Baby Driver - 2017
This flick is just the essence of stylish cool. Consider it my entry for the fast-paced action thrill ride, non-comic book or superhero genre. Or, is that a sub-genre? Baby Driver doesn’t really wrestle with any big themes (Why are criminals bad?) or have huge payoffs. It just cranks up a rocking soundtrack, screams bravado from its…mmm outer paint coat (i.e. the screenplay. Yeah, it’s a stretch. Deal.), and squeals its tires as it rolls from one car chase to another. It rarely ceases to do anything but keep you on the edge of your seat.
Baby Driver IS all the things that make for sleek heist flicks, but it is ALSO much more. It is also, as one reviewer notes, a “quirky musical rom-com.” Music informs nearly every scene, as it is the lifeblood which which makes Baby such an incredible driver. Still, at its heart, Baby Driver finds a little love story. Once Baby meets the waitress Deborah, played by the effervescent Lily James, his priorities shift and he begins to dream of seeking a new life for himself and his budding love. But, his old life will not let him go, as the villainous Kevin Spacey (in what is now a deeply ironic performance) demands that the boy do one last job for him as recompense for losing his money.
The film is also a cut above other pictures like this because of the characters that round out the team. Jamie Foxx manages to coolly portray both the comic relief of the film and a trenchantly suspicious psychopath wary of Baby’s preternatural calm. Then, of course, there is the masterful Jon Hamm, who is just letting his hair down and going for broke in this role. He seems to be cool to the max, but there’s a Travis Bickle sickness dwelling beneath the skin which comes to a head in the film’s thrilling closing moments. Did it change the world this year? Heck no. But, we all need some flicks to just rock us in our seats, don’t we?
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