Before we get to the review, I have a little experiment that I want to collect data for:
Please leave a comment below if you've watched a YouTube video within the past two months and seen a trailer for the movie Baby Driver.
For me though,what probably made matters worse was that the YouTube ad scenario was not the first time I had heard of Baby Driver or even seen the trailer. In fact, I had first heard of the movie about six months ago. (That's probably because I'm a nerd who scrolls through trailers on YouTube to get excited for movies that come out the following year.) And when I first saw the trailer for Baby Driver, I was initially struck by how stupid the title sounded. Like, sure, his name is "Baby, B-A-B-Y Baby," but I mean, come on, really? They couldn't have come up with a better title?
So the first time I saw the trailer, I was not impressed in the slightest. I thought the movie was going to be lame because the title was completely laughable. In fact, when I told a friend that I had went to see the movie, he didn't believe that the movie was real because the title sounded so ridiculous and made-up.
(Side note: I now know there is a song by Simon & Garfunkel called "Baby Driver," so because of that song the title makes sense, but at the time I wasn't aware that even existed, and so I thought the title was stupid, and I didn't get why anyone would call a movie "Baby Driver.")
However, stupid titles aside, recently I was getting pretty hyped to see Baby Driver thanks to the barrage of YouTube ads and positive reviews from everyone who saw the movie. They all seemed to agree that it was awesome and needed to be praised as one of the best movies of 2017, possibly of all time.
So I was hyped. I saw the movie.
And here's the thing:
...it was okay.
I mean, people who said that the movie was good were... kinda right?
But it's not like the movie was perfect, either.
Every movie has its problems, trust me. Even my favorite movies are not flawless (though I like to believe that they are), but this movie had an even balance of bad elements for every good element that I liked about it.
Let's go through the breakdown:
And yes, there will be spoilers, so read at your own will.
Category 1: Main Character- A
Let's talk about what worked in the movie. The characters were a mixed bag for me, and the one that I really connected with and truly felt for throughout the whole movie was Baby himself, played by Ansel Elgort.
Now, I've loved Ansel Elgort since he played Augustus Waters in the movie adaptation of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. (Great book and great movie by the way. I highly recommend both.) I know that he was in the Divergent movies as well, playing Caleb alongside the girl who was also in The Fault in Our Stars, Shaylene Woodley. Aside from that, I had never heard of him before then.
So how did he do as Baby in Baby Driver?
He killed it.
I'm not even joking.
First of all, Elgort made me believe that he was someone who would be named Baby because of the way he presented himself in the film. In the first ten minutes of the movie, Baby is already characterized as a kid who enjoys music probably more than anything else in the world. He wears shades to put off an air of toughness that he doesn't have, but he's actually really kindhearted and smart. A point that they try to make clear in the film is that Baby doesn't enjoy watching his partners in crime kill people, and he's not a fan of death. Elgort does a really good job of making you feel sympathetic to Baby, and he makes the character feel like a real person who has real issues.
Another thing that I liked about the main character of the movie itself (and I suppose this has less to do with Elgort and more to do with how the movie was written) was that the main character had a hearing problem that came with its own little tragic backstory. I appreciated the cliche even though it was a little trite, because the movie added something to the cliche by making it less about his struggle with hearing, and more about his dependence on music. And so when the music wasn't in the scene there, you can feel it- and understand how hard it is for the character to be without it.
I did like Elgort's performance throughout the movie, though. Whether he was dancing to the music playing on his iPod, or driving in his bad-ass getaway car, he was giving it his all, and being completely charming and likable whille doing it.
I also appreciated his relationships with other people in the movie, especially his foster dad who was disabled and also deaf. From watching the movie I could feel a genuine connection between the two that was different and interesting, especially because Elgort's character was partially deaf. The parallels between the two of them were very well done, and I like that Elgort probably had to learn sign language in order to communicate with him, because that shows dedication to the role.
My only real complaint about the character is that at the end you discover that Baby was not his real name, and that it was a code name for when Baby would do jobs with the rest of his crew. Personally I found the whole name reveal to be very annoying and underwhelming, because not only did they not explain why he chose to be called "Baby," but explicitly they said, "Baby, B-A-B-Y, Baby," like at least four times throughout the film. To me, it would have been funnier to reveal that Baby was actually his real name and that it was on his birth certificate and everything.
