Catch Me If You Can Review

2002 was a great year for Steven Spielberg. He released both Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, both grossing approximately half a billion dollars. While those two are on my favorite Spielberg list, I feel that Catch Me If You Can has to be considered one of the best that the director has made. As always SPOILERS will be included.

The opening title sequence is such an entertaining thing to watch. It is reminiscent of the old Saul Bass title sequences of the past which appeared in films he worked on such as North by Northwest and Psycho to name a few. The sequence details the young figure being followed by a man in a suit. The figure switches occupations from being a pilot, a pediatrician, and a lawyer. Shame though that title sequences are somewhat extinct now.

The film then cuts to the game show called “To Tell The Truth” where the host announces that the three men are Frank Abagnale and elaborates further that Frank had scammed a variety of people in three continents for millions of dollars. Although it’s obvious that Leo DiCaprio plays him and the poster gave it away. Then it cuts to a French prison where Carl Hanratty played by Tom Hanks is asking the French police to see Frank. When he sees Frank, he is extremely ill. When the doctors take him to be examined, Frank attempts to escape.

We then flash back when Frank and his family were affluent. From there, we see that he has a penchant for removing labels such as when he removes the wine label. We then transition when we see that the dad played by Christopher Walken has Frank follow him to con a bank by giving him a loan. The bank denies Abagnale Sr. a loan due to him having an association of multiple tax frauds from the IRS. Which leads them to downscale from having a big house to an apartment.

The downsizing results in Frank attending a public school. When he first attends his French class, he starts to act like a substitute. This is one of my favorite scenes and I will tell you why. Abagnale just raises his voice to have total authority in the classroom and has a lot of his classmates duped. Another is when he gets back at a letterman who just earlier bumped into him by the lockers in the hallway. In a way, it is a payback. By having him recite a French sentence in front of the entire class. Though what sucks is when the actual substitute got duped as well, which prompts her to leave the school.

Soon it leads to Frank being chastised by the principal. His mother is disappointed in him but his dad chuckles with him. Things get worse when the mother Paula starts to cheat on the father. He is asked by the lawyers on whom to stay with, Frank runs away. This is where the film really kicks off since he tries to live in New York City relying on checks his Dad made for him. Though, it doesn’t work since he immediately gets evicted and kicked out by a landlord. On the streets, he notices that the pilot and flight attendants are treated like stars, which I feel is a far cry to today now since no one really cares or admires them.

He buys a used pilot uniform and asks a worker under a guise as a student newspaper reporter a series of questions on being a pilot. Frank manages to use his charm to get a series of checks to forge and loads of model Pan-Am airplanes to make the forgery seem legit. The scenes where we see Abagnale put together or knowing how to assemble fake checks is so interesting to me that I actually want to read the book the film is based on. I can probably infer that he may have learned it from his father, but I can get Frank taught himself.

Though his charm only goes so far since. There are moments where when he is an either in the cockpit or operating room where he looks like a deer in the headlights. So much so that he has no clue what a dead head is. Even I had to look it up. It’s interesting to me as to why there are technical terms that sound sexual. Anyways, Frank’s exploits catch the eye of Carl Hanratty. Tom Hanks does a good job playing the FBI Detective. He’s a real stick in the mud and the complete opposites of his partners who like to joke a lot.  Though, his fake accent does get a tad distracting.

The first meeting is tense when Carl intercepts Frank in California. Abagnale manages to use his calm manner to defuse the situation when Hanratty is pointing his colt pistol at him. Even before that, Frank manages to pay two men to play the part as himself when the FBI arrived. I thought that Frank’s fake name Barry Allen was clever. Despite the name being associated with DC Comics’ The Flash, Frank manages to evade Carl. Later, Carl realizes the connection and later knowing that Abagnale is a teenager.

In between the moments where he assumes another identity, he spends time with his Dad. We later understand why exactly Frank is committing fraud. Which is him attempting to bring his family back together. Not realizing that his Dad and Mom are separated. I think the Dad goes through a nice character arc where he is vindictive with the government robbing his wealth to have him transition with having a job as a postal worker. I think it cements the idea of giving in to authority which we’ll see later.

