And so it (finally) begins, an excellent summer movies season. First, Dinner with Beatrix and now BABY DRIVER. While not perfect, Baby Driver is excellent right up to the last ten minutes.
But wait, this podcast is brought to you by Pete Ryckaert, a Rochester visitor who not only treated me to the movie, but to a high end movie experience. If you live in a city lucky enough to have CineBistro, run, don’t walk to this venue. Recliners and gourmet food? Fuggedaboutit.
Back to the review: anytime you pair great music with action and/or emotion, you’ve got a winner. Most of the time anyway (sorry, no dice Lala ‘B’Land). I was in love with Baby Driver even before seeing it, after reading the LA Times article about how the star, Ansel Elgort, landed the role after telling director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, etc) that he knew the words to Easy by the Commodores (SOLD! Love that song!)
Ansel was made for this role, though I couldn’t help but be a little sad for my son, Liam Enright, who is just as in to music and trying his darnedest to make it in Brooklyn (go see him at the Bitter End in Brooklyn on July 7th). https://soundcloud.com/socialanimals/subway-dream-girl
But I digress…again, fully confident that you can handle it, in this a.d.d what’s-my-phone-saying-oh-yes, I’m-listening-to-you-world we live in.
If you loved Drive (Ryan Gosling), you’ll love Baby Driver. With a monosyllabic but ultra hip protagonist (Elgort), a submissive and sensitive romantic interest played by Lily James (Downton Abbey), bad guys galore; Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm (can’t get any better for supporting roles) and of course, drum roll, the man that’s so bad he’s so good (in every damn role he’s ever played) Kevin Spacey.
The film’s action scenes are incredible. I haven’t seen car chases scenes this fun since Steve McQueen and Ali McGraw (The Getaway, “Punch it Baby!”) or the kooky ones in Streisand and O’Neal’s “What’s Up, Doc?”.
My problem with the film is the ending, but I get it. Endings are downright impossible. I’d tell you what I would have liked to have seen, but that would be giving spoilers away. And as you know, I am faithfully yours….no spoilers.
GO SEE THIS ONE!
