Baby Driver

By: Arlene Allen

Baby Driver, how did I love you? Let me count the ways!

I love the way you put me right into the action from the very first chase.  Holy sh*t, I felt like my theater seat needed a seat belt!  I experienced every twist, every turn and every outrageous maneuver. I’ve seen a lot of car chase movies in my lifetime, but everything pales compared to this.  The two other car chases are magnificent too, but this first one, it felt like I was actually in the car!

I love how the story developed Baby’s character. The exploration of a young man’s troubled past due to loss was told in such an unconventional manner; having Baby (Ansel Elgort) experience tinnitus as a result of the accident and how it actually helped him to develop and nurture his love of music was unlike anything I’ve seen before. Baby is so unique; he is a badass driver for some truly god-awful criminals. He creates a huge amount of mayhem himself, yet he still has a compassion that raises him above the norm.

I love the way the film uses music and sound.  Having a deep and abiding love of music myself, I could relate to Baby’s passion.  But Baby is more than a music lover.  He in some ways IS music, in the way he moves and in the way he can turn everyday sounds and conversations into song. I love how he uses his disability to empower his life, to throw people off balance.  Sound itself is so integral to the plot that the fade ins and fade outs let us actually experience Baby’s world.  In addition to being a badass heist/car chase movie, this is in a sense a genuine musical. I completely dug the entire soundtrack, which ranges from classic R&B and soul to modern rock and hip-hop.

I love the way the movie explores relationships from Baby’s parents (Sky Ferreira, Lance Palmer) to his relationship to Doc (his evil overlord, who is making Baby pay for stealing his Mercedes) to his relationship with the innocents he hurts and finally to his deep soul connection to the equally music loving diner waitress Debora (Lily James).  I especially love his relationship to his foster father, Joe (CJ Jones, who is deaf in real life).  The scenes with Joe, the tenderness with which he treats the old man and the lengths Baby will go for him, absolutely connect you to Baby.

In further regards to characters, I love how we’re given us a delightfully scummy and wretched crew of such depravity that I was absolutely out of my seat cheering each time one of them went down. Kudos go out to Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Elza Gonzales and Jon Bernthal for being as menacing as hell. Bats (Jamie Foxx), in particular, made my skin crawl. So soullessly evil is he. Doc (Kevin Spacey) was also a piece of work, a rich white dude letting others do his dirty work while he drinks fine wine and eats foie gras every night.  He may or may not have a heart of gold; that’s for you to decide.

I love how this film pays homage to all of the classic car chase movies throughout history from Bullitt, Bonnie and Clyde, the original The Getaway with Steve McQueen and Sugarland Express from the 60’s and 70’s to the great car chase films of today like Gone in 60 Seconds, The Fast and The Furious franchise and Mad Max Fury Road (which was my favorite car chase movie until now).  Edgar Wright has taken one of my lifelong favorite genres and completely kicked it up a notch. BAM!

This film had me continuously on the edge of my seat and gasping as I waited for whatever surprise was coming next.  I love how the film maintained that even during the seemingly “everyday normal” of Act II.  You know when someone says, “This is the last job. I’m done with this,” that something completely terrible is going to happen and it does. But Wright makes us wait for it by building up a normal life for Baby with a lovely girl, a foster father who clearly adores him and a clean job that he’s good at it. When it does finally get blown all to hell you feel as ripped apart as Baby does.

I love the unconventionality of the movie, in tandem with the comments above.  I can almost bet that while certain plot tropes of the genre are present, you can’t completely predict what is going to happen next.  Baby Driver takes the heist/car chase/musical/comedy/romance to an entirely new level.  Yes, as dark as the film gets, there are many utterly hysterical moments and some of the one line zingers are priceless.  The comedic timing is great too, in that it doesn’t feel out of place in a film that at times is pretty grim and brutal – much like what Wright did with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

I utterly love and respect director/writer Edgar Wright. This man had already created classics I adore such as Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Thank you for coming to America and bringing your talent to a film that is surely going to be a blockbuster and a classic in its own time.  Wright has such a unique way of looking at things and making the seemingly mundane rise above the ordinary.  He can insert humor into the darkest and direst of situations and make you like (at least a little) characters you actually totally hate. He creates memorable situations and characters.  His love for film is at its most obvious here in Baby Driver.

Final Analysis: Put this on your must see list. A+ 10/10