Frank later becomes a doctor and a lawyer. He also meets Brenda played by Amy Adams. There is a moment that is very neat such as him fixing Brenda’s relationship with her family. For once, he actually felt being a part of a family. Frank calls Carl and asks him to call off the hunt for him but, Hanratty says that isn’t possible since Abagnale has stolen 4 million dollars. I really like the moments where Carl and Frank are on the phone during Christmas. I find it ironic since that holiday is associated with family and Frank only has an FBI detective that has any sense of a relationship.

Unfortunately, Frank abandons Brenda and flees the country. Years past and Carl manages to find the teen to a printing factory in France. The police takes Abagnale away and we cut to where we saw him in the beginning at the French prison. Throughout the movie, scenes flashback and forward where Carl has Frank in custody. It breaks the film up to have a break with Frank escaping.

Well, when they land in New York, Frank escapes one more time to go to his original house. It’s heartbreaking to see his mother already move on with a new husband. Honestly, it makes me think if the mother ever really loved Frank. Compounding it is Frank seeing his new stepsister. He finally gives up and gets in the backseat of the police car.  The film ends in a good note when Frank manages to use his intellect to find fake checks and actually worked in the same department as Carl.

As I mentioned earlier, this is one of the best Spielberg film. Ranking them is just impossible due to how pleasing it is. I feel that it should at least be a Top 5, due to making a conman relatable and sympathetic. It’s not an easy job to do but Spielberg and DiCaprio manage to make Frank Abagnale such a compelling character. Overall, this is a very entertaining film to enjoy. One where it forces you to ask, just how exactly did Frank get away with it.

Catch Me If You Can gets a 4 out of 5.

Caddyshack Review

This is one of the crudest comedies that I have seen from the 80s. The late Harold Ramis really flexed his comedic chops when directing this one. This is actually my first time viewing the film. A couple years back, I got this movie from a discount rack at Wal-Mart. It's been on my Blu-Ray shelf mostly collecting dust. I felt bad since I could have watched it back then, but I’m easily absolved of that now. As always SPOILERS in the review.

As the title suggests, it involves golf. Although not in the way one would think when seeing the movie like I did. It's about this young caddie named Danny who has the job at the country club since he's saving up to go to college. He's a relatable character since in the beginning he lives in a small two-story house with tons of siblings. My favorite moment is when he is cycling to go to the country club. He sees the rows of fancy houses on the street, each one different and giving him a choice of options. It is communicating to us what Danny wants for himself and who could blame him.

With that happening, we see how everything works at the caddie station. It seems as though there is a power hierarchy among the young caddies. Loomis played by Bill Murray's older brother Brian Doyle-Murray is a gambling man who bets on baseball games. He is the one that keeps tabs on every caddie and occasionally helps out Danny. Such as when he gets bullied by another caddie and Loomis grabs him and forces him to read the rules on a sign. One tidbit I like is that the owner of the club says that the property does not allow for bets. Which is a callback to what Loomis did just minutes earlier.

Danny caddies for a wealthy man named Ty Webb played by Chevy Chase. He is a relaxed golfer who has a belief of everything falling into place. Danny asks Webb on the idea of going to college and Ty brushes him off. By stating to him that a higher power will show Danny a better way. He then decides to gain a favor from the owner Judge Smails played by Ted Knight who tells Danny that there is a scholarship for caddies. This is the key thing that really makes this film work for me. The focus isn’t really on the older golfers because it would be boring but the main framing story is on Danny and how he is being influenced by the affluent golfers.

When we aren’t following Danny, Bill Murray steals the show. He plays the groundskeeper Carl Spackler who is assigned by his overseer to get rid of a gopher who is ruining the golf course. It feels like a Looney Tunes bit involving the Coyote and Road Runner. So much so that the animal leaves a trail like Bugs Bunny. The Gopher is animated with animatronics, and I think is one of the problems I had with the film. It could have been played straight with Spackler trying to use various outrageous ways to kill one gopher and not working. I was laughing but thinking about it more, it took me out of the movie.

