Review of Baby Driver (2017) by Riyad F — 12 Sep 2017

What are you looking for whenever you go to the movies? What do you hope to see after the lights turn off in a room pop-corn wrap-around? Probably the answers to these two questions are different in case: every enthusiast (and not) has a very personal idea of cinema and in this - I think - resides the beauty of confronting and talking about the seventh art. Sometimes, then, we are looking for majestic movies, capable of conquering with their stories, their images and their sounds. Other times, however, we are interested in increasingly rare films - able to combine film passion with every facet of pop culture. There aren't a lot of successful examples but Baby Driver - The genius of escape is just one of these.

This is pure entertainment, in its simplest form, clean and, of course, of quality. Funny and crazy, Baby Driver keeps the breath from the first to the last minute thanks to adrenaline sequences and fast editings that find the right balance between images, sound and, above all, words. The dialogues, never out of place, perfectly fit the soundtrack songs that naturally range from Barry White to Beck, perfectly embodying the spirit and the emotions experienced by different characters throughout history. The encounter between Baby and Debora (Lily James) can be said to be great for this very reason and for an Elgort never-seen before, so much to obscure, in some scenes, big screen animals such as Kevin Spacey and John Hamm. They are, however, convincing.

The true strength of the film - skipping a conclusive but not overwhelming final dissolution - is the extraordinary and paradoxical ability to be modern despite its substantial, fundamental, nostalgic component. Vinyls, audio cassettes and cinematographic references of all sorts are quite cool with dynamic atmospheres combining the most distant genres. The result is a combination, a sound and visual winning composition!