Movie Review: Baby Driver (2017)

Directed by Edgar Wright, Baby Driver is a 2017 action/heist movie. Ansel Elgort is Baby, who works for the mysterious Doc (Kevin Spacey) as a getaway driver for heist teams including Buddy (Jon Hamm) and Darling (Eiza González), Bats (Jamie Foxx) and Griff (Jon Bernthal). Between jobs, Baby falls for waitress Debora (Lily James), and he tries to keep his two lives separate with varying results.

+ all of the main actors are good, with Elgort doing fine as the lead, but it was Jon Hamm and Kevin Spacey who were absolutely phenomenal in this movie. I was really disappointed that Jon Bernthal was only in one scene, though, as I thought he was going to be one of the main characters
+ the music was not really to my taste, but it was fantastic that the music matched to the surroundings, for example song lyrics appearing as graffiti in the background as they played over the scene, or guns firing to the beat of the soundtrack. I’m a sucker for movies where the music is more than “just” a soundtrack
+ the driving, perhaps most importantly, is great. Baby’s car drifts and speeds through the Atlanta streets with ease. A few very clever moments behind the wheel show that there is more to Baby than just a ‘good driver’

– the plot really loses its steam around the two-thirds mark. I preferred it when it was a movie with good driving, rather than what it soon became. This is very similar to Drive, where a mid movie moment changes the genre of the movie completely. Similarly, a few offhand remarks from character contradict earlier claims, which make for a few small but frustrating plot holes
– I really didn’t like the ending. Not because it is somewhat ambiguous, but because it didn’t feel like it fit with the rest of the movie, or it wasn’t the ending that either the characters, or we the audience had earned
– the film left me wanting more; not of the same, but more of a look into the backstory of many characters. As mentioned above, Griff, No-Nose (Flea, of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and JD (Larry Loon) are all only used briefly, and all three made great impressions

Should you see this film: This was a stylish, and very well made movie (with timing to the soundtrack a spectacular achievement), but for the most part I did not feel much for this at all. Jon Hamm and Kevin Spacey were fantastic, but for the most part this whole movie felt a bit flat to me. The car scenes were better in Drive, the heist scenes are better in The Italian Job, and the music is better in Guardians of the Galaxy. Don’t bother with this one.