As I mentioned, Spackler steals the movie because he is so insane. He mumbles and stalks the female golfers like a crazy man. He goes on tangents that involves having a rough military past. That’s really all I got to say about him because another comedian steals the show as well. Rodney Dangerfield plays the eccentric millionaire Al Czervik. He is the one that causes the most damage in the country club. It gets to a point that Judge Smails wants him out of his club since Al damaged the judge’s boat. As well as being a massive pain in the ass.

From there, Webb suggests that there be a competition between Judge Smails and Czervik on if Al gets to be a member of the club or not. There is a caveat since Danny is chosen to be the caddie. This is the part that I liked. Earlier in the film, Danny actually wins a golfing match between the other caddies to win the scholarship. Now the stakes are high when he has to tee off against the judge when Al gets injured by his own tee. Meanwhile, Spackler devised a plan to kill the Gopher. The tension is really heightened since Spackler intends to blow the gopher up and Danny trying to win. I was anxious when Danny’s ball stopped at the very edge of the hole. Regardless, the entire golf course blows up and Danny wins.

This film is fun and the most interesting bit is that half of the movie was improvised. The talent that was being presented by the comedians is just a miracle. Chevy and Bill had been on Saturday Night Live prior to this film and manage to have a comedic synergy. More so on Dangerfield since he just was roasting everyone and had a different one liner. That’s the thing with comedy films that have some improvisation. There needs to be basic direction to have the comedians be lightning fast with their wits and it pays off.

My favorite moment doesn’t necessarily involve golf but a swimming pool at the country club. Dozens of the young caddies swarm the pool and start to have fun. Especially when the lifeguard post gets knocked down. There are three teens hanging by the pool, one of the is about to eat a Baby Ruth bar, and one of them tosses it to the pool. The kids start freaking out and believe that the candy bar is a floating turd. Judge Smails order the pool to be drained and to be cleaned. The real kisser is when Murray’s character eats the bar and the judge and his wife is disgusted. Now, that’s crude humor.

Overall, this one of the few comedic sports movies that I have ever seen. Maybe its because it’s the fear that people don’t know the sport to failure to catch the jokes, when really its to have the sport be the background with characters worth caring. Caddyshack does it well and should be viewed more as a classic gem.

Caddyshack gets a 4 out of 5.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut Review

    This is one of the most interesting films I have ever seen. It manages to use two different genres such as science fiction and film noir to showcase a futuristic city and tell a story of what it means to be living. Before I delve into Blade Runner, I feel it's best to tell a brief history of just how the film has a "Final Cut". 

    To begin with, the movie is loosely based on a Philip K. Dick novel called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", by having some elements from the book be the basis for Ridley Scott's film. When it was first released back in the summer of 1982, it bombed in the box office. The movie was released alongside E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which made more than Blade Runner's budget. Compounding this was that Warner Bros. released a version that didn't meet Scott's vision. Such as having Harrison Ford's narration be unnecessarily dull and have a happy ending which conflicted with the themes of the movie. Subsequently, another cut of the film was released called the director's cut which removed the narration and inserted a dream sequence. 

    Which leads us to this recent cut dubbed the "Final Cut". This specific one is the one which Ridley Scott had total control artistically. With that out of the way, this is Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Spoilers will appear. 

    The film takes place during the futuristic rendition of Los Angeles in 2019. It took me out of the moment since we still don't have flying cars or explored further into outer space for colonization. Priorities I guess. We have a text crawl explain what a "replicant" is. It explains that they are androids who appear to be human but are mainly used for hard labor due to them having superior strength. We then transition to a very futuristic industrialized Los Angeles, where there flame stacks which remind me of an oil refinery. Overlooking the entire city is a pyramid like building housing the Tyrell Corporation which assembles and builds the replicants. 

