Edgar Wright, the young British curator of the Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy (remember the 2013 pub crawl to 'The World's End'), has put himself into the action black comedy about exploitation of youth, 'Baby Driver'.
Ansel Elgort plays Baby, the good kid chased into a life with the mob after a family tragedy, who puts his teenage reflexes into driving fast cars into chases and escapes. He even carjacks an old lady but gives her the purse back, and shoots out of a situation at the end only when he has to.
Kevin Spacey plays the boss Doc, looking more decrepit and withered than ever. After Baby is willing go to back to delivering Pizzas while taking care of a crippled and deaf stepfather, Doc threatens Baby back into the life of crime.
Baby will rescue a waitress girl friend and turn himself in when he has to, and it is not too much of a spoiler to admit he will be a model prisoner for five years.
The film presents plans of some pretty brutal stuff, including very personalized hostage taking in a post office heist (remember the bank robbery in 'Heat'), which I would not survive if it happened to me. The film makes pretty effective use of the Atlanta backdrop. I wonder if I-85 is back open.
As I walked into the AMC Shirlington last night, my smartphone beeped that Nationals player Trea Turner had a fractured wrist, on a day the Nats bullpen had blown a lead. I thought, Ansel Elgort certainly is built like a baseball player, especially a pitcher. How many young actors are capable of playing professional sports?
I think I vaguely remember seeing the 1956 classic film 'Baby Doll' on television in the 1990s, Elia Kazan's tale of a virgin in the south fought over by two men,, with Carroll Baker.
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