BABY DRIVER (film)

BABY DRIVER. Edgar Wright, director, script. UK/USA: Working Title Films et al. (production) / TriStar Pictures (US theatrical release), Sony in various incarnations for rmost remaining human habitations), 2017. See IMDb for details of producition companies and distribution.[1]

IMDb lists genres as Action, Crime, Music, Thriller.[2] Erlich will call it a "mundane" romantic comedy art film — but with more fire-fights and a higher body count than usual for largely-sentimental romantic comedies — with a central motif of heists and car chases. Significant here as a present-day, non-SF film featuring a variety of cars and other street vehicles with four or more wheels (with motorcycles notably absent), and for reminding the audience that we hear as well as see films and the world — and of the degree to which we are surrounded by various devices for recording and playing back sound. A classic iPod is central to the film's sound motif, but visible and often audible also are audio-tape machines of various sizes and formats (including reel-to-reel) and electronic systems for creating and mixing music and recorded speech. From the point-of-hearing of the protagonist "Baby Driver," we live our lives to music and occasionally significant spoken words, made more noticeable by brief scenes in American Sign Language (which IMDb entry lists along with English as a language of the film).[3]

Cf. and contrast THE CONVERSATION and BLOW OUT (1981).[4]

NOTE: Fans of Simon and Garfunkel should stick around for the credits, which feature S&G's "Baby Driver" (1970), with its Singer, like the film's protagonist, literally and/or figuratively "born […] With music coming in my ears."[5]

RDE, Initial Compiler, 3July17