    I love the zooming shot of the pyramid. I feel that the music by artist Vangelis contributes to the mysticism of the building and the wonder of what's inside it. More so is when we still zoom into a series of windows  which has ceiling fans. I wondered if it was either spliced in footage or miniatures being used. 

    Inside the building we meet Holden who is a "Blade Runner". He interviews a worker while using a machine called the "Voight-Kampff test". Think of it like a lie detector test, but to weed out a human who may be a replicant. The testing go south and the employee named Leon kills Holden. Just seeing them actually kill someone is an example in either film or literary terms called "Chekov's Gun". Meaning that a specfic thing that is described to do something has to be shown.

    We then transition to the main star of the film. Harrison Ford plays a retired Blade Runner called Rick Deckard who is shown eating at a noodle shop in the city. He is confronted by a man named Gaff who tells him that his superior needs to speak to him. They both fly to what I assume to be an LAPD headquarters, to have Deckard be interviewed.  He eventually sees his old boss Bryant, who tells him that four replicants have run rampant and needs Deckard to "retire" the replicants. Rick doesn't take the job but Bryant manages to tell threaten him with something incriminating which leads to Rick taking the job. 

    

    The whole scene plays out like an old detective films of the past. By having Deckard be a weathered guy who only reluctantly agrees to do a final job before actually retiring. I want to say that having Gaff be in the background doing his own thing such as assembling metallic origami figures, makes me think that he is a replicant but doesn't know it. 

    So they watch footage of the runaway replicants who rebelled in their off world facility and took a shuttle to Earth. Six of them tried to barge their way into Tyrell Corp.'s building but only four are still alive. What makes them so formidable is that they are the updated version of the replicants dubbed Nexus 6s. The surviving group is led by: Roy Batty, played by the late Rutger Hauer, Pris who is played by Darryl Hannah, as well as a "pleasure model" which confuses me since they don't use prostitute and Leon who we've seen earlier. There is some key moments such as having them be built to have a four year lifespan. Bryant then tells Deckard to test out the Voight Kampff on Tyrell's replicants, but Rick wonders if the new models can manage to outmaneuver the test. 

    

    Both Rick and Gaff go to Tyrell Corps and man, this set is so beautiful. It looks something out of royalty and mostly divine. There's also an owl which is actually artificial meaning that most living biological animals are all gone. Deckard meets Rachael who is so attractive and the hairstyle so, weird. She introduces him to Dr. Tyrell who wants Rick to try and "test" Rachael. We see the test in its methodical usage. I love the shot of Rachael smoking, the lighting is otherworldly. It gets to a point where Rick uses 100 questions on Rachael before the machine tells him that she is a replicant. 

    Tyrell tells her to leave the room, as he confesses to Deckard that she is an android but doesn't know it. He elaborates further that newer models have implanted memories that make them not go aggressive since the emotion is triggered when they realize that they have a short manufactured life. This what helps the theme of being human. Imagine knowing that everything you have known is a lie, knowing that you have just 4 years to live, that would make anyone be aggressive.

    The only complaint with the film that I personally feel is that the moments with the replicants are just not interesting to me. Particularly the moments when we follow Pris. She is supposed to be the femme fatale in the movie but I always assume that its Rachael since she is closer to Deckard. Regardless, Roy should've been the one with the most screen time since he's the one that is actively pursuing Dr. Tyrell. Since he wants to gain the ability to live forever. Since he is told its not possible, Roy justifiably kills Tyrell. 

    When we're with Rick in his apartment, there's a specific moment where its alleged that he is a replicant. He briefly dreams of a unicorn running in a forest. Many assume that particular shot of the animal is a clear signal that Deckard is a replicant. Although, there seems to be not clear since Ridley Scott says he is while Harrison Ford disagrees that his character is one. In my opinion, he is but it doesn't really matter.

