The cast of Baby Driver, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Ansel Elgort and Lily James.
The cast of Baby Driver, Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Ansel Elgort and Lily James.
Like all Edgar Wright movies, Baby Driver is a kinetically charged explosion of style. A lively thrill from start to end laced with musical sensibilities.
But considering his previous work (Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, to name a couple) this should come as no surprise.He is a restless director who seemingly enjoys turning simple plot-lines into hyper-jazzed features ... and he does it so well.
Ansel Elgort is the eponymous Baby. A talented getaway driver forever in debt to a criminal king-pin named Doc (Kevin Spacey).
Baby suffers tinnitus, a "hum in the drum" as the po-faced Kevin Spacey describes, meaning he wears earbuds with a carefully chosen iPod playlist to drown out the constant ringing - a distraction which he finds insufferable.
The iPod also provides the soundtrack to his life. He is, in a sense, living in a musical as exemplified in an early scene (that ventures unabashedly into La La Land opening sequence territory) where Baby dances down the street to Bob & Earl's Harlem Shuffle.
Baby Driver is a fine example of a genre film owing a lot to the crime, heist, and car-chase films of yesteryear.
But its musical sensibilities are what sets it apart in which everything is cut and choreographed very sharply to Baby's pumping iPod soundtrack. The result provides a modern-retro vibe. Yes, iPods are now retro (*sigh* ... I feel so old).
Elgort's background in dance is a casting choice that pays off - his sense of movement to the music being vital to the entire movie. Wright also gets solid (if somewhat predictable) performances from his supporting A-listers.
It's an ensemble cast of pretty big hitters who all seem to be enjoying themselves. Jon Hamm stands out as a delightfully loathsome Casanova.
Foxx and Spacey are in fine scenery chewing form, and a twee young-love subplot comes courtesy of Lily James.
By no means perfect, Baby Driver does threaten at times to become an overcooked mess stomping heavily on well-used tropes and pumping out every cliche in the book, but thankfully Wright's pin-sharp direction keeps things in check.
He knows exactly what to do with this material and never loses sight of his audience. Baby Driver is a joy to watch and it's clear that Wright loves making cinema. This is a pure cinema rush.
