you know what matters?
style.
whyzzat?
well, i could tell you
why i think so,
but instead
let me give you
three reasons style matters,
according to the
sleekly-stylish-
yet-(ironically)-
ever-so-serviceable
Baby Driver
ONE – style’s stylish
check out this story:
a bunch of robbers
rob some stuff
and almost get away with it,
but they end up
turning on each other –
as robbers do –
and then one of them
makes it out in the end (kinda)
sounds good, right?
now picture all that again, but
hear:
supercool throwback soundtrack,
see:
sexies like Jon Hamm,
wear:
shades, always shades
(i could go on)
get the point?
same story,
but do it with style –
that elusive,
hard-to-define-
but-you-know-it-
when-you-see-it
*it,*
which Baby Driver
simply ooooozes with –
and everything is
just so much more
. . . stylish . . .
so much more . . .
. . . better
TWO – everything is style
go back to the story above
it’s pretty basic, right?
looking back at some other
Edgar Wright movies,
they’re all kinda that way, right?
Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz,
The World’s End,
all awesome, imo,
(in a lot of people’s o, tbh),
but all generally
formulaic,
got plots you’d see coming,
“work out in the end,” etc. –
all basically basic, yeah?
but this isn’t a negative,
no, this is the point:
at the bottom,
everything is this way –
especially stories –
and there is something
essential and ancient and
meaningful and
not-to-be-missed
about that fact
(i.e. we need to ask
why is it this way?)
well then, what makes
different stories different?
(cuz they do be different)
style.
style:
the different clothes
you put on the
different iterations of the
same body
all these Edgar Wright films
are very different, sure,
but it’s their styles, really,
that make them so –
a zombie flick,
a buddy cop flick,
an apocalypse flick,
a heist flick,
etc. –
while the basicality
of the stories themselves,
of story itself,
remains basically constant
so: everything is the same,
yet,
everything is different,
cuz style;
therefore,
everything is style
(and style is everything)
whoa.
THREE – (good) style wins
so, for the scorekeepers,
so far we’ve meant
“style” as in
that indefinable cool,
and “style” as in
type or kind,
but for this third thing,
we mean “style” as in
the way a person is –
his/her character
or even lifestyle –
as in “that’s my style”
or “that’s not my style”
in Baby Driver,
it’s not Baby’s style
to kill people;
it’s really not even Baby’s style
to rob people –
he does that cuz
he’s gotta
in other words,
in Baby Driver,
Baby is a good person,
a moral person,
a just person who
tries doing what’s right,
even tho
he sometimes don’t
and this fact allows
Wright to say:
(good) style wins
bad guys get theirs and
good guys get theirs
(though they may need some
lesson learning along the way –
though they might could use some
r e d e m p t i o n
(might couldn’t we all))
(good) style wins
one reaps what
one sows,
(ultimately, eventually)
justice prevails,
yada yada
(good) style wins
cuz good > evil
you know,
(good) style wins –
that same basic story,
again
(surprise)
(but, again, why?)
so, to sum and say goodbye,
you should do a few things:
- check out “Cruising with BABY DRIVER”
for even more analytic goodness - stream that supersweet
Baby Driver soundtrack - see the movie, obv,
which is excellent,
so’s you can
see all these style insights
in person, yourself, and
ask those couple “why?” questions
from above,
plus other interrelated ones
that might come
(like “am i stylish?”
“what style of the story
do i be in?”
“what’s my style
and do it win?”
and so on
and on