    After Deckard manages to kill off (with some help) the remaining replicants, he confronts Roy. This scene is really the best out of all the scenes with the humans and replicants. Roy just toys with Rick in the abandoned apartment building. It's refreshing there wasn't any type of violence such as gun fights or a fight sequence. With just Roy going after Rick like a predator is really refreshing for this kind of film. The real highlight is when they're both at the rooftop when it's raining. Both are drained of energy and Roy monologues in front of Deckard. Saying to him that although he has memories that aren't his, the moments that he has seen will nevertheless be gone. As he puts it "like tears in rain".

    I feel that this film should be looked at by more people who love science fiction. It has a certain aesthetic that makes it feel unique. The special effects, while made in the early eighties still hold up. The music is the most memorable in any film. There are tints of noir sprinkled in the movie as well as emphasizing the futuristic aesthetic. 

    

    Overall, Blade Runner: The Final Cut should've been released back in '82. While it could've not performed well due to competition from an acclaimed director. It wouldn't be the first time where Warner Bros. had interfered with other movies. Where they butchered a director's vision due to the huge gamble the studio had but feared for the millions lost in their investment. The point is that the film is great and must be watched by any film enthusiast. 

     

    Blade Runner:The Final Cut gets a 4 out of 5. 

State From The Top

Howdy all, I’ve decided to update my fellow readers with important updates. First things first, How are you? You doing okay? That’s good. 

To add some more flavor to the blog, I will choose a month and dedicate it with reviews of beloved films from a variety of  famous directors. Additionally, every first Monday of the month will be dedicated as a spotlight of underrated films that should be given a chance to be looked at. I should note that when awards season comes around, I would dedicate the month to films that were either: snubbed, not nominated and, didn’t deserve to win the coveted awards.

The reason why I’m doing this is because, I want to extrapolate more on my ability to talk about films. As much as it’s part of my schedule to release reviews every Wednesday, I feel that I should do more to expose hidden gems of films or utter garbage in cinema. I ponder including screenshots of specific shots in films that I talk about in various films. But I feel that how I write is the best way to describe what I’m seeing and how I generally feel about the scenes in the films I type about. 

So with all that being said, the change will be established in August. I expect it to be challenging since I’m really going above and beyond to provide more content and to show people just what 4 years of learning and studying film does to a person who really loves to analyze and rationalize what exactly am I watching. 

Any updates that I feel that I must address or at least give some kind of hint that I’m still alive will be made every last day of the month.

 

Thank you for your time

-Mark Trevino

Bad Times at the El Royale Review

   

Drew Goddard is an up and coming director that is slowly making a name for himself. His directorial debut Cabin in the Woods is one of my favorite horror movies that I have ever seen and one where I will give a special attention sometime in the future. Other films that he wrote as a screenwriter such as Cloverfield and The Martian hold a special place in my heart especially the latter. Just to get it out of the way he wrote and directed the first two episodes of Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil. A pity then that his second film that he wrote and direct, Bad Times at the El Royale is a real disappointment when I finally watched it on Blu-Ray. There will be spoilers in the review.

Plot-wise it is very character driven meaning their actions dictate how the story is going to be told. A group of strangers converge on an old hotel that is located between the states of California and Nevada. Father Daniel Flynn is an old priest who is exploring the countryside. Darlene is a singer who is staying for one night for she has a performance in Reno the following day. Laramie at first appears to be a manager of the hotel but makes it known explicitly that he is a traveling vacuum salesman. Lastly, a young woman named Emily who appears as a hippy wants to stay in one of the rooms.

The plot kicks off by having the title cards have the room numbers where each character is staying. Although before that, the film starts with a man entering into a room played by Nick Offerman, who you may know him as Ron from Parks and Rec. He brings a bag and hides it underneath the floor of his hotel room. The entire shot is shot in one frame. Offerman’s character notices something in the mirror, he then hears his door knock and another man approaches and shoots him dead.

