What I think about Baby Driver

Directed by Edgar Wright
Starring Ansel Elgort as Baby, John Hamm as Buddy, Jamie Foxx as Bats, and Lily James as Deborah
Released in 2017

Baby Driver is a music-driven action film about a young and exceptional getaway driver for heist crews, and his plan to escape that life with his new love.

The most obvious thing to talk about is the music and the sound design. The film was nominated for Oscars in both sound design and sound editing, which it should have won, but lost to Dunkirk, because deafening your audience is equal to good sound editing I guess. In (I think) every single scene, there is a song playing, and the pace and flow of characters' actions line up with the beat and melody, and sometimes the lyrics. Enormous props to Wright and sound engineers Julian Slater and Bradley Farmer for this; I can't imagine how much time it must have taken to get each action to sync up just right. Slater and Farmer describe dissecting every song in the soundtrack until they had a tempo map which Wright could use as a blueprint to drive (ha) the action of a scene. Really, really incredible stuff.

Bats: You rob to support a drug habit. I do drugs to support a robbery habit.

Another notable aspect of the film is that it doesn't feel as Edgar Wright-y as his other films. Far less quick cuts, hyper-exaggerated sound effects, and punchy dialogue. This is understandable for the most part: that style is probably best left in the pulpy films of the 2000s, and the more elaborate and dynamic shots are far better suited to an action movie. The dialogue is functional and a little flat, signalling the missing Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the Three Flavours Cornetto films with Wright (his 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs The World does have great dialogue and Pegg had nothing to do with that, though his script did have input from comedy screenwriter Michael Bacall and almost all dialogue is lifted verbatim from Brian Lee O'Malley's graphic novels). Elgort is intermittently able bring his character to life, but it's usually through his actions and indeed the action instead of his speech (the opening credits scene with the coffee comes to mind). John Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, and most of all Jamie Foxx all have vibrant, fascinating characters and play them very well.

And that's a bad thing, I reckon. I get that the point is that Baby is so very different from the criminal world around him, but as a piece of entertainment I found myself far more interested in all these colourful background characters. And I don't just mean the three mentioned above, either; JD, Eddie No Nose, and Griff, despite only appearing briefly, are hilarious and fun to watch. Even Doc gets some solid development in the elevator during Baby's escape, and immediately after when he sacrifices himself.

The action is spectacular, with my personal favourite sequence (somewhat ironically) being the footchase resulting in Darling's death. I don't know what it is, it just feels more weighty and with much higher stakes and tension than the other sequences. There's a pretty good detail near the start of it, when Buddy is shooting at him; one of Baby's earbuds falls out and the sound on that side gets muted until he puts it back in. Very simple, but very nice. It also has an incredibly well-fitting mix of the song playing on Baby's iPod and the song playing over the speaker in the shop he's in.

Deborah: So what is it you do?
Baby: I'm a driver.
Deborah: Oh like a, like a chauffeur. You drive around important people?
Baby: I guess I do.
Deborah: Anyone I'd know?
Baby: I hope not.

I couldn't review Baby Driver without bringing up the worst aspect of the film. The romance. Once again, I see the point; that it's two impulsive people seeking escape coming together in old-Hollywood style. But it comes off as silly, childish, and a bit unbelievable. It's not as bad as people say, though. If you consider Baby to be younger than his years (which isn't hard; his name is Baby for crying out loud) it becomes a bit more bearable. I actually have more of a problem with Deborah being underdeveloped rather than the overall handling of their relationship. It doesn't ruin the film by any means, just happens to be the worst part of it.

Despite not being huge on the way Baby's place in the story is handled, I do like quite a few things about his character. I like that we progressively see more and more detail in the flashbacks of the car crash as the film goes on - nothing revolutionary by any means, but good nonetheless. I like that he properly and violently kills Bats, solid character choice there. I like that Buddy deafens him, though I don't like so much that it gets fully healed; I'm a sucker for consequences. The happy ending, I'm fine with, but that bit just gets me.

Griff: Is he retarded?
Doc: Retarded means slow. Was he slow?

Even though it has some faults, and could do with being a bit more engaging, Baby Driver is so unique and charming that it shouldn't go without being watched at least once. Given that, I'm going to give it a cautious 7/10, but with an addendum that the rating shouldn't drive (haaa) your decision to watch it or not - just watch it.