Review of Baby Driver (2017) by Arrivist — 16 Aug 2020

After being booted-off of Ant-Man, Edgar Wright put his energy into (what I imagine he considers to be his own Barry Lyndon), Baby Driver. Wright wanted to make a super-cool film like Drive or Widows, except Edgar Wright isn't cool – he's a massive nerd. Which is fine, and it worked well for Scott Pilgrim vs the World, where you can embrace the finely choreographed action scenes, and laugh/cringe along with the rest of it.

Baby Driver starts out like a tightly-choreographed modern-day musical, but soon devolves into a fairly generic action film. The soundtrack, blared at full-volume is interspersed with frustrating whispered, mumbled, dialogue, which often feels like it's being read off the page, with exception of Lily James who brings a bit more emotional depth than the rest of the cast, who seem out of it.

There are a decent 20-minutes at the beginning of the third act where the tension builds. Unfortunately, the film then descends into every other action movie cliché you can imagine. The jokes aren't funny, but there are some clever set-pieces and flashy editing. A better concept would have been to focus on the Bonnie & Clyde romance, with protagonist jacking cars and driving to the music which is already playing – which happens once when 'Baby' takes the car from the ATL Twins. For someone who professes to have watched 1000 great films (link omitted per site policy), (yet admits to falling asleep during Tokyo Story), it surprises me how immature and shallow Baby Driver is. I'm sure the film's target audience of teenagers believed it to be a masterpiece when they saw it. I only hope once they grow up, they will roll their eyes at the thought. Regardless, Edgar Wright is still a great film-making talent with a unique voice. This film may not have appealed to me, but others loved it. Best of luck to him.