‘Baby Driver’ is a fun, wild ride (+trailer)

Wright’s is the mind behind all those British comedies we love (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End), but this latest effort has more in common with his oddly flawless 2010 movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. But for the most part, Wright’s signature is lost in the action. And the one thing I’ll say about that movie is I’m pleased that I got a writing credit on it, because it sort of makes up for having worked on the script for like eight years. “I’m more interested in the ride than the auto, if that makes sense”. It’s just another example of how Wright manages to tap into our child like fantasies, and he’s perhaps the only filmmaker who makes you realise anyone could seem really cool if you look at them the right way.

The tense action scenes are complimented by equally tense interactions between the twisted, risky characters that surround Baby from all sides. They talk and flirt and fall for each other and wax poetic about heading west on I-20 in a auto they can’t afford with plans they don’t have.

Baby Driver also stands as Wright’s most tonally serious film. “They’d steal something on the day of the heist from a parking structure, something that’s not going to be phoned in as missing”.

Baby Driver is a flawed but technically astounding achievement, a meticulously crafted rock and rollercoaster of a trip. Its criminals aren’t swanky; they’re more blue-collar.

“The way he gets his music is because he steals iPods because he steals cars, and when you steal a vehicle, you might steal an iPod too”, he explains. John Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez sizzle on screen with their chemistry as Buddy and Darling. Baby lives and drives to the music streaming from his battery of iPods. “I think the last communication I had with him is I said, “‘Please don’t just use my storyboards, ‘ and then I’ve never spoken to him anymore ever since”. In Baby Driver, Wright choreographs extravagant car-chase sequences with a score that hits and hits.

Of course, in the world of heist movies, it’s never that simple. Here’s PG-13 versus R in a nutshell: When a guy gets shot in an R-rated movie, you know for sure he’s dead. This musically charged heist film puts in enough of Wright’s signature style that he’s known for while also editing a well-crafted feature with a selection of great soundtracks. The music includes songs from Blur, Run the Jewels, Sky Ferreira, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Queen and Golden Earring. “It’s always something I’ve wanted to use”. From the outrageously entertaining opening, filled with dancing and drifting alike, to the octane-fueled conclusion, the movie is as infectious as the great pop songs that give it life. Wright remember watching a Damned documentary a year ago in which the lead singer, Dave Vanian, complained about the lack of his band in movies.

“If there wasn’t dialogue, there’d be playback that we could all hear”. Teenage motorist Baby (Ansel Elgort) is the most talented and skilled in the business, as long as he has music in his ears.

I have not spoken to him at all.

So what sets the movie apart from any other action movie?