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Baby Driver



Starring: Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez, Jamie Foxx, and Kevin Spacey
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Screenplay by: Edgar Wright

      This is the kind of film that is made specifically for the summer; the kind when you're just trying to beat the heat outside and see a movie that doesn't make you think too much and is just a whole lot of fun.  That's what we've come to expect with Edgar Wright films, and Baby Driver is no exception.
       Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway driver.  He works for an Atlanta crime boss who simply goes by the name Doc (Kevin Spacey).  Somehow Baby got himself into some debt with Doc and is working steadily to pay it off.  What the debt is and how he acquired such debt is not explained, but we go along with it anyway.  Apparently it's supposed to make the story a bit more compelling.  Doc never uses the same crew twice, but uses Baby for the getaway car each time.  Why?  Well, it is the music Baby is always listening to, even when the other members of the crew don't understand it.  "He had an accident when he was a kid.  Still has a hum in the drum.  Plays music to drown it out.  And that's what makes him the best" Doc points out when one of the characters thinks he's just being ignorant or lazy.
       Debora (Lily James) is a waitress at a local diner.  Baby likes to go to that diner occasionally and starts talking to Debora.  Shortly thereafter, they begin going out.  But just when Baby thinks he has paid his debt back in full to Doc, duty calls again, dragging Baby back into the life he is trying to leave behind.  This new job has the potential for everything to go wrong, putting himself and everyone close to him, including Debora, in danger.
       This is a story about a guy trying to get out of a life of crime and turn legit.  Wait, we've heard this kind of story before right?  Right.  The list goes on and is far too long to list names of films with stories like this, so the originality factor for Baby Driver is very little.  What sets it apart however is the incredible chase scenes and stunt driving, especially through obstacles that downtown Atlanta presents.  There is constant music in the film as well, featuring an impressive soundtrack.  What's more impressive?  How well the music lines up with the action.  In the opening scene, Baby sits in the car waiting for the crew to finish up a bank robbery and the camera focuses on him.  He's lip-syncing to a song and the timing could not be more perfect.  This is just one example of the film's exquisite editing.
       Edgar Wright is also the director of the "Cornetto Trilogy": Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End.  While Baby Driver is not a comedy such as these other three films are, Baby Driver has one thing in common with them other than having the same director.  It's just a plain fun movie.  It is a movie that is extremely fitting to be a summer flick simply because of it's entertainment value.  Unlike some other summer blockbusters, Baby Driver maintains a degree of quality that films like Transformers: The Last Knight simply don't have.  With Wright's films, I find myself thinking about how much fun it must be to work on one of them.
       Overall, the story has some plot holes, the characters are rather stereotypical for this type of film, and it lacks originality.  But it sure is a whole lot of fun.

I give Baby Driver a B-.

Image Source: Geekadelphia

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