Drive, he said
Review of Edgar Wright's "Baby Driver"
Screening in PH cinemas on Aug. 2
Sneak previews on June 24 and 25
There is a scene in "Baby Driver" during the third act, where after running from the cops, Baby (Ansel Elgort) walks into a diner where his girlfriend Debora (Lily James) works, and finds the surprise of his life. What follows is a plot setup filled with enough tension to kickstart an engine, one of the many tension-filled surprises scattered throughout the movie.
From the first frame up until the ending, "Baby Driver" never lets up its kinetic energy. The film, written and directed by Edgar Wright ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz"), succeeds in delivering one thrill after another without sacrificing character development. In fact, Wright's storytelling makes all the difference. He doesn't give away too many details too early, unleashing them at the precise moment where we least expect it.
"Baby Driver" could have just been another heist movie, where a robber meets a girl and suddenly tries to get out of his crime-ridden life, yet Wright infuses so much music and color and eccentricity that the film becomes something else entirely. The film promises to deliver a fun experience from its trailer, which it manages to do so. Out of all the attention to detail, the vivid colors and the groovy soundtrack, the film is most importantly, fun, never taking itself too seriously. The campiness of the material is infectious, like its soundtrack.
Wright even manages to make Kevin Spacey (who plays Doc, the ringleader) seem like Frank Underwood (from his popular character in "House of Cards"), and at the same time not at all. Spacey balances the gentleness of a breeze with the cold, calculating ruthlessness of a snake, striking swiftly.
The band of thugs is as assorted as a box of donuts, all of which are equally interesting: Jon Hamm, who plays Buddy is the white-collar criminal, seemingly cool but menacing nonetheless; Eiza Gonzales is Darling, Buddy's wife, the confidently pretty girl who also knows how to handle automatic weapons like a pro, and; Jamie Foxx is Bats, the most unstable of the three and also, the most dangerous.
Lily James is almost the damsel in distress in this situation, save for her commitment to the role of a girl fed up with routine. Thankfully, James shows more range here than she did in "Cinderella."
However, the real revelation here is Elgort, who now proves he is beyond a pretty face. As the baby-faced Baby, Elgort manages to be both charming and alarming, a reluctant hero worth rooting for because of his moral dilemma. Elgort plays it cool and calm, but whenever heavier drama is required, he is able to hold his own, especially in the presence of seasoned actors like Spacey, Foxx and Hamm.
Dialogue and visual repetition are Wright's signatures, and is on clear display in "Baby Driver." One important piece of dialogue gets repeated somewhere in the film, which foreshadows the fate of the characters, and a seemingly useless temporal space proves crucial to how events will unfold in the end.
"Baby Driver" also boasts an impressive sound design, where the sound of bullets are timed with the soundtrack, among others.
The film gives big-budget studio films a good name, proving that escapist fares can also be intellectual. Wright is clearly a movie fan, who understands the need for audiences not to feel robbed of their money every time they go to the cinema.