Category 2: Supporting Characters- D+
The only two supporting characters that I liked in this movie was the waitress Debra, played by Lilly James, and Baby's deaf, elderly foster father played by CJ Jones (who is deaf in real life). Both of Baby's relationships with them seem genuine and are developed in a way to make you care about Debra and Thomas (the foster father).
Thomas, like I said before, serves as a nice parallel to Baby, because Baby was partially deaf and Thomas was completely deaf. This connection was incredibly touching to me because not only could Baby relate more to him because of this, but there is a scene at the end of the movie after it seems as though Baby has completely lost his hearing (SPOILER), and he has to "listen" to music the same way Thomas does, by feeling the vibrations.
Debra was a... fine (?) love interest. I had nothing against her. Honestly she seemed a little flat and one-dimensional at the beginning, because she didn't do anything other than like Baby, and really, who wouldn't?
But after the action part of the movie started, and she found out who Baby was and what he could really do, I started to like her more, simply for the fact that she made the choice to stick around. I liked that she was willing to suddenly be "ride-or-die" for this kid that she had only been dating for a while, and she was willing to actually kill, or be killed for him. I liked that their relationship was so typical of young love, and that the first thing that they talked about was running away together, and they almost did in the end.
Everyone else in the movie seemed to keep needlessly killing people or giving Baby shit for listening to music all the time even though he's proven countless times that he is perfectly capable of handling himself.
I suppose most of my complaints about the rest of the characters stem from the fact that I wanted to see this movie because of he trailers that I kept seeing online. The trailers depicted Kevin Spacey as the villain of the movie, who kept luring Baby into the crime game despite him wanting to get out. I thought that Jaime Foxx and the others would be sympathizers, who, like Baby, wanted to get out of the business. Or at the very least I hoped that they would be a little bit more complex, like Baby.
However, I was sorely disappointed. The characters played by Jaime Foxx, Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez were all...one-dimensional.
None of the characters had any dimensions about them to make them sympathetic to the viewer. They were all terrible people who robbed banks and post offices just for the sake of being terrible, and they got cheap thrills from getting away with murder. Literally.
And while it could be argued that that was the entire point: to make the supporting cast as unappealing as possible- that didn't exactly translate well into the film. The film couldn't decide if it wanted me to care about them or not.
About an hour or so into the film, when Jaime Foxx's character (Bats), is sitting with Baby, Jon Ham's character (Buddy), and Eiza Gonzalez's character (Darling), in the diner, Bats comes up with a backstory for Buddy that is (shockingly) accurate. Turns out that Buddy was a Wall Street burnout that lost everything and then turned to a life of crime just because he could. Then he married his mistress, Darling.
But by that point in the movie, it felt like it was too late to try to muster up a backstory for a character that had already been depicted as a horrible person. Buddy and Darling were killers, and attempting to humanize them by revealing their real names (Jason and Monica, respectively) did nothing except confuse me into thinking that maybe I was supposed to care about them?
And then after Darling dies within the last thirty minutes of the film, I'm not sure if we're supposed to care that she's dead. I know we were supposed to be concerned for Baby's safety, because he was established as a sympathetic character, but Darling? Not so much. Which is a shame because the drama of Buddy showing up to kill Debra could have been amped up more if we actually cared about Darling and Buddy's relationship, or even about them as people.
Jaime Foxx played a dick in this movie, and honestly, I was glad when he was dead. None of his lines were funny, and he seemed to be threatening to kill someone, or actually killing someone every forty-five seconds he was on screen. Honestly he was annoying at best, and a serial killer at worst. When he died I was actually relieved.
One thing I did notice and even commented on after the movie ended was that nearly all of the minority characters died off in one way or another, sparing the deaf guy that Baby was caring after. That probably had more to do with the fact that a lot of people died in this film overall and less to do with race in general, but it was something I noticed like right away.
The Asian actor in the movie- the one that mixed up Michael Myers with Mike Myers in the trailer? Yeah, he died shortly after that scene.
Darling, the Latina wife? Dead.
Bats, Jaime Foxx's character? Dead.
There were a few black cops and other diverse characters with minor speaking roles that died as well, but they were mostly unimportant to the story.
