Edgar Wright: The Most Original British Film-maker Of The 21st Century?
- Will Johnson
- Nov 22, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 21, 2021
Edgar Wright’s multi-faceted style has made him one of the most celebrated British film-makers of recent years. Here we take a look at his screen history and what makes his work so special.
My first introduction to Edgar Wright was listening to him bantering along with Jessica Hynes, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the DVD commentary of Spaced Series 1. I didn't discover Spaced 'til around a decade after it's run at the turn of the century, but it's authentic vibe gave me a strong sense of nostalgia amongst the laughs. I was still a kid in the late '90s, yet the constant references to music, video games, film, art and comic books managed to replicate these hazy memories and bring them to life in a wonderfully adult comedy.
There was also something about the direction of Spaced which made it absolutely mesmerising, and immediately I was taken in by Edgar Wright's bold, playful camera movements that blended with the marvellously nerdy allusions. Spaced was a gloriously unique sitcom, but it was really the genesis of a big-screen career that has seen Edgar Wright become one of the most lauded British film-makers of his generation.
Before Spaced, Wright had already attempted a feature-length film with the independent comedy-western A Fistful Of Fingers (1995). It wasn't exactly a classic, but it showed the raw, irreverent and dorky humour that would come to define Wright's style. After the critical success of Spaced, his next move to the big screen would be the one that landed. Shaun Of The Dead (2004), the first of his trio of films with Pegg and Frost, quickly became a British cultural phenomenon. Wright has regularly named Evil Dead 2 as one of his biggest inspirations, and he managed to evoke the absurd horror of Sam Raimi's classic trilogy whilst combining it with a typically British sense of self-depreciative hilarity. Although it feels a little dated now, much like Spaced it comes across not with weary tropes but with glistening nostalgia.
The trio followed Shaun Of The Dead with Hot Fuzz (2007), turning up the satire to full volume. Unlike Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz was less of a direct tribute to Evil Dead, but amongst the parody of British police dramas it actually captured more of Raimi’s black comedy elements in a film that oozed with unrestrained fun. The final work from the trio, The World's End (2013) was a tonal shift with a more bizarre story, but still captured the wacky magic and heartfelt humour that had become their trademark.
The success of Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz earned Wright the kudos to take on bigger projects, and in 2010 came Scott Pilgrim Vs The World. It's unfortunately a film that's become most notable for the vast disparity between it's critical acclaim and it's failure at the box office, but it is without doubt one of the best comic book to film adaptations. Much of this is due to the sublime visuals that capture the spirit of the comics in a completely unique form. For many reasons the way Wright transposed the source material onto the big-screen didn't attract enough of an audience beyond fans of the comics, but for them and for many critics it was an outstanding triumph.
Despite the commercial failure of Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, it didn't affect Wright's standing as a film-maker. Either side of The World's End he helped write Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and Marvel's Antman (2015). He was originally set to direct the latter, but for creative reasons he handed over the reins to Peyton Reed. His return to directing came with the film he had worked on for more than two decades, 2017's Baby Driver.
Baby Driver had been conceptualised by Wright in his youth, and over his career he gradually evolved the ideas before bringing them to life. The result is a truly unique film that combined Tarantino-style cultural pastiche with a high level of symbolism that sought not only to develop the narrative but to define the aesthetic of the film too. Critically acclaimed and commercially successful, Baby Driver could in many ways be considered Wright's Magnum Opus, but this is a director who is far from reaching his peak.
Early in 2021 Wright unveiled his first documentary, The Sparks Brothers, a film as eclectic and quirky as it's titular band. Later in the year came Last Night In Soho, another fantastic movie whose story and style had been flowering in his mind for many years. The inventiveness and imagination which Edgar Wright offers up in all of his films is a testament to just how talented he is, but his overarching approach and multi-faceted creativity are what have seen him become such an exceptional and established film-maker.
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