A Look Inside the Films of Edgar Wright
Today, we celebrate one of the more unique and upcoming directors of the 21st Century, Edgar Wright. Born on this day back in 1974 in jolly ol’ England, Edgar Wright is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satirical genre films, which feature extensive utilization of expressive popular music, Steadicam tracking shots, dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions, whip pans and wipes. In my opinion, Wright has the talent to make a true masterpiece but hasn’t made one yet (maybe this years’ Last Night in Soho?). While we anxiously await his new film, there’s so much to admire in the body of work he has done since his debut in 2004 with the 5 films he’s made. He’s best known for his Cornetto film trilogy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost but a strong case could be made for both of his other films: Scott Pilgrim and Baby Driver (which is actually his best film). Wright’s talent lies in the fact he is a strong technician and his films are crisply edited and often have more stylistic high-water marks than the films, directors, and genres he’s parodying.
Stylistic Innovations & Traits
Wright has all the cinematic tools in his tool belt (I think his greatest strength is editing), a talent for symmetry in the framing (The World’s End), great blocking of faces in the frame and composition work, the staggering of faces walking into the frame in semi-profile —an eye for color (especially in Baby Driver)—the shot of the swings in the snow in Scott Pilgrim is just a flat out cinematic painting (stunning).
He is a genius of an editor with such creativity and inventiveness in the freezes, zoom edits and especially the transitions. On examining his techniques, one can really see how Edgar Wright managed to play with significant cinematic tropes and weave them effectively to his films. With that, here are some traits on creating the definitive Edgar Wright film.
- Speedy Editing of Mundane Stuff
- Satirical Genre Films
- Expressive Popular Music
- Tracking Shots
- Whip Pan and Wipes
- Creative Gore
Edgar Wright Common Themes
While there are strong similarities between the 3 Cornetto are stronger than that of Scott Pilgrim and Baby Driver – there are some strong similarities between themes for all 5 of Wright’s films. A few of them are:
- Syncing Of Songs To The Action
- Spoofing While Staying Original
- Cheeky Foreshadowing
- Recall Humor
- Fences
- Perfect Cameos
Ranking All 5 Edgar Wright Films
Here is my personal ranking of all 5 Edgar Wright films. My first Wright experience started with Shaun of the Dead (2004) but it wasn’t until The World’s End (2013) when I really started to appreciate him as a director which was only amplified when I saw Baby Driver (2017). As I have mentioned before, I am not the biggest fan of comedy so my ranking will vary dramatically from a lot of people.
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
3. Hot Fuzz (2007)
2. The World’s End (2013)
1. Baby Driver (2017)
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