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

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.