Baby Driver Review!
Baby Driver is the recent hit success of director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) with an exciting soundtrack, popping marketing, and what seems to be an influx of new fans as they discover this really fun flick making waves in the middle of Blockbuster season. Dealing with a young getaway driver named Baby, quirky side characters, and an eye rolling love interest it's no denying that Baby Driver is one of the more different films out in 2017.
Like many of Wright's stories Baby Driver is very simple and, at times, a little too cliche. The visuals and actual technique used in creating this film are great and drool incentive, when it comes to cinephiles and fans who love the creation of film, but to me what really brought the film down was how ordinary the overall plot was. There are thousands upon thousands of films where the up and coming teenager wants the girl, gets into trouble, and then somehow gets out in dramatic fashion while still getting the girl. It's an overused construct in storytelling, but an effective one as it has been a mainstay for so many decades. I'm fine with that. However, Edgar Wright is known for pushing the genre, and taking "Oh, I've seen this before," type of stories and rightly messing with it. Best examples are Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. One is a zombie movie, but not taken seriously and is actually about friendship and growing up. The other is a buddy cop comedy that is flipped on its head when the final twist happens. Sadly, he doesn't do anything like that here with Baby Driver which makes the cliche story feel like a weight upon the film.
Baby Driver is a fun, energetic movie that will make you leave with a smile on your face, don't get me wrong, but when the film stops to address his crush and tries to build up their relationship...it just halts the film's pace for me. As their own individual characters Ansel Elgort and Lily James play them well, but not for a second do I buy that Lily would trust, or even be enamored, enough by Ansel's Baby character to drop her life and live vicariously with him on the run. Their flirting at the beginning is fun and cute, but I just don't buy their chemistry when feelings are hitting the fan in the third act.
The characters that you should look out for in this film are Bats (Jamie Foxx), Darling (Eiza González), and Buddy (Jon Hamm). Their chemistry and characters are what fleshes out Baby's world and really where all the humor and tension will come from. My favorite character is Buddy. He is a sweet bad guy that actually gives respect to others, and tries to help them. I love his relationship with Baby with how he's a work colleague, pseudo-friend, and almost father figure all rolled up in one, so when things really go off the rails it's a joy, and a surprise, to see just how desperate and dangerous he can really be. Darling is just a fun character that'll speak her mind, and I thought she really complimented Buddy as she also reels him in from his dangerous demeanor. Finally, there's Bats. He was a character that I wasn't too sure about when you first meet him. In one way he could be very annoying, in another he could be quite scary and menacing, but as the film goes on and you really start to understand the layers this guy puts on to be "Bats" you start to see that it's actually a great character arc that's opposite of Baby's. If Baby's arc is to grow up and be himself then it's Bat's arc to strip away who he's trying to be and come face to face with who he really is. Now that might be a deeper interpretation than what's in the film, but that's how I see it and how it explains him being a plot device in order to shake up Baby's world.
With that out of the way, I want to reiterate that Baby Driver is a film about style, and not characters. I felt that the story, and characters, were generic (to a point) because Wright was doing something different with film. Most of the focus was showing how Baby's disability, a constant ringing in his ears, could be enhanced with film-making. You learn early on that he always has music, and listening to that helps drown out the ring. With creative film-making Wright had made sure that every song played in Baby Driver matched up the scene in editing. That's exhausting to just think about, but the action and shots were magnificent to look at in this film as I bet all of them were meticulously planned out to fit the music that played. This alone will warrant a few more viewings as you start to notice clever cuts, or editing techniques. Kind of like the Where's Waldo of film-making. It's also the main point any critic will tell you to go out and see this.
Baby Driver is a movie worth seeing, and if you're a fan of film you'll love it, but it does fall on overused cliches a tad too much for me to absolutely love this as everyone else has. Baby was interesting, but he wasn't my favorite character. I liked how he mixed his own music, and his relationship with his foster dad, however, his whole romance subplot really took me out of it to enjoy what type of character he is. Again, the side characters with Jon Hamm are great to watch, and Kevin Spacey looks as if he's having a great time, but it really is the style and techniques that go into making this type of film that are the selling point.
B
