Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

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The Narrator Returns
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Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#1 Post by The Narrator Returns » Sun Mar 12, 2017 1:29 am

Edgar Wright's Baby Driver

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Foam
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films

#2 Post by Foam » Sun Mar 12, 2017 5:35 am

Sick as hell. Looks like it could be a proper follow up to the stylistic development Wright began with Scott Pilgrim.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#3 Post by domino harvey » Tue Mar 14, 2017 3:59 pm

I thought the trailer looked awful but reading early reactions, it appears the trailer is hiding the central conceit for some reason: all of the car chases and action sequences are synched to the music, so that it's a bit like that "Tainted Love" Levi's ad. Plus apparently the opening scene/number is scored to "Bellbottoms" by JSBX, which is already a bold choice that tells me there's likely more here than the dumbed down trailer shows

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#4 Post by Werewolf by Night » Tue Mar 14, 2017 4:23 pm

I thought the international trailer was much, much better, and it seems to show a little of that synched editing.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#5 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Tue Mar 14, 2017 8:30 pm

Yeah, that got me more pumped than the other one, though I was sold by it. Hopefully this becomes something of a sleeper hit once it comes out.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#6 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Mar 15, 2017 11:59 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:Yeah, that got me more pumped than the other one, though I was sold by it. Hopefully this becomes something of a sleeper hit once it comes out.
Aiming high, I see.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#7 Post by domino harvey » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:02 pm

Not 2 Fast, Only Slightly Furious

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#8 Post by The Narrator Returns » Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:39 pm

The release date has been moved up to June 28 (it was previously scheduled to come out August 11).

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#9 Post by Ribs » Wed Jun 07, 2017 12:21 pm

Mildly disappointed with this; it was fine, but I was assuming it would end up being the most Edgar Wright movie, going really all-in with his motifs and choreography and all that, but it was more-or-less just a fairly traditional crime movie with some interesting sequences. I expected a further advancement on even The World's End - ridiculously pacy, hilarious, with an impossibly well-thought out structure and style. I was *way* oversold on the premise that the first reviews reported; there's basically no careful syncing of any music to any of the action beyond the most superficial elements, and even still a lot of the movie is just music playing in the background with no immediate bearing on what's happening. It's alright, and does feature a good amount of Ansel Elgort dancing, so can't complain too much.

(I'm no fan of Scott Pilgrim or even Hot Fuzz, for what it's worth)

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#10 Post by captveg » Sat Jun 10, 2017 2:08 am

Well, I saw it tonight and loved it. You're right in that it doesn't push the genre like his other films have pushed theirs, but I pretty much adored what I was viewing the whole runtime.
Last edited by captveg on Mon Jun 19, 2017 12:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#11 Post by ChetRoivas » Mon Jun 19, 2017 9:32 am

captveg wrote:Well, I saw it tonight and loved it. You're right in that it push doesn't the genre like his other films have pushed theirs, but I pretty much adored what I was viewing the whole runtime.
I felt the same. I think it's quite unbridled in the way it's structured which may turn some people off, but the minute-to-minute pleasures are pretty immense. It met my sky-high expectations pretty comfortably.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#12 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Jun 30, 2017 11:34 pm

Baby Driver is exactly what I wanted it to be and a good deal more, the only movie from this year so far that I can see myself watching another dozen times in the years to come. By casting a trained dancer in the lead role, Wright is able to let what he usually accomplishes through snappy editing and visual gags happen diegetically within the film’s reality, and it is an incredible sight to behold. All of the music is a) excellent b) wisely chosen as it does not steal too much thunder from the on-screen action and c) thankfully not choreographed with each and every thing going on except in neat little moments that stand out but don’t smother. The overall experience is exhilarating, with the contrast between the innocence and tragedy of the protagonist contrasted to great effect with the menace of his circumstances, heightening the film’s stakes and adding a great deal of satisfaction to the ways in which Wright sees fit to land it.

