Baby Driver
5 stars
Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Ansel Elgort, Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm
Duration: 112 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd
One of 2017’s greatest movies comes from writer/director Edgar Wright, whose Baby Driver hits all the right notes – a superb action driven by its pulsating soundtrack and a superb ensemble cast, led by Ansel Elgort, the Baby Driver of the title.
Baby is young and aloof and never removes his earphones from which he perennially blasts music to drown out the tinnitus he suffers from. Baby works for Doc (Kevin Spacey), who gathers together a team of professional thieves, including the charismatic Buddy (Jon Hamm), his sexy girlfriend Darling (Eiza Gonzalez) and the rather unhinged Bats (Jamie Foxx) to carry out audacious daylight bank robberies... and Baby is their getaway driver.
With his penchant for choreographing his journeys to his music, Baby’s getaway drives are exhilarating… and he is successful every time. His conscience is riddled by his adoring foster father Joe (CJ Jones) who urges him to change job. But it is when he meets charming waitress Debora (Lily James), that he decides to get away and lead a normal life… but leaving some jobs is not easy.
If Baby Driver may seem like a typical heist movie, Wright’s film is stunningly atypical in its execution. Wright avoids formulas like the plague, his action coming as a vigorous burst of speed fuelled by some white-knuckle intensity every time Baby gets behind the wheel.
The gunplay is equally exhilarating in its choreography, with bullets flying to the beat of the music that is very much a character in its own right. The whole is seamlessly sewn together with eye-catching cinematography and razor-sharp editing.
A small sample of the eclectic soundtrack includes Bellbottoms by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (Wright’s original inspiration for the film, thinking it would make for a great car chase), B-A-B-Y by Carla Thomas, Debora by T. Rex, Nowhere To Run by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and, of course, Simon and Garfunkel’s Baby Driver.
The cast is as eclectic and excellent as the music they play to. Kevin Spacey imbues Doc with a sly wit and honest affection for Baby. Jon Hamm’s Buddy is as slick as Mad Men’s Don Draper, but ever more menacing and dark.
However, it is Ansel Elgort who drives the film. He pulls off an astonishingly zen-like performance, a young man exuding exceptional cool under pressure, projecting a variety of genuine and contrasting emotions using very little dialogue.