Review: BABY DRIVER

BABY DRIVER
(ACTION-THRILLER/COMEDY)
★★★★
Directed by Edgar Wright
Screenplay by Edgar Wright
Starring: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Eiza Gonzalez, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, CJ Jones, Jon Bernthal, Flea, Lanny Joon, Sky Ferreira, Big Boi, Killer Mike, Paul Williams, Jon Spencer
Rated R for violence and language throughout.
113 minutes
Verdict: Believe the hype, because BABY DRIVER is best movie of the summer so far.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN BABY DRIVER IF YOU ENJOYED:
THE WORLD'S END  (2013)
SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD  (2010)
DRIVE  (2011)
THE NICE GUYS  (2016)
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY  (2014)

A lot of people have been creaming in their jeans lately over a little movie called BABY DRIVER, but to be fair, it is pretty darn cream-worthy.  It's a blast.  Written and directed by Edgar Wright, who hasn't made a bad movie yet, it's an original movie with his distinct style, but more accessible to the casual moviegoer than some his weirder but no less wonderful fare.  If people just know about it, it has all the makings of being a big hit.  It has exciting, kinetic and pristine action sequences between amazing car chases, at least one wild chase on foot, and gunfights that made me deliriously happy as the pyrotechnics line up with the rhythm of a thumping soundtrack.  It's frequently very funny and weaves its way through genre in a way that Wright has shown time and again to have an incredible aptitude for in the genre-bending Cornetto trilogy (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, HOT FUZZ and THE WORLD'S END) and his weakest but still very good video game-themed romantic-action-comedy SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD.  BABY DRIVER has action, comedy, romance, thrills and a whole lot of great music, all running together in symphonic fluidity as not only the best but also the most cohesive movie of the summer so far.

Baby (Ansel Elgort, previously the leading man of THE FAULT IN OUR STARS) is a mysterious but seemingly happy-go-lucky young man who uses his love for music to constantly drown out the ringing in his ears, the result of a childhood incident.  He lives with his foster father (CJ Jones) in Atlanta and enjoys hanging out at the nostalgic diner where his mom used to work as a waitress.  He's also a getaway driver, and he's the best that there is.  Jamming out to the music in his earphones, attached to whichever of his multiple iPods fit his mood on a given day, Baby uses his unparalleled evasive driving skills to get bank robbers off clean from the scene of the crime before splitting off to get everyone coffee and meet back up again to divvy up the loot.  He's not a bad guy, but he owes a debt to a crime boss called Doc (Kevin Spacey), and Doc has the dirt on him, so he drives Doc's robbers around.  Baby meets a nice young waitress named Debora (Lily James, from Disney's 2015 live-action remake CINDERELLA and Downton Abbey) who has similar dreams of one day leaving all her worries behind and driving off into the distance in a car they can't afford, and as Baby nears that "one last job", it looks like it could all work out, but naturally, between the eclectic crew of robbers that include the unpredictable Bats (Jamie Foxx), the charming but dangerous Buddy (Jon Hamm) and Buddy's sassy wife Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), and Doc not ready to see his best getaway driver retire, driving off into the sunset proves to be a deadlier ordeal than expected.

Unfortunately, I've only seen BABY DRIVER once so far, and while I've liked each of Wright's movies from their respective first viewing, they've all revealed much more of themselves on repeat viewings, and are far better appreciated that way.  They're full of clever foreshadowing, subtle visual gags, and other ideas that can be picked up on once the plot is already known.  His are some of the more rewarding movies around in terms of repeated viewing.  So while there's a running theme tying together first impressions and true identities, I feel like there's more to glean from that.  As purely visceral escapism, it delivers in full.  You know how some cool trailers for action movies will cut together a few seconds of rapid-fire action with a few hard-hitting percussion beats?  The action in BABY DRIVER is kind of like that, but better.  It's slick stuff.  More than all its style, it also a sweet, good-natured movie with an abundance of rich characters with fitting, fun performances.  Spacey is his sardonic best, blending menace and humor, and Hamm is a sleazy, laid-back sort of cool, while James is all sugar with a little bit of spice.  Elgort, who's been a weird sort of teenage heartthrob with cancer in THE FAULT IN OUR STARS and Shailene Woodley's soft-soap brother in the Divergent series, is unexpectedly charismatic and interesting in this role, which I was skeptical about, considering how purely "serviceable" he'd been in anything else I'd seen him in.  Wright's script meanders a bit in a way that could be a real pace-killer in a less skillfully directed movie, but the movie never lets up on its electric energy, even when shifting into more relaxed gears.  It weaves through a few red herrings and some anticlimactic twists, but zips along casually, so these twists barely occur in the moment, still having an anticipatory and switch effect without jarring the viewer out of the flow.

BABY DRIVER occupies a weird middle ground where maybe it isn't for everyone, but it should be.  Did you like those billion-dollar-grossing Fast and Furious movies?  Okay, good; BABY DRIVER has wild car chases, absurdity and a diverse cast, but it's even better.  Did you like those Guardians of the Galaxy movies?  Okay, good; BABY DRIVER has an awesome jukebox soundtrack and an eclectic cast of colorful characters, but it's still even better.  Did you like THE FAULT IN OUR STARS?  Okay, good; BABY DRIVER has Ansel Elgort in a heartfelt romance but it's even better.  It doesn't have an established brand name or franchise to market on beyond Edgar Wright's name, and while he's a darling of the more hardcore crowd of moviegoers , he hasn't yet earned the box office recognition that he deserves.  It's fair to say I might be overselling the movie a bit (it isn't going to reinvent the state of filmmaking anytime soon), but it's really fun, and it's as solidly well-made a movie as you're likely to find currently playing in theaters.

                                                                                                                                                                               Sony/Columbia