I’d say it’s the first five-star film of this year, and even better than Wright’s career best, whichever that is in your estimation (absolutely Hot Fuzz in mine). It exists outside of the super cutesy referential nerd culture universe that he occasionally finds himself lumped into, and it is all the greater for it. It’s certainly possible (probable) to love both, but if you were put off by Drive, I suspect that this will be the perfect antidote.

Oh, and Ansel Elgort (someone needs to Hollywood Ellis Island the kid, stat) deserves a Best Actor nomination for this.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#13 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sat Jul 01, 2017 12:41 am

I liked it very much, but I think it was a four out of five rather than a perfect five for me- somehow, the balletic precision of the movement of people and cars never quite hit the ecstatic something that a lot of the movies it reminded me of (Drive, obviously, but also Wild at Heart, and maybe Thief) do- the rhythm of the chase scenes cut just a second too quickly, or with just a few too many inserts, I'm not sure. I think the best scene in the movie is a relatively quiet one, near the beginning, with Baby simply dancing through life, simply making every movement into dance- a virtuoso feat, but also a very familiar one, and one where the movie really became what I was hoping it would be throughout. I'm frustrated, because this is a movie I'm excited for, and I think it is my second favorite Wright (behind Hot Fuzz)- and it's very possible that if I saw it again, it would suddenly have the alchemy that felt missing, I don't know.

I do think that Wright has, very deliberately, made a movie that is more pop music and surfaces than it is the obsessive depths the other movies it brought to mind generally do- this is a movie about two fundamentally decent young people, who are not emotionally destroyed by their traumas, nor forced into the 'time is luck' mindset that animates Mann movies because of their choices. We get a hint of that through the (excellent) Jon Hamm, who felt like he was the lead in a movie this movie intersected with, a darker and more tragic one, but Elgort ultimately seems like he'll be fine. I do wish that we'd had more time with Debora; the relationship between the leads is sweet, and surprisingly believable, but her screen time is short enough (and her motivation thinly enough sketched) that she comes off as a mirage of a better life as much as she does a person in her own right, which felt like a shame coming from Wright, who has explored relationships and young women characters with lovely depth in Scott Pilgrim and Spaced.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#14 Post by mfunk9786 » Sat Jul 01, 2017 12:46 am

Great points. I know it might not have been what you were aiming at, but you’ve sparked a realization in me - this feels like a movie that Pegg and Frost would’ve been geeking out about in Hot Fuzz - that feels like evidence that it’s a step up in Wright’s maturity as a filmmaker more than maybe anything else about it.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#15 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sat Jul 01, 2017 12:53 am

Oh, sure- I think if you're looking for a sugar high buzz comparable to Point Break, this movie absolutely succeeds (and I really love Point Break, so I'm not trying to damn this with faint praise.) I also agree that I'm now really curious about what Wright will do next- it looks like this one will actually make a fair amount of money for a movie with a $40m budget, so hopefully it will be 'whatever he feels like.'

Also, while I liked Ant-Man, it would give me a lot of joy if this wound up outgrossing it- I want the Marvel execs who made that awful decision to have every opportunity to feel like idiots over it.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#16 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Jul 01, 2017 8:18 am

My reaction was pretty close to matrix's (my brain desperately wants to read that as matrices), though I don't think I can put it ahead of either Hot Fuzz or The World's End on first viewing. I also loved the title sequence with Ansel Elgort/Angel Elsort/Elgin Ansort dancing through the streets, and there were certainly several other sublime moments of Wrightist brilliance, but there were enough moments that didn't quite work or felt off somehow to keep me from unreservedly enjoying it.

*For one minor example I wanted to ask about, did I imagine it or
SpoilerShow
did the citizen hero who tried to stop the armored car robbery not only have a gold plated Desert Eagle but a MP5 sub machine gun to use on Baby and his associates? I thought that was surely a hint that something was not as it seemed about that incident that would come into play later. Now I'm wondering if that's just Wright's assumption about what many American Southerners have ready in their pickup just in case.
While it's usually on second viewing that all the intricacies of Wright's films really show themselves, this one felt less likely for that to happen, less dense with subtle moments of technical elegance and clever in-jokes only improved by knowing the whole picture of where the film is going. This is definitely a case where if Wright had directed under a pseudonym I'd be higher on the film than I am with the expectations stemming from his earlier work in the mix.

