Baby Driver (2017) review

Baby Driver (2017)

Directed by: Edgar Wright

Produced by: Nira Park, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner

Screenplay by: Edgar Wright

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Elza González, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal

What do you normally see in most modern action movies? Typically, there’s a lot of CGI, green screen settings, shallow characters, fast editing, big music, silly dialogue, etc. There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those things; it takes a lot of creativity and imagination to make car chase movies entertaining, so it’s impressive that the “Fast & Furious” franchise has gone on as long as it has. But with that said, I want to talk about “Baby Driver,” a movie that relies less on spectacle and more on style, energy and nuance. A passion project of director Edgar Wright—who had been developing it for over 20 years until he had made enough movies to hone his craft—this is an outstanding tour de force in its use of stunt work, sound design, and moral themes.

In the fast, cutthroat city of Atlanta, a young man who calls himself Baby (Ansel Elgort) has a fairly complex life; he lives in an apartment building with his kind deaf paraplegic foster father Joseph (CJ Jones), romances a diner waitress named Debora (Lily James), and frequently listens to music on a collection of iPods to soothe the tinnitus in his ears. Oh, and he also works as an expert getaway driver for crime kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey) to repay a debt from an old car theft. Once the debt is finally paid off, Baby attempts to quit and live a normal life delivering pizzas; but Doc tracks him down and insists that he join in on a post office heist. Baby reluctantly goes along, shuttling a team of Buddy (Jon Hamm), his wife Darling (Elza González), and the temperamental Bats (Jamie Foxx), all the while secretly trying to sneak away and flee town with Debora.

When you think about it, this is a rather cliché setup, but the action is so stellar and the characters so likeable, it feels like something totally new. Ansel Elgort has a very soft and subdued, yet still controlled vibe as Baby; it would’ve been easy for a character like this to be too shy or downplayed, but he brings this quietly charismatic charm, and you enjoy watching just how skilled he is at what he does, despite clearly not having the stomach for the rough stuff. The same can be said for Lily James as Debora; this isn’t a role that requires much substance, but she has such a longing for freedom and adventure, and I surprisingly really like their chemistry. Even as everything’s spiraling out of control, I genuinely want these two to get out of this and be happy together; he doesn’t want to pull her in, thinking he’s not good enough for her, but she’s literally ride-or-die, and I find that really endearing when it’s done well. Kevin Spacey is appropriately menacing as Doc, although the character’s motivations are a bit inconsistent, while Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm and Elza González are terrific in their conviction and body language, with the latter becoming especially unhinged.

But let’s face it, you’re here for the action, or specifically the sound. You remember how in “Shaun of the Dead,” where Wright edited an entire zombie massacre in sync with a Queen song? Well, it’s all over this movie, with many tracks set to a beat of the sounds of gunfire, screeching tires, stepping and speaking in rhythm, you name it. It’s not like a lot of movies that are just given generic background music, even if it’s appropriate; every song feels like it was made specifically to go in its intended scene. The best examples are the single tracking shot of Baby’s coffee run set to “Harlem Shuffle,” and the massive shootout with the undercover cops set to “Tequila.” There’s such a brilliantly meticulous sense of coordination, it’s like a ballet of destruction; I wish more films had this degree of audio ingenuity. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Film Editing, but lost them all to “Dunkirk” in the Academy’s long-standing tendency to favor tedious war dramas; what a shame.

Cinematographer Bill Pope once called this movie a “postmodern musical,” and you can see exactly what he’s talking about; nobody sings, but the entire mood and temperature of the pacing is dictated around the music in ways I can never do justice. There’s also a strikingly effective use of color, although I feel like they could’ve gone a little further with Baby’s inner conflict on a story level. And for what I said earlier, there is some admittedly corny dialogue; this is Wright’s only solo screenwriting effort aside his debut film “A Fistful of Fingers,” and it kind of shows. The performances help save some of the writing, but there are times when I think it tries a little too hard to be cute and clever. Sometimes it’s funny, but sometimes it has this attitude that screams “too cool for school.”

Ultimately, however, despite the storyline being kept rather simple, it’s not to a dumbed-down level, and the way it’s complemented by the versatility of the stunts and practical effects, this is such a refreshing aesthetic experience. You can tell that this was something Wright really kept close to his heart for a long time; he’s become one of the best directors of his generation, and after a slew of hilarious satires, he’s now made one of the best action films of the 21st century, alongside “Inception,” “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Mad Max: Fury Road.” “Baby Driver” may have a somewhat erratic tone and more or less runs a race that’s been run many times before, but seldom with this much visually creative flair. So for those of you who love to shout at the sky how comic book movies are destroying original cinema…just calm down; there’s plenty of incredible work out there, and this is a prime example.

My rating: 9.5/10