thru jamie foxx was like nothing in the movie to that point. and for me spacey vs car was super gruesome

Glad to have u on board TH otm on each point

Many xps - I'm def not saying the music was bad, it just didn't do it for me

but yes, i too am now in love with ansel elgort, i won't lie

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand),

yeah...

I passed up Valerian and Laureline for this drivel.

― Conic section rebellion 44 (in orbit), Tuesday, July 25, 2017 8:23 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is infinitely better than Valerian lol

'messy dissapointment' is way ott wrt the plot (even if some of criticisms by Tracer are smart and legit, i just didn't care that much while actually watching it), but even so, forget plotting/character development for a moment--the car scenes are so meticulously and geniously EDITED!!! and comprise like 75% of the movie; more than compensates imo

Jesus I wish 75%

Valerian was marginally better imo but still disappointing.

oh come on Valerian was dreadful!!

does Ansel bottom in Valerian

Dane DeHaan is nearly as cute as Ansel and the voice he affects is unbearable; he sounds like an 11 year old impersonating his father on the phone

*is NOT nearly as cute

OTM and he looks all of 15

I think I had lower expectations for valerian than baby driver, which is why BD was worse imo

this was fairly fun, but every single thing in it pointed to Baby hugely outwitting everyone with a giant confusing amazing car chase sequence to cap off the film. They set him up as being super smart, but instead he suddenly turns stupid, fucks up the getaway royally and we get a pretty boring fight instead?

A good planner is not a good extemporiser!

He wasn't supposed to be super smart! He's super naive, and weirdly talented in one very specific area. Almost an idiot savant. And he was never the planner, Doc was. So, once the plan goes bad and he's no longer behind the wheel, he has no particular resources to draw on. He's just a kid.

atl folk (and others) might find this interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ry9X2FPfHM

I don't see action films of any kind, although there's probably a tiny bit of overlap with what I do see--I mean, No Country for Old Men had some action. I definitely don't see Fast and Furious-type films, but the music in the trailer for this one reeled me in.

The soundtrack did not save it; just one long reminder of why I don't see action films. Found the last half-hour (everything after "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1") particularly stupefying.

I really must insist you not use this as any exemplar of action films tbh, there are many brilliant movies released in the last several years

What you want to avoid, imo, is going to see shit movies because of a soundtrack

As soon as cars start hurtling all over the place, I just shut down. And that constitutes, what, a third of the film? It seemed like an action film to me.

I've seen one or two other films where Spacey "heads a crew"--one of them involved gambling, and Justin Timberlake was in it. Every other line's supposed to be charged with witty cool. He's terrible in these roles. And I think it might have been the first time I've seen John Hamm outside of Mad Men. Somewhat better than Spacey--he had a few lines that seemed like they came from an actual person--but equally terrible in that last half-hour. The other four principals--Foxx, the two women, and the baby driver--were comparatively okay, I guess. Did someone think Paul Williams carries a great deal of cultural resonance? "Wow--it's Paul Williams!"

Woah I didn't say this wasn't an action film

I just protest your seeming acceptance that it's in any way a good example of the genre.

On a separate note, Kevin Spacey is, and always has been, a very poor actor. In many ways as bad as John Malkovich.

That's not true, especially before 1995. Possibly opportunities exposed the limits of his range, but range is overrated anyway.

do u think the car chase scenes are bad, d?

Once you get past what, at the time, I assume was the newness of the car chases in Bullitt and The French Connection, how do you tell if a car chase is good? They just cut the same impossibilities together ever faster and faster, louder and louder.

staging has a lot to do with it. I felt like the first chase in Baby Driver was one of the best I'd seen recently.

shoulda just made the movie a 90 minute chase. kinda like that shit movie Kidnap but like instead, good.

zoe bell's stunt work in death proof comes to mind as for as good recent chases

should also include the infamous stock Troma car crash footage

Car chases in this were told, and first one yes particularly so

You can tell if a car chase is good if you enjoy it. How dyou judge ice cream ffs.

