Movie Info
Movie Name: Baby Driver
Studio: Media Rights Capital
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): March 11, 2017 (South by Southwest)/June 28, 2017 (US)
MPAA Rating: R
Baby: Proving that it takes more than a hipster soundtrack and sunglasses to be cool
Baby (Ansel Elgort) likes to drive. With tinnitus, he’s addicted to his music which helps block out the constant droning and he’s very good at what he does. Forced to drive for a criminal named Doc (Kevin Spacey), Baby finds himself as a getaway driver for various crimes to try to pay off his debt. Baby gets new direction when he meets a waitress named Debora (Lily James), and it appears that he could be out of Doc’s control…but Doc doesn’t plan to give Baby up that easy, and it could mean one last job!
Written and directed by Edgar Wright, Baby Driver is an action film. The movie was released to positive reviews and earned Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing.
Something about Baby Driver didn’t interest me. I skipped it in the theater and had little interest to see it when it was finally available for home viewing. Watching Baby Driver now, I still didn’t love the film, but it wasn’t a bad movie.
Couples that kill cops together…generally get shot up together
My problem with the film isn’t the story or the action, but Baby himself. I don’t know what we are supposed to think about him. I find him kind of annoying, definitely not cool, and pretty dense at points. He’s just a really dull leading character and the attempts to make him interesting (in my opinion) didn’t work and worked against him because it felt like they were trying to hard to make Baby “cool” and the movie cool…but it just was good and not great.
It doesn’t help that Ansel Elgort has very little personality. I like Lily James and even the disgraced Kevin Spacey is solid. It is always weird to see Jon Hamm break his Don Draper persona, and Jamie Foxx just plays “crazy” but really doesn’t seem to have a lot of impact on the story. Jon Bernthal gets top billing but barely appears in the film. CJ Jones is good as Baby’s foster-father and those are some of the best scenes of the film.
We’re like Bonnie and Clyde…but lamer
The movie is slick looking to a fault. It fits in with the cooler than cool attempt of the movie, but like the story, it feels like it tries too hard. The car chases are kinetic and exciting, so the film gets that right, but I wish the film had more substance.
I am probably being unreasonably hard on Baby Driver, but it felt like fluff and eye candy instead of substance. The similarly themed Drive really got to the idea of a getaway driver and Baby Driver has a hard time comparing to that film. With its success, Baby Driver has already sparked interest in a sequel. I just hope that it is faster and stronger than the original.
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