Movies

'Baby Driver' Early Buzz: Edgar Wright Has Crafted A Dazzling Car Chase Musical

Baby Driver Reviews
By Ethan Anderton

Last night, attendees of South by Southwest were lucky enough to see the world premiere of Baby Driver, the latest film from Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs the World director Edgar Wright. The first trailer debuted just before the screening was over (watch it along with a much different international trailer over here), and if you're somehow not convinced to see the movie, maybe the early buzz from the first reactions to the movie will help.

We have a round-up of some brief reactions to Baby Driver after the jump.

For those who may not be familiar with the film, here's the synopsis for Baby Driver:

A talented, young getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. But after being coerced into working for a crime boss (Kevin Spacey), he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.

Following the premiere, here are some of the Baby Driver reactions from Twitter last night, with the first coming from our own Jacob Hall (who will have a full review soon) and Devindra Hardawar, followed by some of the other press on hand down in Austin, Texas:

Though it wasn't all big praise and hype. There was some dissension among the ranks:

Meanwhile, there are a few full Baby Driver reviews that are already online, including this one from Peter Debruge at Variety:

Like all Edgar Wright movies, "Baby Driver" is a blast, featuring wall-to-wall music and a surfeit of inspired ideas. But it's also something of a mess, blaring pop tunes of every sort as it lurches between rip-roaring car chases, colorful pre-caper banter, and a twee young-love subplot — to the extent that the movie will resonate most with audiences that skew young, hip, and, like its helmer and its hero (the latter played by baby-faced "The Fault in Our Stars" star Ansel Elgort), more than a little obsessive.

Wilson Webb at The Hollywood Reporter has a little more praise:

A movie-as-mixtape with few slots available for catch-your-breath downtempo tracks, Edgar Wright's rollicking Baby Driver is a Gone in 60 Seconds for the La La Land crowd, a True Romance that relishes the long wait before its young lovers can finally go on the lam. A crime-flick love story as Pop-conscious as Wright's earlier work but unironic about its romantic core, it will delight the director's fans but requires no film-geek certification...

Eric Vespe (aka Quint) at Ain't It Cool News had high expectations, and Edgar Wright exceeded them:

My expectations for Baby Driver were already through the roof so when I tell you that all I wanted to do was stand up and applaud the 113 minutes I just observed when the lights came back up you should know that feeling had to pass a bar set so high that it might as well be touching the ceiling.

Baby Driver is more polished and less crazy with his cuts and zooms than anything else that he's done, but it is also so thoroughly an Edgar Wright movie at the same time. His sense of humor, his understanding of character development and whip fast pacing are all on display, but in a slightly more grounded way.

You think you know how this movie's going to go. You think it's a "one last job" movie, but even if you're super film literate Wright knows more about movies than you do and he knows what you're expecting so he throws in a lot of curveballs. There are characters you love that become not quite so loveable and vice-versa. There are heist scenes you're pretty sure you have figured out, only to have them go off in different directions.

Michael Roffman at Consequence of Sound adds:

Wright orchestrates his action like it's being primed for a Technicolor musical, which is completely understandable given that he tagged performance artist, choreographer, and designer Ryan Heffington for the assist behind the scenes...Granted, there's always been a musicality to Wright's work, but it's never been to this scale and hardly at this volume. From beginning to end, Wright chews through dozens upon dozens of songs, making this seem like one long, epic music video...

***

For anyone who thought the trailer for Edgar Wright's Baby Driver looked conventional, the full reviews should help quell any worry they might have that the director has created something conventional. Plus, the consistent reference to the film as being a car chase movie musical has me the most excited. I can't wait to see how Edgar Wright uses music to drive the film, let alone every single action sequence. It doesn't seem like that's something which can be easily shown in the brief format of a movie trailer, but as we get closer to the August release date, we'll undoubtedly see a clip that better shows what's in store for us.

Baby Driver arrives in theaters late this summer on August 11.

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