Ever since Edgar Wright’s dramatic exit from Marvel’s Ant-Man, we have been waiting to see what was next from this unique director, and if Baby Driver is anything to go by, Wright has got a lot left in the tank. Baby Driver is cool, fun and funny. Even if it could have used just one more chase scene.
Since Edgar loves to play with movie genres it should be no surprise that Baby Driver features a lot of clichés and tropes for him to manipulate, make fun of and ultimately revel in. It is about, get this, a tormented getaway driver, Baby (Ansel Elgort), that has to do just one more job to free himself from his scary crime boss, Doc (Kevin Spacey). Baby just wants to skip town with his girl, Debora (Lily James), and leave his life of crime behind him.
Now Baby Driver isn’t the crazy comedy that makes up the bulk of Edgar Wright’s work: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End, but it still offers plenty of laughs. This slightly more restrained version of Wright is no doubt what we would have seen from him if he would have been able to complete Ant-Man. Which is a shame because Marvel could have stood to have its own studio turn its cinematic universe on its head.
The acting was all terrific. Elgort was able to portray a kid who is gifted at his job but hates it, and Hamm, Foxx, and Gonzalez are all able to play varying shades of crazy gangster. Spacey’s job was to deliver on the nose dialog without actually winking at the audience, and Spacey was in peak Spacey. I am sure Wright’s direction for him was, “Can you be more Spacey in the next scene?”.
Baby Driver isn’t perfect. It drags a little in the middle. I think Edgar was worried that the audience may not like Baby, so he did some character building which I didn’t think was necessary, and for a movie about driving, it could have featured just a little more. The reason I say this is because the driving that is in it, is excellent, but then it kind of tapers off as the movie progresses.
Baby Driver is a very good modern gangster film that knows and has fun with the fact it is a gangster film. It is another great film to add to Wright’s portfolio. Which already has a lot of great films in it. It is a fun summer action movie to go check out if you are a little tired of them all featuring tights and capes these days.