Review of Baby Driver (2017) by Michael M — 14 Jul 2017

One of the most aggressively entertaining movies I've ever seen. Edgar Wright has always directed his movies with an insane amount of energy and this may be one of the most extreme examples of it. From start to finish, it never gives you a chance to breathe, and I really mean that as a good thing.

The plot is fairly standard stuff: kid caught in a bad situation, wants to do one more job then he's out, realizes it's not that easy. Insert several heist and chase scenes and throw a generic romance on top and boom you go your movie.

But it's not what the film is doing that's so incredible, it's how it does it. The performances are excellent all around, especially Kevin Spacey who's charmingly nefarious (I realize how unpleasant that sentence is given recent revelations, but just looking at his character it works).

The real shining point of the film though is the editing and the sound design. Not really things I normally point out in a film, but godamn if they don't steal the show here. The editing is fast and furious but also coherent, and the sound is designed to make everything feel like an extended music video.

You ever hear that thing about how if you see a jogger while listening to music it will look like they're running to the beat? How music follows a certain beat of the universe? This film takes that idea and cranks it to 11.

Things like explosions and gunfire will go off in tune with the rhythm of the music, and it just amplifies the experience and gives it an extra sense of fun. If I have a criticism about this movie, it's the romance, which is extremely thin.

The love interest's character doesn't have much personality outside of her relationship to Baby, and this is a little annoying. But the film exists in such an exaggerated reality that this didn't bother me that much.

It's kinda' like the romances in old Disney movies, yeah it's thin and unrealistic, but it fits the tone of everything around that. Aside from that, Baby Driver is just fun. A masterpiece of action.