Baby Driver Review

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was concerned in a way because I thought it would be very similar in story to the movie Drive, which I love, but A. this is an Edgar Wright movie, and B. it took me by surprise in the greatest way. One genius marketing tactic was to release the opening scene online to watch, because it would give people the opportunity to see how awesome the movie will be when they might not have given it a shot originally.

Story- Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a seemingly innocent teenager/early adult who, as the title implies, drives for a living, and he's extremely good at it. He's the complete opposite in terms of personal character as opposed to his criminal counterparts. He's indebted to Doc (Kevin Spacey) due to the fact he boosted one of Doc's cars when he was younger, so now he's paying him back little by little by being a driver in the numerous heists orchestrated by Doc. They never stay with the same team more than once, but Buddy (Jon Hamm) and Darla (Eiza Gonzalez) seem to be reliable enough to warrant a repeat job. In comes Bats (Jamie Foxx) who is collected but also impulsive and borderline unhinged. He is very set in his ways, as opposed to Buddy and Darla, who are cooperative. After finally paying off his debt, he's free to go. That is until Doc pulls him back in by promising he will make his life hell if he refuses. Meanwhile, Debora (Lily James) is introduced as Baby's love interest, and she eventually gets dragged into the mix. What follows is an exhilarating rush from start to finish.

Cinematography/Props- In terms of props/costumes, there's not a whole lot to comment on due to it being in a modern setting, but that's not to discredit the deliberate outfits chosen for each character. Most notably is Baby's jacket, which has a similar cool factor to the Driver's gold scorpion clad jacket in Drive. One cool thing to note about this movie is it's Edgar Wright's first film set in America. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were set in England, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World was set in Canada. Going to the cinematography though, it's beyond praising. I absolutely love how he films his movies, because even the different styles used are gratifying. For example, when Baby is walking to a coffee shop while listening to his music, lyrics from the songs appear in different settings in the background, but they aren't horribly photoshopped in the background or anything, they're on almost a subliminal level because I didn't notice until my second time around seeing it, because I was on the lookout for what I refer to as his little easter eggs in his films. More about that later.

Acting- Lets start off with the lead character, Ansel Elgort. I've not seen him in anything else, but he's been in popular movies such as Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars. He really surprised me because he's a fantastic actor for being so young. I can almost certainly guarantee he will be cast in many things in the near future. He's an extremely likable guy and makes you wanna root for him as the protagonist. That leads me to another quick insight: there's no real antagonist consistently throughout the entire movie. First there really isn't one, then it's Doc, then it's Bats, etc. I don't wanna spoil it but it's very intriguing to think about. Next up is Kevin Spacey. The man just knows how to act. From The Usual Suspects to Horrible Bosses to this movie, he consistently delivers stellar acting as is expected from an actor of his caliber. While Jon Bernthal is in it for less than five minutes, he owns those few scenes he's in. His character is a brute, and comes off super sleezy. Kudos to him for delivering that character well. Jon Hamm's character is super likable from the start, socializing with Baby when Griff or Bats are prodding him. Eiza Gonzalez too acts almost as if she's his guardian of sorts, she also does a great job. Finally, Jamie Foxx. His character is clearly a professional, and that is evident. He's calm, cool, and collected, but also has a bit of an anger issue. Foxx very well is becoming one of my favorite actors.

Directing- Edgar Wright is in a three way tie with Tarantino and Scorsese for my favorite director. These men just understand movies. What I was referring to earlier with Wright is the easter egg type things he inserts into his movies. One example is when Jon Bernthal's character Griff is leaving the elevator, he says "Okay folks, if you don't hear from me again, its because I'm dead". This is the last time he appears in the movie. No scenes show his death, he isn't mentioned again, but the ambiguity and clever dialogue is what makes him an amazing director. He also clearly loves what he does because meticulous detail is put forth in each of his movies. To synchronize all the action in the movie to beats in a song, it's not something every director would have the patience or skill to pull off.

Soundtrack- The soundtrack is what brought my attention to this movie after my initial reservations. The songs in the movie are synchronized to the scenes, in particular the action/driving sequences. It's genius in execution, and makes the movie a lot of fun to watch. This was yet another in the expanding list of movies where I had to buy the soundtrack. (at $20 initially I thought it was expensive but its got 30 songs, 4 of which I listened to exclusively when I drove the following 2 weeks). Edgar Wright seems to show his love for music just as Damien Chazelle does. Years ago I bought the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack and just recently the Shaun of the Dead soundtrack, which is a testament to how good they are. This semi-relates to the movie but one cool thing I don't think was intentionally done but I noticed is that in both this movie and Shaun of the Dead a Queen song is the source of the climax of each movie.

Final Verdict- A. This is a fantastic movie, and I saw it twice because of that and the "easter eggs" that are present in all of Wright's films, which is half the fun of watching his movies. Well worth a watch especially to support original movies.

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