Baby Driver is a heist movie that focuses on legendary (he started at a young age) get away driver, Baby (Ansel Elgort). He is under the thumbs of crime boss, Doc (Kevin Spacey) and is forced to stay in this life of crime even when he wants to leave. Doc never uses the same group of thieves twice so Baby is forced to meet different members of Doc’s crew that include Buddy (the ever delicious Jon Hamm), Buddy’s wife, Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), Bats (Jamie Foxx) and Griff (Jon Bernthal)
Baby went through a tragedy when he was younger and has never been quite the same since then. He constantly has headphones in, listening to music as part of his coping mechanism. He is a man of few words and is quite the anti social one but is very antisocial. When he meets Deborah (Lily Collins) though, Baby definitely comes out of his shell until the predictable one heist happens that turns all their lives upside down.
Baby Driver is one of those movies you go see for the sheer pumped up fun of it and not for intelligent storylines. The first sequence we are shown in the movie, pretty much describes what the whole movie is about: music + speed. Because Baby pretty much survives on music – no seriously, the right song needs to be playing for him to do his driving right and if he is not listening to music, he is making music. Buddy has an impressive taste in music and it was woven into the movie very spectacularly. I kept thinking the music director had to have had a lot of fun on this project.
Ansel Elgort was so great in this role and played all the complexity of Baby while still showing an innocence that he still possesses even though he is a getaway driver. I remember really liking him in “The Fault in Our Stars” and I think the kid is a star. The last time I felt this way about an actor was Miles Teller, till it seemed he was a bit of a douche offscreen and now I am not sure where that career is headed. Jon Hamm did what he did best. Tortured beautiful man – as a side bar, why has Jon Hamm never done a serious role in a serious movie? I feel like most of his movies are feel good-don’t take me seriously type movies. I was reminded why Jamie Foxx has an actor with a perfect blend of comedy and drama. The weak link to me was Eiza Gonzalez. I think they should have just let her use her accent freely because it seemed like she was so focused on sounding like a “cool babe”, it just came off as forced.
I have to warn you that towards the end of the movie, you have to just chuck all belief out the window because it becomes hella unrealistic but I have to say I was still gripped by it. I was clenched and still was swept away by it all. Overall, I recommend this movie. If you are looking for an escape, having a rough day or as a date movie, definitely go see at the movies, it works. If you can wait and want to watch on DVD, it works also.