I'm in, Baby

Rating: 10/10 (20 July 2017)

Baby Driver might just be the coolest movie of the year. Now, whether or not that translates into being the best movie of the year well, we'll just have to wait and see. At the moment, it's certainly top five, but there's still five months of movies to come. Still, Baby Driver is a hell of a ride, and just has an undeniable "cool" factor about it.
From director Edgar Wright, whose previous movies have been largely overlooked at the box office but become cult classics on home video, Baby Driver is the story of Baby (Ansel Elgort), who made a mistake in his youth that got him in deep with Doc (Kevin Spacey), a criminal mastermind. To pay off his debt, Baby now drives the getaway car for all of Doc's heists. Baby's debt is nearly paid off, and isn't that just great timing? Baby has just met Debora (Lily James), a waitress who Baby quickly finds himself falling for. But when Doc hires a dangerous new crew and recruits Baby for one last job, Baby's chance for freedom and happiness is put in jeopardy.
The twist to all this is that when he was a kid, Baby was in a car accident that killed his parents, and has left him with constant tinnitus. To combat the tinnitus, Baby is always listening to music to drown out the ringing in his ears and help him focus better on the world around him. And this kid needs an extraordinary amount of focus, as he's one of the most reckless drivers you'll ever see. Although "reckless" might not be the right word. Aggressive? He knows the moves he's making are dangerous and that one wrong move or slight misjudgement could end disastrously, but he also knows exactly what to do to avoid this.
Honestly, there are going to be people who watch this on the edge of their seats every time Baby gets behind the wheel, because they're going to be constantly thinking that he's going to kill someone. Then there are those of us who will watch the opening scene – which establishes exactly what Baby can do – and we'll be completely relaxed throughout the movie because we know we can trust Baby's driving. A huge part of that is down to Elgort's performance, Wright's direction, the music choices, and the camera-work. Everything in this movie just ties together perfectly, and that opening scene is not only one of the best establishing character moments I've seen in a long time, it's also the best opening to a movie in recent memory (the only thing I can think of at the moment that comes close would be The Dark Knight), the best car chase scene since Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and the best action scene since Captain America: Civil War's airport scene.
Of course, not everyone has such faith in Baby. When Doc brings in a new crew for his latest heist, Bats (Jamie Foxx) and Buddy (Jon Hamm) are particularly perturbed by Baby's behaviour, which leads to their utter distrust of him throughout the movie. These two essentially serve as the villains, with Doc as the Big Bad, and all give fantastic performances. All are psychotically evil in their own way, with Foxx showing how dangerous he can be right from the start, and Hamm snapping after suffering a loss. Spacey, on the other hand, is more of a calm threat. I don't think he even raises his voice once, but whenever he says something sinister, you know without doubt that this is a guy who will back up his threats and will have no compunctions about doing so.
Then there's Lily James as Debora. This girl is fantastic. One look at her, and you know exactly what kind of character she's going to be, and James plays it up on every level. By all rights, the result should be a total caricature and stereotype, but James sells the hell out of it (in large part thanks to that voice), and almost gave the most engaging performance of the movie – that honour does indeed go to Ansel Elgort as Baby. However, what makes their performances so great is the way they bounce off each other. These two have fantastic chemistry, and it's this relationship that really makes the movie something special.
If I had to pick out a flaw in this movie, it would be that the ending was somewhat predictable. It was written in such a way that there was really only one way out. But it was so much fun getting there, and actually such a satisfying ending, that it doesn't matter how predictable it was. Baby Driver has plenty of other surprises throughout.
Baby Driver is, as I said, perhaps the coolest movie I've seen all year, and I'm just glad it seems to have been a success at the box office. Some of those stunts do not look like they were cheap to film, so I have to imagine this cost a fair bit of money to make, and reports say that Edgar Wright has already been approached about making a sequel. Whether or not that happens we'll see. For now, just go and see Baby Driver. It's a wild ride with what should be star-making performances from Ansel Elgort and Lily James. Just don't drive like Baby.
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