Best fun film of 2017

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2017)

Edgar Wright is a modern alchemist. He is able to use all of his great technique to confect these cinematic sensations from hybridising horror and working class comedy in "Shaun of the Dead" to mashing a rom com with a video action film in "Scott Pilgrim" and finally with his latest chimaera, a musical, yes you read that right, with a top notch heist thriller. That unholy mixture is breathtakingly arrogant and he just about pulls it off. The plot is the stuff of a million genre flicks. Good guy criminal is forced to do jobs and work with people he doesn't like but he will soon be out. Sure, the focus is on the getaway driver but even that we have seen from Ryan O'Neal in "The Driver" all the way to a few years ago and Ryan Gosling in "Drive". The twist it is not about the plot. Wright's genius is the prism through which he tells that story and it will come as a shock that much of this film is closer to "Singing in the Rain" then "Heat". So we must talk about his cast because if anyone can put an ensemble together it is Edgar Wright. If you look at all his earlier films there are breakout performances scattered everywhere. It is easy to forget that he selected Brie Larson to play Envy Adams who five years later would be receiving an Oscar for Best Actress. In this film he has plucked out Ansel Elgort as the eponymous driver and what a find. I recognised Elgort from the Divergent films but in this he is a charisma explosion and moves so silkily that I would be surprised if he hadn't trained as a dancer. Elgort is paired with Lily James who I thought was underwhelming in the BBC production of "War and Peace" but here she is great concoction of innocence and hometown sex appeal. And what a voice! The rest of the cast is a who's who of fantastic actors: Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Bernthal. Jon Hamm and newcomer Eiza Gonzales do a twist on Bonny and Clyde and steal all their screen time. This is easily Hamm's best film role of his career and shows he has some post Mad Men life in him. In the end, it all comes back to Wright. The film is, especially at the beginning, too postured and not as organic as "Scott Pilgrim" but I think like "LaLa Land", Wright had to establish what type of world we are entering. It might explain that a lot of people are saying they are enjoying the second viewing more than the first. In my experience, it took almost the first act for the film to find its feet and then it exploded as a mixture of music, great editing and clever amalgams on known film tropes. This is one of those films that cannot be analysed: see it and experience the wall of sound and action that is Edgar Wright and "Baby Driver".