Spinning the wheel

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2019)

I'm not into the whole "Gone In 60 Seconds" / "The Fast And The Furious" franchises where the cars (or more particularly the driving and destruction of them) are the stars, but I took a chance on Edgar Wright's take on the brake and am glad I did.
Focusing on the appropriately baby-faced title character (Ansel Elgort) from first to last and told from his own cockpit view, I actually wondered if he was going to perpetuate his initial Harpo Marx mute routine for the whole movie and was a little disappointed that he didn't. Where I did connect with him however was in his devotion to his iPod where he has a different one for different moods and can find his favourite track by spinning its wheel as quickly as he can the one in his car.
Baby however has a lot on his plate, an orphan who unsurprisingly lost both his parents in a car crash, he now looks after his elderly deaf-mute black stepfather in a run-down apartment, appears to be under the control of criminal mastermind Doc (Kevin Spacey in his last major film role before his scandalous fall from grace) and then falls for a pretty waitress named Debora (Lily James) who shares his love for usually classic R 'n' B music.
Into the mix are thrown Doc's flaky negative-Mission Impossible assembled crime gang members Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm and Elza Gonzales who all get to jive talk and play shoot-em-up with any number of rival gangsters and errant cops who cross their paths, but who ultimately come to their own sticky ends.
With the action set-pieces neatly syncopated to a diverse soundtrack taking in obscure T Rex, early 70's Dutch Rock from Focus and Golden Earring as well as great soul-sides by Sam and Dave, Bob and Earl and Carla Thomas, ending of course on Simon and Garfunkel's title tune, the film is a breathless ride through a series of staged bank heists and of course car stunts where it's fair to say that many cars were damaged in the making of this movie. There was also a relieving dollop of comedy as you'd expect from director Wright in the crisp music-themed dialogue between Baby and Debora, the gang squabbling over which Mike Myers character mask to use when carrying out a robbery and Baby's gentleman-driver politeness which helps him ultimately to reduce his jail term and so reunite with Debs at the end.
All the performances are good, with Hamm in particular surprisingly so as the deranged stockbroker-gunslinger and Elgort and James as the young Bonnie and Clyde-types.
I actually watched this movie as an in-flight movie which probably isn't a bad way to see it. As well as helping my return home go quicker I also appreciate it saving me from ever dipping into any of the four-wheel stunt-fests like those mentioned at the start of this review.