Movie Review: Baby Driver

I guess, when you think about it, we grow accustomed to many things. Like, the fact that pink eye is part of growing up, that older brothers are homicidal, and that Hollywood, when given too much cash, forgets about art-and wants to make more cash.

We've talked about it here before. How show business will not give the creative types too much control if there's a potential to make money. The formula is there and they have a great many second and third houses to be concerned about.

And there's successes, truly. I mean, look at my own last review. I love Spiderman: Homecoming. But it's a sequel/reboot, shared studio to create more cash out of the cash chow.

But it's also a good, fun, movie that works.

Is this comfortable enough for you?

We're comfortable about that. We've grown accustomed to this comfortable situation. I've lost hope on the summer movie release titles-having dissolved into a series of sequels of stories I'm following. Good sequels, well-made sequels.

This is what a surprise looks like. Sorta like this Baby Driver movie.

Then there's a shocker. An upstart. I'm reminded of my loft Oscar goals. I like to see, at least, all of the Best Picture nominations. For, every once and a while, you'll stumble across a title that completely and utterly blows your socks off. This year? It was Lion. I was sobbing at the end of this wonderful picture. At the end of Chocolat? We ran out for ice cream to discuss the power of sweets. A total surprise.

Another delicious surprise.

Not only that? Big budgeted surprises. Titles made from experienced people making good choices for a complete and engaging film.

Baby Driver falls into this. Now, if you watched the trailer, you'd think it's a comedy, and, certainly, it is light on it's feet, but not because of humor-but because the film is dancing. Without actually dancing.

Baby Driver is a film created by the English writer and director Edgar Wright, a filmmaker I've been impressed with before. Most noteably, he's the wit behind Simon Pegg's vehicles, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and At World's End. All three movies are labeled BritComs, but there's something else hanging onto each one. Each had a measured heft to them. I would almost call them horror comedies, but there's a line in each film where the thematic elements about the depth of violence, or the will to go on in a bleak situation, rise and overtake each picture. But the change is so subtle, you won't note the mood switch until after the movie's over. That's skill. That's entertaining us until you pull out the heavy guns.

With those successes, Mr. Wright went ahead and old the Hollywood execs his newest title, Baby Driver. In it, an incredibly handsome, hard-of-hearing, youth, played by Ansel Elgort, is biding time with a crime lord until he can get out of the business of being a getaway driver. The youth's hearing is taken into account throughout the entire movie, and every scene has a beat to it, a dance, if you will, with every point and movement falling to something within the soundtrack. Of course, as far as tropes go, we know that the last act of someone's life is never any good, and those about to retire will always get roped into something they probably should not be doing. In this case? One last crime of his crime boss, Kevin Spacey.  Mr. Wright not only attracts Spacey, but also rounds out the movie with Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Bernthal. Top notch performers that bring a strong script alive. Yes, even though we can pretty much make the calls on this tale we've seen before-they are brought to life so smoothly in such deft hands, there's a feeling that this is new, different.

I'm furious that these titles are still in play. I mean, really...

Car chases, like the fluff of the Fast and the Furious franchise, here are real. No special effects, no CGI. No tanks, subs, or anything. If you know your cinematic history, look to movies like Bullitt, with Steve McQueen, or the Smokey and the Bandit, with Burt Reynolds. Masculine pieces, to be sure, but I found that was sidestepped without becoming stereotypically, by sticking to the story and the characters. Everyone has a goal, this is crime after all, and they're going to get what they want. Now, for all my floral language of this subject, the film is violent. We're dealing with crime and their aftermath. Secondly, the youthful lead, very much the "baby-face" of the title, is, well, youthful. I think his lack of performance ability was emphasized because you had such powerhouse performers like Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx intimidating everyone. Ansel has the look, to be sure, but my ability to engage him on a much more personal level was not present. With time, however, if he continues to find movie jobs like this one.

And, yeah, he's also wonderfully good looking.

There is that.

Now these car chases? Awesome and make up all three acts of the film. They are very much on the level, filmed at eye level, so they are engaging and exciting. Lotsa smoke, lotsa torn rubber. The script makes a point of having the characters talk about the cars' needs and how car selection takes places.

Music, however, has to be mentioned. Hearing and sound are profoundly part of the protagonist's story arc and the film really does a good job painting the screen with an audiotory palette. Songs are selected for the kind of crime and need for pacing and speed. We listen to, and it gives the film for us brought up in the 80s with MTV, that we are almost watching a satisfying music video.  It gives each chase and interaction a newness and a perspective that the audience may have already experienced, and, with that, I commend the film's novel approach.

I am bias, too, I love crime movies. So this works on several levels. Go and enjoy. Tell us what you think!