I'm starting to enjoy writing these movie reviews, so I think I'm going to continue for awhile! As usual, I will try to stay spoiler free to anything important to the plot.
What I'm going to review today is a movie I just watched last night at the theater called Baby Driver. Baby Driver is director and writer Edgar Wright's newest film, which is probably his best work in the past 10 years. It's definitely the most fun movie I've seen so far this summer. The film centers around our main character, Baby (Ansel Elgort). Yes, that is the alias he gives to people when asked.
A character jokes saying the reason he's called Baby is because they're still waiting on his first words, which isn't all that far off. Baby is a very quiet, solitary person who prefers to keep to himself while listening to his music. He met with an accident as a child which left him with tinnitus, his solution to this is to constantly have music playing to drown the noise out. He also needs his music to focus on while driving, and boy can he drive.
(I have to note, the soundtrack for this movie is impressive, and even more impressive is how the film is basically edited to match the music beat for beat for the majority of the film. I have to say, it's something I've never seen before, but it's a very interesting, entertaining concept which I very much enjoyed.)
Baby is the getaway driver for a heist/robbery organization, which is managed by a man named Doc (Kevin Spacey). Doc is the mastermind who finds sweet spots to hit, plans the whole thing, and hires the thugs to take part in it. Baby stole a car from Doc when he was a child, and incurred a debt which he has been working to pay off. The movie starts out with introducing us to Baby sitting in a red Subaru WRX waiting outside a bank while listening to music and fidgeting with his car.
Shortly after this 3 people jump into his car after having robbed the bank, and baby proceeds to showcase his driving ability and eludes the police. Afterwards, the group meets up in a safehouse, where some more of our other characters are introduced. The three bankrobbers consist of Griff (Jon Bernthal), Buddy (Jon Hamm), and Buddy's wife, Darling (Eiza Gonzalez). However, Doc always changes out the crew for each job besides Baby, since he feels that he's become a good luck driver.
Baby quickly meets his love interest at a diner his mother used to work at, sweet singing waitress Debora (Played by Lily James). With who'm he quickly starts to fall for. Thus giving him even more of a reason to leave his world of crime and go straight. We're also introduced to Baby's aged step father, Joseph, who is wheelchair bound, mute and deaf. They communicate through sign language, and Joe can feel vibrations on speakers to see what Baby is listening to as well. It's quickly shown that Joe knows what Baby does for work, and disapproves of it, but knows he must keep going until the debt is paid.
The basic plot of the film is the"one last job and I'm done" plot, which may sound like a trope, though nothing about this film feels like a trope. The editing is top notch, action scenes filled with grit, and the dialogue is superb thanks to Wrights excellent writing skills. It all just works and flows nicely. The next job, which is supposed to be his last job, introduces another main character to the story, Bats (Played by Jamie Foxx). Bats name comes from the fact that he is quite crazy and unpredictable, he also happens to be one of the most hilarious characters in this film and also gave a great performance.
This film is filled with such colorful, entertaining, and interesting characters. The casting was just perfect, with each person giving a phenomenal performance in their roles. You actually hope for the heroes of the film to live and getaway instead of just figuring it's going to be a happy ending of sunshine and kittens. Baby and Debora have great chemistry in the film, and both the actor who portray them are filled with charisma.
Even the smaller roles seem to have been cast perfectly, from the old lady who gets car jacked later in the film, to a post office worker, to even the owner of the diner who answers the phone. This on top of the great cinemotography, insane editing, and awesome soundtrack truly makes this one of the most fun films I've seen in quite a few years now.
There is just an exciting energy to this film, that has you on the edge of your seat. It's very engaging with it's audience, and will keep you constantly entertained. I can only say great things about this film, and I actually am planning on going to see it again within the next few days. I highly recommend any of you interested in seeing it to go check it out. If someone sees this film and doesn't have a good time watching it, then I would really have to tell them to rethink their life choices.
Hope you guys have enjoyed this movie review! This is the first one I've done without multiple viewings of said film, and I'm writing it pretty shortly after seeing the film. I'm really enjoying writing these though, and hope that at least a few of you think they're decent, haha. Thanks for looking!