hit enter to search
Baby driver sos
2024

Montclair Film Montclair, NJ

with

Ilse Wambacq

Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Disorders at Montclair State University

Baby Driver— The overlooked battle: Struggles with understanding speech despite intact hearing

How do perception and cognition impact our understanding of speech and language? Ilse Wambacq, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at MSU, leads a pre-screening talk that explores these issues and provide insights into how they are expressed in the character of “Baby,” the protagonist of Edgar Wright’s BABY DRIVER.

This event is part of our 2024 National Evening of Science on Screen.

Montclair Film Montclair, NJ

Film Synopsis

After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.

    Baby (Ansel Elgort), a music-loving orphan also happens to be the prodigiously talented go-to getaway driver for heist mastermind Doc (Kevin Spacey). With the perfect soundtrack picked out for each and every job, Baby ensures Doc's violent, bank-robbing cronies, including Buddy (Jon Hamm), Bats (Jamie Foxx) and Darling (Eiza González), get in and out of Dodge before it's too late. He's not in it for the long haul though, hoping to nail one last job before riding off into the sunset with beautiful diner waitress Debora (Lily James). Easier said than done.

    Photo credit: TriStar Pictures

    About the Speaker

    Since 2006, Dr. Wambacq has held a faculty position in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, where she is responsible for instructing doctoral students in Audiology on topics related to speech perception and cognition.

    Her research focuses on investigating the roles of cognition and affect in speech perception under challenging listening environments. Her publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Ear and Hearing, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, International Journal of Bilingualism, Cognitive Brain Research and Journal of Neurolinguistics.