One of the most original and enjoyable movies I've seen in 2017, BABY DRIVER is a fast paced, violent thriller packed with music, laughs and thrills.
Ansel Elgort (The Fault In Our Stars) is Baby, a young man with an incredible talent for driving and tinnitus so bad that he lives with his in-ear headphones in place, banging out accompaniment for every moment of his life.
Indebted to a brutal crime boss named Doc (Kevin Spacey having a blast), Baby is a getaway driver for all of Doc's heists.
Luckily for us, the other talent in the robberies is equally entertaining. John Bernthal is Griff, Jon Hamm is superb as Buddy, Eiza Gonzalez is beautiful and lethal as Buddy's girlfriend Darling and Jamie Foxx is the unhinged and hilarious Bats.
Writer/Director Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) choreographs every action scene down to the second, staging the set pieces perfectly to the music Baby has in his ears. The bullets are downbeats, screaming tires are the melody, its incredibly well done.
The opening ten minutes perfectly set the tone for the film ahead as Baby proves his talents in a wild post-heist escape.
As Baby fulfills his obligations to Doc, falls in love with the local waitress at the diner Debora (Lily James looking exactly like Madchen Amick as Shelly the diner waitress in the original 1990 Twin Peaks series) and wants to get out of driving, Doc has other plans.
The film shares specific celluloid DNA with Walter Hill's 1978 crime thriller "The Driver" along with Steve McQueen's 1972 "The Getaway" but becomes something wholly of its own through Wright's unique vision.
With over 30 songs of almost every genre burning in the background, BABY DRIVER plays its own tune.
In a summer of rehashed pirates, transformers, superheroes, animated cars and minions, what more can a movie fan ask for?
BABY DRIVER burns rubber straight to an A.
Comments