Zoe bells stunt work in deathproof is not remembered in my house but every other excruciating moment she spent on camera will never be forgiven

Car chase in the seven ups btw.

clem's right that the last half hour is a travesty, and I can't stand the way female love interests are used in these films, but the first 70 minutes are a knockout. So is Ansel Elgort, who's a screen presence of odd passivity.

Everything through iirc the restaurant is tickety boo, if it's not all exceptional then the imagination on show and elgort certainly carry it so

This film was ok, some good parts, a lot of dumb parts. I enjoyed Hamm and Foxx, thought Baby was a bit of a d-bag. Lily James reminded me of young Madchen Amick, and she worked in a diner!

Also, there wasn't a Stereolab song in this.

Meant to mention how much she reminded me of Madchen Amick. Enough so that when I looked up her credits, I discovered I haven't seen her in anything else despite feeling sure I had.

This movie was mediocre 10 years after the fact when mediocre would have sufficed.

wow, this movie really did suck

They must really teach those "Fame" dance moves to all the kids at LaGuardia High School!

On a separate note, Kevin Spacey is, and always has been, a very poor actor. In many ways as bad as John Malkovich.

― passé aggresif (darraghmac), Monday, 4 September 2017 22:20 (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wow, are you... me?

Are you both William Shatner?

XP can't help it if we're both so right

I do kind of feel about this movie the way I did about Brick (not that the movies themselves are at all similar)--like maybe there are actually genuinely good things about it that speak only to discerning young folks, and I'm too old to really get it.

There's a kind of unselfconscious openness among younger millenials that makes me want to roll my eyes, but at the same time I support it and think it's positive and great!

Brick was good

But not necessarily for young-person reasons - it's an old genre movie in (very thin) disguise.

I dunno, there may be something in that young person theory. I really liked Brick and saw it multiple times in college, but I watched it again a couple of months ago and thought this time it was actually kind of terrible?

Only JGL and the kid who played Brain were good in it - the rest of it came off really awkward and hokey in a way it didn't when I was younger.

I enjoyed Baby Driver but only because I went in with low expectations. The story is super thin, but mostly here for impeccably soundtracked car chases and Ansel Elgort's cheekbones.

Xps yes! I hated brick and didn't understand why everyone loved it so much

you are not alone just1n3!

come anticipate 'Brick' with me!

I do kind of feel about this movie the way I did about Brick (not that the movies themselves are at all similar)--like maybe there are actually genuinely good things about it that speak only to discerning young folks, and I'm too old to really get it.

There's a kind of unselfconscious openness among younger millenials that makes me want to roll my eyes, but at the same time I support it and think it's positive and great!

― Dan I., Friday, September 15, 2017 8:00 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these movies were both written and directed by gen x dudes. i don't know that they are necessarily for the young.

i quite liked brick because i like jgl but the acting isn't great and the concept wears a little thin

I disliked Brick and enjoyed Baby Driver.

They're completely different movies, I didn't mean to directly compare them. I just meant that they both give me the same feeling that I get when I reflect on the popularity of, I don't know, Twitch streams, for example: "I don't understand the appeal of this at all, but I think I would if I were younger"

The presence of Paul Williams, not to mention the musical selections, was evidence enough that there was definitely An Old at the helm, though.

Is Wright that old?

This is my favorite movie of the year. Lot of fun, great mix of genres and homages, amazing soundtrack. Surprised the common wisdom here is so negative. Ah well, your loss!

Given that he opens the movie with the jon spencer blues explosion, I'd be shocked if he were either younger than 38 or older than 45

'Baby driver is way better than Brick lol wtf' -a youngish millenial

i know it's not good to read an ilx thread for a popular movie you liked but impeccably soundtracked car chases and Ansel Elgort's cheekbones <- seriously, what more do you want out of a movie?

Alfred always otm itt

Brick is very fun and was made for like literally 1/100 the budget of BD, leave it alone

yeah but no Ansel cheekbones

This was awful. What are people smoking?

'bones

Brick is very fun and was made for like literally 1/100 the budget of BD, leave it alone

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, September 15, 2017 12:57 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did you pay for it?

Ansel's cheekbones are worth, what, $4000 each?