Watching the individual acts reminded me of the nonlinear approach that Quentin Tarantino used in his earlier films such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. With the first act “Room 1”, we find out that Laramie is not who we think he is. He calls his family and speaks to his daughter. As he does so, he disassembles the wiretap he finds in the phone of the hotel room. He does so more throughout the hotel room by finding more wiretaps and realizing something is wrong. Interestingly, Laramie discovers the mirror in his room is a two-way mirror and discovers a hallway with other two-way mirrors. He listens to Darlene singing and Emily bring a body that is bonded with cloth.

The second title card “Room 5” is mostly focused on Darlene. We see that she belonged to a group of singers in a band. She is chastised by the manager as he states that she is not good enough. Father Flynn knocks on her door and invites her to have a drink. We discover that he has a problem remembering and could be attributed to dementia. As the Father prepares the next round of drinks, he slips in a drug. Darlene then knocks out the father and leaves the lobby quickly.

The actual problem with the film unravels when we cut back to Laramie in the third title card “Washington D.C.”. Laramie tells his superiors that the room he is staying is bugged and the operation (it is vague and not elaborated) is compromised. Additionally, he tells his superiors that he saw a potential kidnapping, but they order him to stick with the plan (which is still vague and it’s not revealed what he was investigating) and to not interfere with the kidnapping. It becomes apparent that the film has a pacing problem. Why exactly do we cut to Laramie after following Darlene? Wouldn’t it make sense if this part came before Darlene’s scene? Also, it’s never revealed what exactly Laramie was investigating or why the hotel contained two-way mirrors and recorders to the room.

Following that, we focus on Emily and her hostage who is her sister named Rose in “Room 7”. It is established that they both belonged to a derivative cult led by Chris Hemsworth. Again, the pesky pacing problem rears its head when we cut to the two women as young girls who dealt with an abusive father. Why do we need that detail? It became annoying that the flashback had another flashback. We then cut back to the present and Laramie becomes concerned of the two of them. He barges in and Emily kills him where he is standing by the mirror. Emily discovers that the mirror is connected to the hallway.

Yet another flashback appears in the fourth title card “Room 4”. We find out that Father Daniel was a criminal bank robber and has moments where his memory loss is getting worse. The scene cuts back to when the hotel manager Miles wakes him up from being knocked out by Darlene. They both go into the hallway and Flynn accuses Miles of spying on him. Miles says that he didn’t and was ordered to do so. We never find out who ordered him or what the deal is with the rooms being bugged. It becomes frustrating since there appears to be an emphasis on details that are not needed and details that actually need to be elaborated but are not. It’s compounded near the end of the movie which I will get to.

So the cult leader somehow finds the hotel and takes Flynn, Darlene, and Miles as hostages. He finds that the bag that was stuffed underneath one of the rooms and realizes that it contains loads of money. Miles somehow breaks free and starts to kill the hippies and Emily. I swear this flashback pissed me the hell off. We see that Miles was a young kid who actually had a good shot with a gun. Cut to him in a jungle in obviously Vietnam because why not, shooting at the Vietcong. Eventually, Rose kills Miles after he kills Chris Hemsworth’s character. She dies from being shot by Flynn. Darlene and Flynn quickly leave the now abandoned hotel.

A couple things as to why this film was a massive disappointment for me. For one glaring thing is the pacing. It is abrupt and as I mentioned earlier, a lot of plot threads that are interesting are entirely dropped as the film continued. I wondered why exactly threads such as Laramie’s mission or the hotel’s sketchy ownership was even brought up. It could have been interesting to see something about why the hotel had their rooms bugged. Maybe tie it in with the killer hippies? It is such a glaring flaw that it really hampered the film’s run time. It didn’t really need to be an extra hour long. I feel that this one has to be a learning experience to Drew Godard on keeping pace with the plot and being invested with the characters. With so much unnecessary detail and flashback it becomes way too much detail oriented that there is no pay off.

What I will give credit is the acting. Everyone does a good job with what they got. Somehow, Goddard has Hemsworth give a convincing southern accent that he can pull of considering that he’s Australian. The set design and look of the movie just shout late sixties and early seventies. The main lobby of the hotel has a divide which shows California and Nevada. Since it’s obvious which one has a gambling slot machine. Unfortunately, great aesthetics can only do so much but not entirely fix the film’s internal problem.

