Geeks logo

Baby Driver Review

'Mozart with a go-kart'

By Nicholas AnthonyPublished 7 years ago 3 min read
Like

If there’s one word that encapsulates Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, his latest dynamite of a film, it’s giddy. You want to ballpark other words? Sure. Let’s go with thrilling, joyful, heart racing, tender, toe-tapping, white knuckle. Hell, let’s throw Bullitt crossed with an iPod and a playlist that your annoyingly hipster friend wishes they thought of first. It’s a palette cleanser, a blast of sheer, pulsating fun. It’s a movie movie, where the characters positively relish purring the title character’s name as if they’re in a cheesy 50s road race flick. Where the music beats are at once surprising and such a natural fit to the on-screen action (only Wright could make Barry White’s Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up the perfect face-off track in a diner).

Every scene is its own set piece, shaped around the music. Each cut, beat, gunshot, line of dialogue, or look is choreographed as if it’s a hybrid of car chases, music videos, and ballet. It’s like a trailer that blows your mind amplified to feature length without losing any of its power.

The plot boils downs to Baby (Ansel Elgort) as a getaway driver for the darkly paternal Doc’s (Kevin Spacey) criminal organisation—that seems to run out of the break room of a multi-story car park—to pay off a debt. The rest of the gang—Buddy (Jon Hamm in full dick mode), Bats (Jamie Foxx) and Darling (Elza Gonzalez)—keep to the nicknames, rendering them archetypes by choice. Like creating an avatar in a video game. The kicker is that because of a tragic car crash when he was younger, Baby has earphones perpetually plugged in, providing him with a stream of music that drowns out the ringing tinnitus.

It’s a genius move from Wright. We all have a soundtrack to our lives. We all drifting into imagining ourselves in our own movie with a killer score backing us. We’re essentially in Baby’s head the whole time, strapped in with the music as it shapes his world and informs each moment and choice. Yes, it sounds like a gimmick, a parlour trick that would have been all surface in lesser hands, but here the music is both Baby’s shield from the dark world he inhabits, and the strongest connection to his deceased mother, revealed as positively angelic in flashbacks. And while the emotional beats do miss the touch of regular Wright collaborator, Simon Pegg, it’s made up by Elgort’s winning performance and his chemistry with ray of sunshine incarnate, Lily James, as waitress, Debora.

From The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Bellbottoms and the stunning getaway that opens proceedings, to the final showdown scored to Queen’s Brighton Rock in the multi-level car park, Baby Driver is packed with imminently rewindable moments. Each one flowing into the next like a manic concept album. It’s a greatest hits collection. A bold fifth album from an artist with all the tools at his disposal. A love letter to good old fashioned car chases that makes the Fast and the Furious’s drowning in CGI, baby oil and submarine’s all the more glaring. It makes you feel good about going to the movies again.

moviereview
Like

About the Creator

Nicholas Anthony

Writer and nascent film-maker. I work under my Oraculum Films banner.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.