Director Edgar Wright‘s past work—Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World—has masterfully welded slapstick comedy with action caper. His next flick, Baby Driver, boasts his most A-list cast yet but promises more of his hybrid cinematic style.
In tandem with its lauded premiere at South by Southwest, a trailer has dropped that lays the groundwork: Ansel Elgort plays “Baby,” a Ryan Gosling-esque getaway driver at the beck and call of Kevin Spacey’s mob boss character. Lily James serves as his beautiful love interest and Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx both act as his criminal sidekicks.
But where this film diverges from the usual road-chase flick is that Baby blasts his iPod during his getaway operations to drown out his chronic tinnitus, meaning the action sequences will play like badass elongated music videos.
The conceit appears to work. New York magazine said the film “plays out like blasting your coolest friend’s record collection in your car at 100 mph on the Atlanta freeway while cops close in on all sides – essentially what happens in the movie again and again, to always-riveting effect.”
We’ll be seated front row when the film premieres August 11.