Bad Baby, easy driving.

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2017)

Baby Driver has a fantastic sense of momentum. From walking down a block to evading the police in a high stakes chase, everything Baby does is well choreographed and high impact. The opening heists serve both as the best action sequences in the film, and as a clever framing technique to introduce a colorful and twisted cast of criminals. Unfortunately most every character in this film ends up revolving too close to the titular Baby, making them seem like mirrors for the protagonist's ego, rather than fulfilling their potential as great characters in their own right. This is my only real problem with the film. Lily James and CJ Jones seem crammed into the script only to smile and repeatedly tell Baby how great he is, while Kevin Spacey also has an overabundance of ass kissing lines, although he delivers most of them with a scowl. What makes this all so infuriating is that while Baby is a fun character, and his Tinnitus is wonderfully incorporated into the editing, he doesn't seem worthy of the fascination the script has with him. It is a fun joyride nonetheless, but I can't help but feeling that if Baby Driver had utilized its excellent cast of criminals better, it could have been more than that.