Baby Driver Review – Spoiler Free
Baby Driver is a film which comes directed by Edgar Wright who some may know as the director of The World’s End (read review). The film stars Ansel Elgort, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx , Kevin Spacey, Eiza González and Lily James. The film is about a young man who is pressured into being the driver for a crime syndicate. He later later becomes embroiled in a robbery which is bound to go wrong. Whatever could he do about it all? Can he get out of the world of crime?
This is one of those films where I watch the trailer and I like quite a few of the actors such as Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Lily James. But for some reason the trailer for it just doesn’t interest me. There’s been countless stories I’ve experienced about the driver for a gang and I know kind of where this type of thing is going to lead. Also Ansel Elgort isn’t really so well known and as the lead for this, it just didn’t appeal to me as a must see film.
But once I got in the cinema and started watching it, I found the film to actually be worth going to see more so than most in 2017. The film’s director Edgar Wright keeps things at a high fast pace and the tone is light and comedic. All the actors and the characters are quick to respond to things and the constant soundtrack of music which we hear Baby (Ansel Elgort) listen to is well chosen and mixed in the film.
I thought that Lily James was the standout actress and was excellent with her role. Ansel Elgort was good as the lead but as a character that mostly listens to music and because he is fairly quiet, other actors are maybe more memorable. I haven’t really enjoyed anything with Jon Hamm in it since Mad Men, but he was actually great here. Kevin Spacey also appears in the film as the villain and like many of the things he has been in recently, his screen presence is a lot larger than anyone else here. Everyone was great really and are all a well chosen cast.
The music in this is one of the high points, as mentioned there’s well chosen tracks for a variety of scenes. Some of the songs do help to change the tone in certain moments and the constant driving around with Baby in the car makes the storyline seem like it’s moving somewhere interesting.
The car chase scenes and stunts are well done. There are a variety of interesting moves made with the vehicles and the action scenes sure are entertaining.
I enjoyed the plot of the film. It’s mostly about a kid who is a pretty good one but he gets involved with the wrong kind of people. He’s a super nice person, but he’s made some bad decisions and bad people are taking advantage of both his skills and his talent for their own gain. As a story it’s got a nice lesson to it and in a way the ending is actually a little sad. The romance aspect of it was well done, with both Baby and Debora having some interestingly written characters as well as having great on screen chemistry.
Overall Baby Driver is an enjoyable film. Don’t be like me and think it’s maybe not that good because the trailer is a little average and there isn’t as much hype around it as say any superhero release. This is a solid entry to the films of 2017 and so far stands as one of my favourites. I left the cinema feeling impressed with what I saw here and am confident that Baby Driver will be a great choice at the cinema this week for any of my readers.
