Ansel Elgort is appealing when a film gives him more to do than be nice. We like the sweetness and mischief in Baby Driver; the blank decency of Carrie shows how easily that appeal can fade.
Fi1m perspective
In Baby Driver (2017), Ansel Elgort keeps pace with Edgar Wright’s music-timed heist, and the activity suits him. His Baby is sweet without being solemn about it, with a suggestion of mischief that survives the choreography. We warmed to him because that hint of cheek stopped the sweetness becoming a request for our affection. Wright gives him something to do with his charm, and Elgort responds without pushing for attention.
Carrie (2013), his film debut, shows what happens when niceness is the whole part. As Tommy Ross in Kimberly Peirce’s remake, he is so unfailingly decent that we have little else to notice. Editors Lee Percy and Nancy Richardson keep the school scenes short, helping the pace while leaving the young characters underdeveloped. We would not blame Elgort alone for the blankness, but he does not find much to put in its place.
The breakthrough came with The Fault in Our Stars (2014), playing Augustus Waters opposite Shailene Woodley; Divergent (2014) supplied a supporting role in the same period. Those roles established the early pattern of teen-oriented drama. By Baby Driver, the demands had shifted towards physical performance and working closely with music, a useful change for an actor at risk of being given too little beyond an agreeable manner.
Even there, the limits are visible in the courtship. Lily James makes Debora engaging, but Wright’s screenplay asks us to accept a relationship it has not spent enough time making particular. We understand the attraction without sharing the couple’s confidence in it. More ordinary conversation would have helped both actors, and it is a useful warning against treating Elgort’s likeability as sufficient characterisation.
Tony in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story (2021) was another role built around music, though some critics found his performance short of energy. That is a useful caution against assuming comfort with music is enough to carry a musical. Start with Baby Driver, provided a thin romance will not spoil the pleasure of the driving.
Biography
Ansel Elgort is an American actor and singer. He made his feature film debut as Tommy Ross in the 2013 horror film Carrie. He gained wider recognition for his roles as Caleb Prior in the Divergent series (2014–2016) and as Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars (2014).
Elgort starred as the title character in Baby Driver (2017), receiving a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Other credits include The Goldfinch (2019) and the role of Tony in West Side Story (2021). He also appears as Jake Adelstein in the series Tokyo Vice (2022–2024).
Born in Manhattan, New York, on 14 March 1994, Elgort attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School and made his professional stage debut in the 2012 Off-Broadway production Regrets.
