Baby Driver (Film Review) – Original and Stylish

Baby Driver is an action film written and directed by Edgar Wright and stars Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jon Bernthal, Eiza González, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Ansel Elgort. The story of the film focuses on Baby (Ansel Elgort), a getaway driver who reluctantly works for veteran kingpin Doc (Kevin Spacey) in exchange for the start of a better life which he wants to share with Debora (Lily James).

My Knowledge and Expectation of Baby Driver

Baby Driver is the first film that I have seen at the cinema since Wonder Woman and I was looking forward to seeing it. Certainly, it has been receiving a lot of buzz since its world premiere at South by Southwest in March 2017. More recently, the film has been praised by critics for its soundtrack, originality and performances by Ansel Elgort and Jamie Foxx.

While all of this raised my expectations, the main reason why Baby Driver was such a highly anticipated film for myself was because of Edgar Wright. Now, to be honest, I have not loved all of his films. Indeed, I found Shaun of the Dead and At World’s End to be a bit underwhelming. However, I adore Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I did not know what side Baby Driver would fall on but I was hoping for the best because Edgar Wright is a special director who deserves to be supported.

My Thoughts on Baby Driver

Overall, I prefer Baby Driver to Shaun of the Dead and At World’s End but it does not quite reach the same level of quality as Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. There are many things to admire in this very good film that has a great blend of originality and style.

For one, I thought that the performances in this Baby Driver were great. All the cast members did a wonderful job and Ansel Elgort performed very well in the lead role of Baby. His chemistry with Lily James was very natural and the relationship that Baby had with his foster Dad was especially heartfelt.

The Music of Baby Driver

Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey were also standouts in a film where the music is such a pivotal reason for how good it is. I loved how the soundtrack is so embedded into the pacing of Baby Driver and it essentially becomes its own character in the film. In this regard, I must give a lot of credit to Edgar Wright for achieving what I can only imagine was an extremely difficult thing to accomplish. This is due to the attention to detail that would have been required for this to succeed to the degree that it did.

The film flows nicely because of this. For me, the only thing that comes close to how pivotal the music is to the pacing and style of Baby Driver in recent memory is a video game called Sunset Overdrive. Obviously, the use of music gives the film an extremely unique and original quality to it. In fact, the originality of Baby Driver reminded me of The Nice Guys and I just hope that more people will see original films like these ones.

Undoubtedly, Baby Driver ranks amongst the best films that 2017 has offered so far. Moreover, its qualities also elevate it above some previous Edgar Wright films. The only thing that prevents this film from being on the same level as Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is that I found the humour in those films to be better. Still, Baby Driver is funny at times so if you want to be thoroughly entertained and support original filmmaking, then I implore you to see Baby Driver because we need films such as this one to freshen up the film industry.