Diner/Barry White sequence was an A+ set piece. Only sorry it didn't go on twice as long

evidence enough that there was definitely An Old at the helm

who remembers when actual music was popular, eh

I look fwd to a library DVD of this (and Get Out) with zero expectations.

a good way to approach life

lol you can see me being all over Brick in that other thread.

Anyway, has this been posted yet? Where Wright got the inspiration for the film, with Noel Fielding as not-quite-a-Baby Driver.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfrcZsKcVxU

Is Wright that old?

He's 43, a hair older than me. Happens to the best of us.

(Simon Pegg is hovering just under 50)

the shot of the clothes all dancing/spinning in unsion in the launderette/laundromat was gorge. i'm amazed i'd never seen that done before.

shame on you if you defended this crap

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-06/2/16/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane-01/anigif_sub-buzz-3537-1496434845-1.gif

Would literally rather watch 90 mins of Noel Fielding rocking out in a car.

this was simply ok. opening sequence is great, a few other great things, a bunch of dumb things, it's a wash in the end. a fine way to waste an hour and a half at home though.

Held my interest for its two hours, but it's becoming crushingly apparent that I just don't like Edgar Wright as a filmmaker. This is infinitely more watchable than the appalling Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (which ties with The Guest as the angriest that I have been with a film all decade), but his shallow version of cool continues to grate on my nerves. I did laugh at the Mike/Michael Myers bit and, because I'm a horrible person, Foxx's "Tequila" gag.

Contrary to many of the comments upthread, I guess, I thought Lily James, who is new to me, was enchanting, while all of the other performances ranged from mediocre to terrible (keeping in mind, of course, that they are performing an Edgar Wright script). And with apologies to both Alfred (and my husband), Ansel Elgort is nowhere near as swoony, for me, as Ryan Gosling in Drive.

It's Jon Hamm's best screen perf to date.

it was certainly Hammy

https://the-hollywood-gossip-res.cloudinary.com/iu/s--_UWVIWPi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1476960241/jon-hamm-don-draper-gif

I'm basically repeating myself, but I thought the writing and direction pushed him towards absurdity, notably in the final act.

Lily James is probably why I ended up seeing this.

Boy Baby Driver has some pretty creepy subtext now.

— Drac Budryk 🦇 (@PraxisKenzie) October 30, 2017

Hardly subtext tbh. Spacey's character clearly had a thing for Baby.

it would've been weird if he hadn't

i was horny for baby the entire movie

great film btw

Eric h otm, although it was wasted like every other setup

nah it didn't need to get stressed or require more than the parking garage scene

(which already stretched plausibility)

It is thematically consistent with the hints of an abusive childhood that we get throughout the film, though I don't think that the film, as written, can really bear the weight of any of this.

I was prepared to dislike this immensely based on some of the comments here but it was a blast. Ansel Elgort didn't grow on me until the second act, and it ended too many times, but it reminded me why I really like Edgar Wright even when he's working with what I would normally consider very shallow material. I can't believe I didn't recognize Rose from Downton Abbey.

My greatest complaint, besides the rather milquetoast goodness of our murder-abetting car thief hero, is that most of the songs they picked aren't deep enough cuts to be associated specifically with anything in the movie - if you played the soundtrack and gave me a multiple-choice test on what was happening during song X, I have very low confidence I'd do better than a die roll, as opposed to Tarantino or James Gunn where I now have intense associations between certain scenes and tracks, for better and worse.

Genre filmmakers need to stop believing they're DJs. (You Know Who has a lot to answer for.)

I much prefer the "appalling" Scott Pilgrim and Hot Fuzz to this, but it was mildly amusing trash. Spacey's virtuous exit was a little nauseating, but I enjoyed Jamie Foxx's performance.

Walter Hill hommage? He made gritty crime films about adults.

In fairness to, uh, me, I titled the thread (based on reviews, which were heavy on the Hill comparisons) months before I actually saw the film. But yes, this film is neither gritty nor for adults.

You Know Who has a lot to answer for.

Puccini, the cunt

Anyway morbs otm besides

They had some completely inane twat on the R4 movie show talking about the outright importance of the soundtrack to this movie and how *deeply* it was considered to go with the pictures. If he was someone working in advertising or Childrens tv he would have still sounded like a completely myopic former hireling on the Tarantino plantation. Fucking foetuses making movies for children, and doing it ver badly.

