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Rating: The strange, formidable, utterly original world of Mr. Edgar Wright. In what was one of the most anticipated films of recent months (at least for me, much more than, say, the new Nolan release), the cinema of the English sprite (recently also on the jury in Venice, and it shows) reaches new forms and new heights. For quite some time, Wright has been one of the most interesting (post)modern filmmakers, because works like Shaun of the Dead or Scott Pilgrim remain memorable gems of the last decade and beyond, and above all, they show a talent in motion, with its influences like anyone else, but without the need to be derivative of anyone. Baby Driver was a project that had been cooking for over twenty years in the mind of the director originally from the Southwest of Her Majesty's Kingdom. A work that from its earliest mental origins was already deeply connected to images, music, rhythm. In 2002, then, directing the music video for Blue Song by Mint Royale, one could already notice the seeds of Baby. What comes out now is indeed his most accomplished and personal work.
"I was 21 when I started to develop an obsession with Orange, the album by the John Spencer Blues Explosion. There was this track, Bellbottoms, that I listened to a lot, and each time I thought: 'This is the perfect music for a car chase.' This got me thinking about the possibility of making an action musical. Something like what Scorsese and Tarantino do with a jukebox, taking it to the extreme limit. I wanted something bold, echoing films like Point Break, The Getaway, and Walter Hill's movies. When the action kicks off, it becomes more frantic and violent. It creates real collateral damage."
Wright, for that matter, also rewatched Blues Brothers, but in truth, all these references are destined to be swept away by the uniqueness of a film completely out of the box. So much so that, initially, it wasn't so easy to find a strong production for an adequate realization. Ultimately, Baby Driver isn't an action comedy, a heist movie, a parody of films like Drive (Wright began writing the screenplay almost simultaneously with the birth of Refn's film) nor a dramatic film or a more conventional fusion of drama and comedy in the American style (this is Wright's first USA film, by the way) . The film moves between the lines of the genres, creating a very personal mix of cinema in its purest form. So you witness action scenes perfectly synchronized to the music the protagonist listens to, a post-adolescent love story that succeeds in never being nauseating, a story where boredom is never present and at the same time, it is never a trivial collection of chases or shootouts.
The fun is immense, the level of acting no less (memorable are Spacey, the ex-Don Draper Jon Hamm, and the psychopathic Jamie Foxx) and the essential soundtrack is fantastic, but most importantly, you witness what is perhaps the most beautiful and honest film one can see today. Thankfully, far from some (fake) social (pseudo) commitment from festivals, the rhetoric of certain blockbusters by celebrated directors, or pretentious auteur products that wish to portray today's conditions with repeated political-moralistic ramblings (what a bore).
Entertainment has never been such a balm as in this case.
God save the Queen and Mr. Edgar Wright.
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