Baby Driver : Movie Review

Car chases. Brilliant music. Directed by Edgar Wright. Still not sold? Okay, lemme tell you a little more about this smashing film.


Baby Driver is an action-romance film that proves that it is possible that stories of this genre can be smartly written without cutting back on the thrills. And to top it all off, the soundtrack is killer. A young getaway driver whose real name is Baby (Ansel Elgort) who is working for a very well-connected criminal who specialises in heists, who we only know as Doc (Kevin effing Spacey). It's not really a choice for Baby, but he's no innocent teenager who just knows how to pull a drift. Like Doc says, he's a good kid and a devil behind the wheel.

An important component of Baby's extreme skills? Music. He may look like the average teenager who doesn't take his headphones out, doesn't speak and keeps his shades on, but his tunes, their rhythm, allow him to focus the way he does and overcome his hearing disability (caused by the incident that robbed him of his parents). So as long as he's got the right song playing in his ears, he can ace just about any stressful situation, like being chased by the police after robbing a bank for instance. Therefore Baby has an extensive collection of music stored in his collection of iPods and he makes his own mixes too if the mood takes him.

It's going smooth enough, Baby has almost repaid his debt to Doc, he meets a girl that he instantly falls for at a diner, named Debora (Lily James) and he's got plenty saved too. But when you're in the criminal profession, nothing's that simple. Enters off-the-hook but scarily sharp, gun-toting heist man named Bats (Jamie Foxx). He pays for stuff at counters with bullets. Shot from his gun.

Bats doesn't like Baby and the way he distances himself as the driver, from the rest of the heist crew. Their friction brings about an unexpected level of drama to the story while maintaining the right balance between thrilling and not being over-the-top. Thrown in the mix are well-written support characters like Buddy (John Hamm), Darling (Eiza Gonzalez) and Baby's foster parent Joseph (CJ Jones). I have to say I'm a bit disappointed that there was no cameo from Simon Pegg or Nick Frost, but it's not like the film needed it.

Baby Driver is truly a remarkable movie that tingles just about every emotion for the viewer. There's young fiery love, exciting car sequences and chases that put the F&F franchise and the like to shame, fantastic action scenes and all of it plays out to a brilliant selection of tunes. On a personal note, I'd really like to see more action hero roles with young Ansel Elgort, preferably with a support cast of stars.

Oh, and here's a little spoiler about something special in this film. When Baby's music is playing, just about every action sound is within the same rhythm of whatever song is playing. Be it the engine roaring, bullets firing or coffee mugs being kept on tables, It's all to the beat and I love it.

Time for the rating then and I give it 9 and a half out of 10 black coffees.

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And here's a special soundtrack from the film for your pleasure:

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