I just saw this on the plane. It was so much fun (even though Ansel, Spacey (ugh) and I thought Hamm was actually bad in this). I wanted to rewatch it right away.

Scott Pilgrim is a Great Film btw

Hamm is just miscast. Plus, as always in these crime fantasies, couldn't his character get work as a model?

Elgort looks like an unfinished pod person from a Body Snatchers.

Yes! Hence his hotness.

ewwww

Adam Driver >>>>>> Baby Driver

Ann Hornaday nails Wright's Achilles heel: "self satisfaction." A master craftsman like Spielberg is never in showoff mode like this.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/in-baby-driver-gunplay-and-car-chases-are-choreographed-with-skintight-precision/2017/06/27/510b09e4-5a68-11e7-a9f6-7c3296387341_story.html

Would u stop

Smugberg

don't make me accelerate and impale you!

‘baby driver: it’s no hook, raves ilx’s spielgeirbot’

or Road House, bengazzara

He jabs, he dances away, jabs again

itt: morbs reveals his belief that ilxor poster bizarro gazzara is, in fact, deceased cassavetes favourite ben gazzara irl

he’s got me bang to rights guys

who's Peter Falk on ILX

sorry guys, i fell asleep in the middle of bizzie's last post

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRnd5f_qjWY6VifLxrnloRVQXJgkFxr4Dldj0Y7e_KM5zoNQ5xR

guys this is tearing us apart, can't we get back to talking about how this film that the populace loved is secretly undeserving of its praise

https://images.hellogiggles.com/uploads/2017/07/18100454/babydriverjam.gif

reminds me of Cynthia Nixon's seizures in A Quiet Passion

After I saw this and liked it so much, I asked my spouse if I would enjoy Fast and Furious movies. He said no.

fast five is a masterpiece tbh

has B G has been on't mushrooms again?

https://media.giphy.com/media/Nb4mQ6rdXDDAk/giphy.gif

The Furious movies are fun

yeah try Fast Five yerac. It's not the same sort of thing at all (for one, it knows how silly it is, but plays deadpan rather than Baby Driver's po-faced), but if one of them's going to work for you, it'll be that one

He said Baby Driver was cheekier and I probably liked it because there was sparse dialogue and music that was more my jam. Supposedly Tokyo Drift is the best? (assuming I don't need to start at the beginning for back story).

how about other films about tinnitus?

scott pilgrim rules, so does this movie (kevin spacey's last)

Tokyo Drift is standalone

tokyo drift features one of the worst lead performances i’ve ever seen in a motion picture, and the best character from it shows up in a major role in fast five, so go for fast five imo

One thing about Kevin Spacey is that at least I discovered Difficult People because of the reel of all the Spacey insults.

I watched Wonder Woman, Atomic Blonde, Baby Driver and the beginning of Snatched on the plane on Friday? Disclaimer: I took a xanax and had drunk a lot of wine (activation) because I hate flying so much. I got weepy during WW, fell asleep during the middle of Atomic Blonde and loved Baby Driver. Maybe I do need to rewatch to make sure it was as surprisingly awesome as I remember.

Watch snatch imo

Atomic Blonde sucked, totally drab & boooooring

IT ALSO HAD A GOOD SOUNDTRACK.

Yeah, I was confused when I woke up but people looked attractively put together.

I would avoid the boring cut of Atomic Blonde, the one I saw was pretty great.

Watch snatch imo

i can see baby driver being an absolutely a+ airplane movie

hence a C movie in appropriate settings

Hmm. Movies I've seen on airplanes: Class Action, King Ralph, Entrapment...yeah, it'll do.

Atomic Blonde sucked, totally drab & boooooring

― flappy bird, Tuesday, January 23, 2018 3:45 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

for once I agree with flappy

scott pilgrim rules, so does this movie (kevin spacey's last)

It definitely felt like a valedictory performance; I was very moved.

he died as he lived, being ambiguously creepy & controlling over pretty young men

not as good as The Blues Brothers

how about other films about tinnitus?