That said, excellent music, a parade of enjoyable actors having fun with Wright's dialogue, and some well-choreographed car action never make for a bad time at the movies. Certainly a welcome antidote to the parade of unnecessarily serious, dumb, and/or bloated movies that do a disservice to the summer popcorn movie.

Finally,
SpoilerShow
and maybe I just have David Lynch on the brain these days, but did the pair of black-and-white sequences pre-post office robbery and post-sentencing with Baby imagining a kind of idealized freedom with Debora strike anyone else as Lynch-inspired?

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#17 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sat Jul 01, 2017 10:17 am

Those were the moments that made me think of Wild at Heart, yeah

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#18 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Jul 01, 2017 10:20 am

matrixschmatrix wrote:Those were the moments that made me think of Wild at Heart, yeah
Missed that comment! Posting too early...

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#19 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sun Jul 02, 2017 1:09 pm

It looks as though this did wind up making $30m by the end of its first weekend, which is Wright's best opening by a factor of three- hopefully this will keep making money, since I would love for Wright to have complete artistic freedom for his next project (especially since he's a producer on this one as well.)

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#20 Post by Ribs » Sun Jul 02, 2017 1:36 pm

I mean, even the most conservative of projections should put this ending up at over $70m, meaning it'll at least make it's budget back domestically with a good chunk of change towards what was probably a really big promotion spend. But it's a good sign that he'll probably be given a bit more carte blanche for his next project if he wants it.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#21 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sun Jul 02, 2017 1:46 pm

It's always hard to get a handle on how much is actually spent on ads- I was seeing a lot of them online, but those are highly targeted (I saw roughly the same number for the My Brother, My Brother, and Me tv show, and I can't imagine that spent all that much.) I haven't been seeing busses and billboards for this, the way I have for Despicable Me.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#22 Post by Ribs » Sun Jul 02, 2017 2:05 pm

I was just basing it on the cast making some pretty notable appearances from Foxx and Elgort on chat shows and the like, as well as a good smattering of TV ads (though The Beguiled seems to have really doubled down onto that market; it feels like every commercial break there's one on for that one (that's also done very well, but on a different scale).

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#23 Post by knives » Sun Jul 02, 2017 2:17 pm

matrixschmatrix wrote:It looks as though this did wind up making $30m by the end of its first weekend, which is Wright's best opening by a factor of three- hopefully this will keep making money, since I would love for Wright to have complete artistic freedom for his next project (especially since he's a producer on this one as well.)
Not just that, but in a day or two it will be his highest grossing film by any measure. Still no Antman though.


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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#25 Post by xoconostle » Tue Jul 04, 2017 9:59 am

mfunk9786 wrote:Baby Driver is exactly what I wanted it to be and a good deal more, the only movie from this year so far that I can see myself watching another dozen times in the years to come.
These were exactly my thought while viewing yesterday. It's rare that I see a mainstream/Hollywood release these days where I don't want the movie to end. While it's true that the film invokes numerous conventional motifs, I thought it did so without too heavy a hand which made their appearances enjoyable. I very much liked the escapist early '60s fantasy sequences (I'd say more but want to avoid spoilers.) All I was expecting was a car chase movie (which aspect is delivered in astounding spades) but got so much more. Very surprised to actually be emotionally affected by the film. A saving grace is that for the bulk of the film, it doesn't appear to be taking itself too seriously. Then when the punch at the end needs to be delivered, it feels heartfelt and sincere. Overall a gem of a film. More summer movies like this, please.

Did anyone else think that perhaps Ansel Elgort's jacket intentionally invoked Han Solo? Great pilots and all that.

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