Baby Driver

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2017)

First, I'll address the elephant in the room: "Baby Driver" is a pretty stupid name. But, the reason for this title is that the main character's is called Baby, and the reason for that has mainly to do with the constant music he has playing (many, many songs use the word "baby") order to drown out the ringing in his ears (and the childhood trauma it reminds him of) due to an injury that was caused by a car crash he was in at a young age that also killed his parents, one of them also being a musical artist. Oh, also, he's a getaway driver. A really, really great one, that moves in the car with such effortless grace as if it were a dance. He started this most likely as a way of combatting the traumatic memory of his parent's car crash and assuring that he'll never make the same mistake that his parents have. He tries to make music out of the conversations he has with his boss (Kevin Spacey) and acquaintances who are all robbers (Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, and Eiza Gonzalez, mainly), literally taking a negative thing and trying his best to give it a positive spin. His intentions are always good, he was just pulled into this at a young age against his will and has been working to get out since.
Now, it may seem like this is all spoiler territory, but most of this characterization is communicated pretty early in the film, and Baby himself rarely talks. What this film does best is communicating Baby's feelings and thoughts through the choice of music in each scene, and the choreography, editing, and camera movement that goes along with this music, often incorporating sounds happening in the scene into the beat of the song that Baby is listening to. It is like there is a constant tempo to the film, giving it a constant upbeat, heart-pounding, fast pace. Baby even often changes the music to get it so it perfectly syncs up with what is happening, as if he needed to keep a perfect rhythm to each and every move that he made. Not to mention how the action scenes themselves reveal character, rather than existing solely to be thrilling. The development happens during the action, such as one instance when Baby quickly veers off the road to prevent Batz from shooting someone. And this is on top of the fact that the action choreography and editing in these scenes is amazing, creating a perfectly symphony of gunshots and car crashes and screeching and classic rock.
Even when there isn't music in the film, all of the sounds seem deliberate. Just as we hear whatever music Baby hears, we also hear the ringing in his ears when he doesn't have the music, often creating heightened tension due to a sense of imbalance compared to the easy flow the film has when there is music. There is occasionally an orchestral soundtrack when Baby doesn't have his Ipod or his record player or the radio or cassettes, but this orchestral soundtrack subtly tends to blend with the high pitched whistle that Baby actually has.
From the start of the film Baby is told by one robber he worked with named Griff (Jon Beranthal) that one day he is going to have the blood on his hands and he won't be able to wash it off. Throughout the film, it constantly feels as if Baby's gleefully dancing on the rim of the volcano, almost dipping his toe in the lava on the inside. I won't spoil whether he falls in or not, as not knowing is part of the fun, but all I can say is that the ending is as satisfying as it could've possibly been subverting cleverly any expectations you may have had.