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, January 23, 2018 8:09 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Noise is better than this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=4u8KxEf4A3M

Doesn't Sly have tinnitus in Cop Land?

one punctured or ruptured ear drum iirc

loss of hearing due to years of listening to Harvey Keitel yelling

that reminds me, i've been meaning to ask for a while if non-uk ilxors are aware of harvey keitel's embarrassing reprisal of the character of winston wolf in a series of godawful ads for insurance which have been running for a few years in the ol' blighty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRTSd-ppQFQ

wow

Oh shit they didn't...

They didn't know

lol my thoughts exactly

First car chase: great
Everything else: terrible

Even Kevin Spacey getting run over by a Suburban?

I haven’t gotten to that but as of the Post Office robbery it’s just getting worse and worse.

three of the car chases are good and the opening titles are fun iirc

Elgort, Spacey, HMMMMMMMMMM

tbf Spacey's character has an inappropriate interest in a young twink whose employment conditions he controls and whom he manipulates

milo is 100%

this was dreadful after the first scene, which is an all time classic

absolutely one of the most insufferable films ever made

I thought this was really bad, but it kind of made me appreciate how good/charismatic Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx are in that it's still just about watchable when they're on screen. Jon Hamm is pretty good, but not good enough to ever momentarily fool you into thinking you're watching a movie that isn't bad.

Sometimes I feel I can only really calibrate how good an actor is when they're in something terrible, I thought the same thing about Tom Hanks in Turner & Hooch.

you are dead wrong about hamm and merely 98% wrong about spacey tbh

Kevin Spacey is not charismatic unless you are super into Kevin Spacey.

He is the actor equivalent of turning over a log in the woods and realizing there is some sort of horrible growth underneath.

Spacey was perfect in Glengarry Glen Ross, bitchy in The Ref, outstanding in L.A. Confidential, and perfectly cast here. His last Oscar win kicked off one of the most doleful run of films I've ever seen.

Jon Spencer did the heavy lifting

I’m not mad that I saw it, but will never see it again, and am not psyched about the director.

Edgar Wright is very good at moving the camera. But I always come away from his movies thinking that "I figured out a cool way to move the camera" was the sum total of his emotional investment in the project.

Baby and the Waitress were zeroes but Hamm and Foxx were shockingly bad.

Pretty bad movie

I’ll probably never see it again but the Barry White diner sequence was pretty masterful

I'm a sucker for the goofy tape editing scene ("was he slow..sl-sl-slow?")

I realise now that I've been mentally conflating this film and Drive into one not very good movie, maybe because I saw them both on planes. Also because they're both shite.

Baby Driver was a fine holiday weekend watch seven years ago, had no need to watch it again except for the opening scene, which I teach as an example of modern sound design + editing. Nothing loathsome about it except for the chicken hawk + twink subtext.

I liked Baby Driver fine. It was fun.

Drive suuuuucked.

This and Hell Or High Water are shining examples of the new subgenre of "Post-Concealed Carry Heist Films"

Concealed carrying a $40k MP5 in the passenger seat of your work truck

A marginally less shitty version of this movie is where that guy was working for another criminal organization who were laundering money at that bank and Spacey & Crew have to survive pissing off Los Zetas or something.

why is it called “baby driver”

Boss Baby got fired and had to take up driving UberEats to pay the bills.

hell or high water is a great movie tho, especially if you go in with the correct attitude "this is a real potluck vhs rental type movie"

This entire film was predicated on Wright having heard that one cool drum break in "Bellbottoms" and wanting to make a movie with a car chase scene with that in it.
And it has about as much content as that premise allows.

Concealed carrying a $40k MP5 in the passenger seat of your work truck

The Future Republicans Want!

I loved Baby Driver & it made me cry!

The premise that as fast as you run, you can never run away from yourself & wherever you go, there you are was meaningful to me, hit me pretty hard for a high adrenaline popcorn movie

John Waters loved it too

The one thing I didn't like - some of the "good" song choices are a little heavy handed

Remember thinking, based on some of the song choices, 'I'll bet the director is a huge Sparks fan' whadda ya know

I have not enjoyed any of his other movies oh well.