I feel that Goddard has a good career ahead of him. He can craft interesting characters and tell a unique plot, though this one has to be a teachable moment for him going forward.

Bad Times at the El Royale gets a 3 out of 5.

Baby Driver Review

    This was the first Edgar Wright film that I have ever seen. I really had no expectations for this movie since I looked at the reception for Wright’s previous films, he is a well-established director. So it’s without a doubt that Baby Driver is one of the best films to come out in 2017 and is on my top ten favorite films.

    The film's plot is simple, Baby is a driver for a group of robbers in Atlanta. He uses music to help him drive like a NASCAR driver. After his supposed last robbery job, Baby pursues a waitress that he really likes at the local diner. It’s not until his boss named Doc calls back Baby for a bigger heist. What I like about the film is that it is very simple and very grounded in its car chases. In comparison to another film that involves car chases, The Fast and the Furious, Baby Driver easily takes the cake for best displays of car stunts that I have ever seen. None of the shots are computer generated or physics defying. The shots of the variety of vehicles Baby drives show off the great technique of drifting and quick thinking turns. The best example is in the beginning when Baby manages to evade the Atlanta PD with a red Subaru. More so evading the police with a popped wheel. 

    Another aesthetic that I really love about this film is the soundtrack. It is by far, the best soundtrack that I have ever heard in any film. The implementation of the music in the film works in a variety of ways. Let me list a few: in the title sequence Baby walks to get the crew coffee, what plays in Baby's iPod is "Harlem Shuffle". The shot is continuous with Baby dancing and shuffling. A tidbit that is included is that if you watch the scene multiple times, the spray paint mimics the lyrics. As well as the various outside noise in the city to mimic the beats of the song. Another example is when Baby takes the new crew to the local weapons dealer, what is interesting is that on the drive to get the weapons, Darla is singing the song "Nowhere to Run". It symbolizes by just the lyrics and the situation that "Baby" has no control and can't do anything. He is trapped and can't run. One last thing about the music is that Baby creates remixes. He does so by recording the conversations he hears from the crew and plays around with it. I like the process and technology he uses and is one of my favorite moments in the film. 

    Baby is also an interesting protagonist in the movie. I really appreciate his growth in the movie. One detail that I think is genius is that he quotes from other movies such as The Little Rascals, Fight Club, and Monsters Inc. When he speaks to either Doc or any crew members he quotes from those movies. It's like he can't speak for himself. Only when he feels comfortable when he is with Debora and his deaf guardian Joseph. His arc is interesting and is one of my favorite moments in the film. In the second half of the movie is when Baby starts to become more assertive instead of being passive. More so in his wardrobe. In the beginning he wears a black and white letter man jacket with sunglasses. He slowly fades from that particular look to just a t-shirt and pants. It's not noticeable but I really like the attention to detail that Baby is not a bad guy. One more thing is during the discussion of the second heist is that baby drowns out Doc's plan with his music and when one of the members questions if Baby heard Doc, Baby elaborately explains the heist plan.  

    If there is one complaint that I have is that the secondary characters feel one dimensional. I think it was intentional but I feel that the scene when the crew eat at the diner after the botched job at the Gunsmiths highlights the low points at the film. Bats tries to figure the couple's backstory, questioning if their real names are really Buddy and Monica. For as much as its just an assumption of what they did before being robbers, the act of characters telling what they did instead of showing it is a big screenwriting sin. The only kind of backstory we get is from Baby, such as what happened to his parents and the real reason why he listens to music. Another thing I didn't understand was the use of nicknames, there must be something that I may have missed or it was to avoid revealing who their real names are.

    Overall, Baby Driver is an exhilarating film that Edgar Wright managed to pull off with no difficulty. It is easily up there as the single best film he directed aside from any of the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy films. I will eventually review the trilogy in due time, possibly dedicate a whole month to them. 

    Baby Driver gets a 4 out of 5.