Baby Driver

There is an episode of Tales from the Crypt wherein the protagonist’s conscience sounds just like – and is played by – Sam Kinison. OH! OH! AAAUGH! This is only slightly worse than tinnitus but still slightly better than Baby Driver, the story of an idiot savant who is the best getaway driver in Atlanta – with the caveat that he needs to listen to his iPod; when at the mercy of FM radio, Baby (Ansel Elgort) becomes Tyrone from Snatch. Baby suffers from tinnitus. To drown out the ringing in his ears, Baby constantly listens to music – which is like putting out a fire with gasoline – even when fleeing at full speed from the scene of a crime. Right. Children, do not play loud music on your headphones while driving a vehicle. Baby is in love with a waitress named Deborah. The coffee shop where Deborah works must be worse than the Carson McCullers’s Sad Café; how else can you explain her piss-poor decision-making? Deborah has no problem running away with a guy who 1) she practically just met, 2) like Cameron Diaz's brother in There's Something About Mary, loses his sh*t when someone touches his precious earphones, 3) associates freely with criminals, 4) is himself a criminal, 5) has “every clean and dirty cop” after him, and 6) constantly puts her in danger (Deborah is willing to wait five years for Baby to get out of jail. She had to make a living somehow during that time, so I guess the cafeteria wasn't so bad after all). Maybe it's true that women like “bad boys” – which Baby most certainly is, regardless of how innocent the movie wants us to think he is. During the third act Baby is directly or indirectly responsible for four deaths; almost five when he uses Deborah as bait to distract the psychopathic Buddy (Jon Hamm). And speaking of psychos, Bats (Jamie Foxx) is basically Motherf---er Jones from Horrible Bosses on crack – in spite of which he is the only sensible character in the film (“The driver must be the eyes and ears, not just the eyes”). On the plus side, there is an admittedly funny moment concerning a discussion about the difference between a Halloween (as in the horror film) mask and a Mike Myers mask. Moreover, Kevin Spacey is a delight as always, and to no one’s surprise he and Foxx have the best lines – or at least the best delivery.

Baby (Elgort) is a quiet, unassuming young man, who looks after his ailing foster parent, listens to music both out of his love for it, and a need to block out the tinnitus ringing in his ears that he was afflicted with due to a tragic accident that also took his parents. Baby also has a specific skill set, one that has him doing the bidding of a crime boss Doc (Spacey) to pay back a debt. Baby's skill is driving, but not just any driving, the kind of skilled driving that gets Doc's crew of armed bandits away from the scene of bank hold-ups very fast, and then leads crews of police cars on a merry dance, and dodges every trick up their sleeves with a few of his own set to a killer music soundtrack from his iPod. With light at the end of the tunnel, Baby has a chance encounter with cute diner waitress Debora (James), where the chemistry between the two is instant. He sees this as his road to freedom, and a bright new future. This new future is brought to rude halt by Doc who was not yet done with Baby. This film is all about the music soundtrack, and what a soundtrack indeed. With songs like Nowhere to Run by Martha and the Vandellas, to the quintessential driving song Radar Love by Golden Earring, you'll be tapping your toes as well as being thrilled by the action, plus the classy, and slick driving by Baby. The performances in this film are all stand out, relative new comers Elgort, James, and González do really well in their respective roles. The scene stealing performances by Spacey, Hamm, and Foxx are great in support to Elgort. While Spacey, as he generally does, plays cool, and mellow. Hamm, and Foxx do it with charm, and evil menace as Buddy, and Bats. Jon Bernthal's cameo as the suspicious, and hot-headed Griff was also a delight to watch. Written, and directed by cult favourite Edgar Wright, this film has all the elements that make this a great addition to the tradition of other heist films like Drive, The Getaway, and Heat. Baby Driver is probably the most fun I had at the cinemas this year along with Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man Homecoming.

I guess this is one of those movies that you're not supposed to like because meh politics and meh hipster and meh outrage culture and... reasons that really make no sense and are ultimately meaningless. At least that is what a good bulk of the negative reviews say. So let's not talk about meh politics and focus on the movie instead. My wife put it on, and I have never heard of it. I, legit, thought she was talking about Simon and Garfunkel when she started talking about it. "Do you want to watch Baby Driver?" Honest mistake, she's part Guatemalan, her English isn't all that great... watch, listen to, whatever. Anyway, I was in the kitchen cooking and I missed the first part... but I was digging the music. In fact I was digging the music so much that I started going to and from the living room, just because the soundtrack was that compelling. A great mixture of old and new. And then it was Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx, and you really want to see that. Both of them can turn a theatrical trick or two when they want to, and it always kind of seems that Spacey always wants to... and the soundtrack. And then when I finished cooking and we started eating in front of the television, I really started noticing the ringing when the music wasn't playing. And that was irritating... until my wife filled me in on the back story and then it was an "ah-ha," moment of coolness. It was fairly compelling that they did that, and ran with it like they did. And, I can't be absolutely positive, but it didn't like it had that much CGI, and that is a plus. It looked incredibly real, like the good old days, so even through you are watching a movie filtered through an Ipod... it had an authentic action movie feel to it. Over all, it was incredibly enjoyable fun... and that is why you watch movies like this, right? Because they are fun? So, 10 stars, mission accomplished, it was one heck of a fun film.