SYNOPSIS
Baby Driver is the 2017 film written and directed by Edgar Wright; the director of much loved films like Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Baby Driver follows a young getaway driver called… Baby (played by Ansel Elgort), who is the best in the game. Baby suffers from tinnitus from an accident he was in as a kid which killed both his parents as a result; he drowns out his tinnitus with music. Baby is frequently called and relied on by Doc (played by Kevin Spacey) – Baby owes a debt to Doc and continues helping him in the robberies until Doc deems the debt is paid, after it becomes clear he isn’t for the crime world; he decides he will do one last job and then run away with his new found love Debora (played by Lily James). Doc’s gang includes Griff (Jon Bernthal), Darling (Eiza González), Buddy (Jon Hamm) and Bats (Jamie Foxx). Baby Driver contains some stunning choreography and action with an absolute amazing soundtrack. I give Baby Driver a 7.5/10 or a B+.
REVIEW
Baby Driver is a good film and a film that I enjoyed thoroughly. It is a quick, simple, light-hearted, fun, beautiful, character driven movie that brings me to care for the antagonist himself. But, it does have some flaws – and that is why I give it a 7.5, nevertheless; the flaws are not too noticeable and I am able to forgive most of them as I can understand it is simply not what the film is going for. Something that soured the movie for me is my expectations; going in I thought it was going to be one of the best films of the year, maybe even a classic. But; having watched it – I don’t think that it was, and whilst I like it – I think that the film still could have been a lot better, with even more character depth and more of an emotional impact. But – I once again, understand that this film is supposed to be a quick, quirky, fun film and to do everything I wanted would mean it would have to sacrifice some of those elements. Furthermore, I thought the film was about a heist or a robbery; and I love heist films so when it turned out to be a little different, I was more confused than appreciating. Baby Driver has great actors and great characters with fantastic integrated comedy and multiple – yes MULTIPLE amazing choreographed car chases – with a pulse racing soundtrack. The dynamics between the crew and Baby early on and the story line that is carried out throughout the film is what really makes it, with Buddy telling Baby he shouldn’t be doing this because it isn’t going to end the way he thinks and boy; does it not. The movie is great and fun and then all of a sudden -*bang*, the script is flipped with one of the best chases I have seen in a long time.
There is so much I enjoyed in Baby Driver, I loved so many scenes it would just be listing off a lot of the film. I really enjoyed the comedy and action elements of this film, with “the running scene being the best part of the movie” because not only did it have the coolest choreography – but it was the moment that the tone and the plot of the film switched. With, the robbery gone to pot and Baby running to get out of town even quicker to avoid prison. Any scene that involved Baby or was a car scene was fantastic, I liked how all the characters themselves added depth to Baby – this of course left no development for many others, but the “retard” scene was perfect. The choreographed scenes were the perfect mix of comedy and action; with the perfect choice of music adding suspence to the scene – which all lead to the culmination of Baby catching up with Jon Hamm’s character – just as they had got away and insiting he will kill him. Also, the killing of Jamie Foxx, was a release of anger that we felt for the charcter, as he was consiently tormented by that character and it was a sense of relief when Baby finally got one-up on them. There are loads of other scenes which show why this film is so great, but for me – the “Running Scene” was probably the best scene in the whole film because there was so much weight to it. I think it would be bad to also miss out the fantastic opening scene that set out the tone of the film and set precedence to the calibre of cheorography we will see throughout the rest of the film and the amazing soundtrack we will get.
On to what I think could have been done better; for me, there isn’t enough substance in the plot or any of the characters that aren’t Baby. The film just seems like really cool car chase scenes sandiwiched in between a love story that has no emotional or actual connection with me. This once again relates to the lack of development for any character, the love interest in the film (I dare you to remember her name without searching it up), is nice and all and creates a sweet arc; but never at point do I care enough about her to care about that final big showdown between them and Jon Hamm. Hell, even that scene loses some impact because Baby can only carry so much; we know nothing is going to happen and even by some miracle Jon Hamm did kill Baby’s love interest, I would only really care about the reaction Baby will have to it and not the fact that a main character just died. There are never any stakes to the film (but this again relates to what I said at the beginning with this being a fun film and because of such, stakes isn’t something you want to see), Baby is the main character so you know everything will turn out OK, Kevin Spacey dying is redundant because I hadn’t seen enough of him to determine whether I liked him or not especially considering he kept telling Baby that the next job would “be his last”. Although his sacrifice was heroic; I couldn’t bring myself to care about it because I hadn’t seen enough of him; and I never got to see the repercussions it had on Baby because he just sort of forgets it. The final big twist of him going to prison is completely lost on the audience, as the very next scene is flash forward with him reuniting with the girl, a love interest I personally had no care towards. But, as I have said; any more weight to those points would’ve made the film heavier, longer and less fun – taking away from the elements the film sets out to achieve.
Onto the characters, although I said that there was no development for any of the characters except Baby, I really did like practically all of the characters. With, Jaime Foxx and Jon Bernthal really standing out with their added comedy, with the scene below one of the fumiest in the movie. But Jon Bernthal is never really seen again after the first twenty minutes and Jaime Foxx (although amazingly killed off) isn’t in it for very long. That only really leaves Buddy (Jon Hamm) who is good but is never really established as anything special. I did like how he continuously warned Baby to gt out and how we saw he only care for his love, and that when his love died; he had a reason to go completely nuts and try to kill Baby, but it just felt like something was missing; maybe it is because it never felt like anything would happen to Baby, as soon as Buddy turned evil – there was no impact on me. That all being said, I did love Buddy and I loved the scene where he shouted he was going to kill Baby and how he was the older brother to Baby – telling him to quit the crime lifestyle. Me saying there wasn’t really much development for anyone but Baby is another thing I think the movie intended – after all this is Baby’s film, but I would have really liked a little more on his love interest and more on the relationships around him. I also really liked how there were so many characters in the film, and so it was like a pool that the movie makers could pick characters out of, almost like the Departed, where everyone was in some way connected to Baby, and each had a special relationship with Baby.
It is very hard to fulfil what I wanted from this film because that would’ve changed what the film set out to do, if they were to add weight to the characters that would take away from Baby – and it is Baby’s film. What I would have liked would be a more intricate plot with the robberies and maybe more robberies, showing us the robberies. But because Baby isn’t in the robbery parse, I understand why they omitted this because it is Baby’s movie.
But the film really did have a great balance to it, the music added suspense, the choreography added a thrill, there was action and comedy and just a really fun, light-hearted movie. It was an original film, something that seems to be changing nowadays, but if I was being super-critical it almost feels like a really good 2 and a half hour car chase scene and not necessarily a really good film, whilst I enjoyed it – I didn’t think it was really amazing. But, it was fun and so I give it a 7.5 out of 10 or a B+.
AthemovieZ 