Baby Driver is the sleeper box-office hit of the summer and a movie not without its charms.
It has pretty much redefined movie music for the future by creating a title character so enmeshed in what’s coming through his headphones that the song choices become not only an essential part of the narrative but, at times, the narrative itself.
It also creates a space for its lead, Ansel Elgort, to step forward and assume true movie star status – not merely in box-office dollars but in presence. It’s hard to imagine any other young actor with the charisma, dramatic heft and self-effacing charm to anchor the mind-boggling acts of passion going on around him done in the name of money, speed and most importantly, love.
Meanwhile… “What’s an Ansel Elgort?”
But chiefly, it arrives at a time where as a country – and world – we all need two hours of escape from reality through an imaginary city where, in the end, justice is served in an untraditional yet somewhat believable fashion given the context of what’s come before.
The latter is key in both a positive and negative way. For although Baby Driver delivers on so many levels it also falls short in several key departments – realism. And…realism.
Wait.. people aren’t this good looking in real life?
Of course, reality these days feels a bit unreal so perhaps that isn’t necessarily a fault. Unless, of course, one attends movies to see some reflection of life as one has experienced it, or even hopes to experience it.
It’s hard these days to be an audience member who prefers the more human musings of 2017 cinema like The Book of Henry and Dean. That statement in itself might feel oxymoronic since one of those films takes place in a pushed reality fantasy and the other follows the angsty life of a Brooklyn cartoonist whose drawings push the narrative at least one third of its 87 minute running time.
Still, neither of those films depends on relentless violence and over-the-top action sequences. Nor do their stories throw human logic out the window and halfway through turn into a Road Runner cartoon, a comic book or a horror fantasy.
Plus.. this Jon Hamm haircut #youareforgiven
I mention the last three examples because if one looks at movies in terms of box-office returns/deliverable profits it’s easy to see the issue with people like myself – those of us who wish Francois Truffaut were still alive and active on the film scene, or that at least Paul Thomas Anderson and Kimberly Pierce made more movies.
WWFTD?
Here are the top 10 top grossing 2017 films domestically:
- Beauty and the Beast – $503,940,432
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – $384,949,006
- Wonder Woman – $361,591,191
- Logan – $226, 275, 826
- Fate of the Furious – $225,587,340
- The Lego Batman Movie – $175,750,384
- Get Out – $175,484,140
- The Boss Baby – $173,782,946
- Kong Skull Island – $168,052, 812
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Vol. 623 – $167,980,297
Oh, and the list is almost exactly the same for worldwide grosses, except Get Out and Pirates move down to the top 20 and Transformers: The Last Knight and Fifty Shades Darker move up from #15 and #14 to #9 and #10.
More like FIFTY SHADES MORE BORING #nochemistry #snooooze
Not to mention — the worldwide box-office grosses for the top 10 range from $1,259,744,572 (that’s Billion, with a B), down to a measly $378.8 million.
Obviously realism, or as I call it in my more bitter moviegoer moods – basic logic – doesn’t count for very much anymore.
I can’t even go there
What is logical in a capitalistic society – especially in business – is profit. Money. Though the type of movies at the tops of the chart on the whole cost a lot more than the smaller ones down towards the bottom, their international markets and ancillary revenue streams have increased so much that studios need merely one or two massive tentpoles every few years in order to justify all of the other risks.
That is, if this is merely a numbers game.
… and some numbers are not so great #sorrytommy
Having begun my career as a bit of a reluctant box-office guru when I was a reporter at Daily Variety in 1979, I can’t help but feel disheartened. I started the weekly national box-office story at the paper then out of sheer confusion over the scattershot press releases we would receive about how “outstanding” every big film opening was doing. Decades later it’s turned into pretty much almost anything anyone in the movie business – and that includes too many movie fans – thinks about. And in the case of most every decision maker at the studios, cares about.
Not to say it was not always mostly this way for the studio suits in the old days or recent past. But at least there was a bit more of a balance.
As evidenced by Feud’s Jack Warner #ohhediditagain #moneytalks
The Hurt Locker was released in June. Forrest Gump (not my fave, but still…) came out in July. Heck, even All the President’s Men first appeared in April.
Where are their 2017 equivalents?
Don’t write in with a list of foreign films, limited releases, bomb studio 2017 movies or tell me to stream Netflix, Amazon or _____________. I get it and I do. We’re talking Movies here.
That said, the new Spiderman (Homecoming) has soared past $100,000,000 domestically in its 3-day opening this weekend.
As John Oliver would say, “Good work, Spider Twerp”
That’s the sixth Spiderman film in 15 years even though this one is considered to be NEW – meaning it’s a SECOND reboot of the franchise with a new director and star.
I haven’t seen it yet but I do know when it comes to 2017 realities one could do a lot worse.
Though seriously, that’s a pretty lame excuse. Isn’t it?
notes from a chair 