Edgar Wright Explains How ‘Baby Driver’ Is and Isn’t a Musical

While the first trailers for Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver have hinted at the relationship between music and action in the film, a few fans are probably still wondering why so many critics have referred to the film as a “car chase musical.” Do characters actually burst out into song in the middle of the film? Should we expect dance numbers in the middle of a bank robbery? The trailers for Baby Driver have been very good, of course, but they also hint at a more traditional car chase movie, albeit one with an Edgar Wright twist. What’s the deal, yo?

To clear things up a little bit, Wright recently spoke with ScreenRant (via Heroic Hollywood) about how Baby Driver uses music to tell its story. While the writer-director is quick to point out that Baby Driver isn’t a musical in the same sense that, say, Mamma Mia! is a musical, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expect some awesome tunes and crazy choreography:

[It’s] not like a film where anybody sings out loud but it’s taking things that are in Scorsese or Tarantino or Soderbergh films and in those films you have the jukebox kind of soundtrack and the idea with this is that the lead character is actually playing those songs. So the songs are always sourced, they’re either in his ears or playing in a diner or playing on a stereo, so there’s always within the scenes.

Wright, of course, does an excellent job of describing his film, but as someone who has seen Baby Driver  —  and don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of spoiling this one for you  —  it’s probably helpful to also think of in terms of Wright’s own Shaun of the Dead. Remember the scene where Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” is playing on the jukebox and all the characters’ actions start to sync up with the music? Now imagine if Edgar Wright were to take that idea and expand it to its own feature film, because, uh, that’s kind of what he did. If that sounds like fun  —  and it should, because it is  —  then do me a favor: ignore the rest of the trailers and clips and see Baby Driver as soon as you can. You can thank me later.