The Spirit of the Radio.

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2017)

There were some things that this movie could have done better, but it was refreshing on the whole. It did pretty well considering that it had a fairly small budget and is an original R-rated movie. I had expected it to be funnier, but it was still fun despite getting a little bit heavy toward the end. Even though I would have appreciated it to have a more streamlined and cohesive story, I liked that Edgar Wright decided to make his own thing rather than let himself be restricted by story conventions. Things like changing which characters were the villains at several points was an interesting choice, that I found a little frustrating, but perhaps truer to how villains in real life work.
By and large, the movie does a lot of traditional things. The criminal ring is pretty standard, as is the tale of young love between Baby and Deborah, but I like the way that they were mixed together. There a lot of movies about criminals or ex-criminals doing "one last job", but I found that trope to be more believable here. Maybe it's because Baby is young and has his whole life ahead of him or because he is so different from the world of crime that he has become involved in. Oftentimes, we'll see movies with hit men or something like that who say they want to get out of the game, but they are so good at what they do that it's hard for them to have a simple life, but this is not the case with Baby. He's not a violent person like those around him, and has a youthful hope and innocence that gives a lighter feel to what is a fairly dark plot. I really liked the scene where he meets Doc's new prodigy Sam, because it put Baby's situation into perspective a little more and made me want him to escape the criminal underground.
The action was certainly not the most spectacular, but I liked it better because of that. Edgar Wright didn't have to make Baby the greatest getaway driver to make his skill as a driver impressive or the chase scenes and stunts exciting. I sometimes find it more engaging to watch action movies with people who aren't especially great fighters because it makes for more interesting fight scenes. Yes, it is fun to see action heroes tear apart their enemies or fight equally skilled enemies, but it often lacks the drama of seeing a character with no combat skills be forced to defend themselves.
Of course, the most important part of the movie is the music. The way music was used here made me want to have music on all the time and I loved the way it serves as sort of a tribute to just music as a general concept. Music is arguably a crucial part of our existence as humans and it was nice to see a movie that centered itself around music. I loved the moment where Baby goes "Wait, I gotta start the song over" as they are trying to get away. It was such a great testament to the power of music.
So in summary, it's an imperfect movie, but I would definitely pay to see more movies like it. Overall Rating: 8/10.