And yes, there were a few black people and other minorities that didn't die in this movie, but it was kinda shocking to me just how many people actually died in this film.
But overall, I watched the movie and I honestly disliked nearly all of the supporting characters. And to be honest, I was happy when most of them were dead. To me, they deserved it.
Category 3: Cinematography- A
Edgar Wright, the writer and director of this movie, is probably better known for some of his earlier projects, such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Hot Fuzz, and Shaun of the Dead. Now, the only movie I had ever seen of his was his 2010 movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, so walking into Baby Driver I had high hopes. I remember that I really enjoyed Scott Pilgrim, because the cinematography and special effects were fricking awesome, and the movie overall was very entertaining.
After seeing Baby Driver, I can say that Edgar Wright did not disappoint.
One of the best scenes in the film that wasn't featured in the insane promo for the movie was a shot that came about ten minutes into the movie where Baby was sent to get coffee for his gang of criminal friends after their first heist. This shot was beautiful and it set up the entire tone of the movie. In the scene, Wright makes you focus on the main character by using one continuous walking shot where Baby walks to the coffee shot and back. I can only imagine that this scene is what filmmakers wet dreams are made of. It was seamless, and it seemed to establish Baby as not only a likable character with a personality, but as someone worth focusing on early on in the movie.
Another thing that I thought was good was the fact that all of the fighting and car chase scenes were realistic. As you can see in the trailer for the movie and the constant promo, there is not a lot of over-editing done, and so most of what you're watching in the movie seems legitimate and realistic instead of blurry and confusing. The fight scenes and the car chases were definitely action packed and clear instead of over-polished in post to the point where they are unrecognizable.
Category 4: Music- B-
This might just be a pet peeve of mine, but I'm not a fan of movies that are advertised with a soundtrack. I didn't like it when The Guardians of the Galaxy did it, and I wasn't exactly a fan of when this movie did it. I feel like it's just an excuse for hipsters to go out and buy a vinyl of a movie soundtrack that features old Queen and Michael Jackson songs so they can feel more cultured.
HOWEVER- and this is a big disclaimer- I didn't hate the music in this movie.
I thought the music fit the movie very well, and matching the timing of the songs to all of the action in the movie was very clever. And as I mentioned before, I liked that the musical element of the story was usually always there, and so when it wasn't there- the story felt naked and raw, and it created a different tone, which was nice. I also liked that essentially the movie is being heard through Baby's ears, and he's constantly got music playing to drown out his tinnitus.
But still... I couldn't help but feel like the movie was being incredibly pretentious with its song choices, to be honest. Like, there were definitely some songs that I knew before going into the movie, like "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Barry White, and "Easy" by the Commodores (Not to go off on a tangent or anything, but if you haven't seen Ansel Elgort performing this song on the Late, Late Show with James Corden than you are truly missing out. Here's the link: Everyone Wants Baby to Have Their Babies) but for the most part, I was unaware of most of these songs, and I found them to be pretentious song choices for a movie centered around someone in his early 20's. I mean, sure, establishing that Baby likes older, more obscure music gives him street cred as a music nerd, but it also made me feel a little left out because I was unaware of most of the songs in this movie.
Now, I consider myself to be a basic bitch when it comes to things like music, but that doesn't mean I don't listen to all types of things. I just like what I like. If you open up my Spotify playlist, you'll see I've got everything from 2Pac to the Grease Soundtrack. I enjoy all different types of music, but for me, the music in this movie was just too... obscure, maybe? It definitely seemed weirdly out of date for a modern movie about a kid who drives getaway cars. But maybe that's just me.
Category 5: Motives- D
Let's get back to Kevin Spacey for a second. I didn't mention him when I was talking about all of the other supporting characters, because I wanted to get to this point and talk about him specifically.
Something about Baby Driver didn't exactly add up, and I think it had a lot to do with the motives of Baby and the movie's main antagonist, Kevin Spacey (For the record, I had to Google if his character had a name in the movie, and his character name was Doc. I don't remember anyone ever calling him that, so I will continue to refer to him as Kevin Spacey).
To start with, Kevin Spacey is depicted, in the trailer and in the movie, as the movie's main bad guy. He's the one lining up all of the bank robberies and organizing all of the teams so that everyone can make a lot of money. He uses Baby as his driver on every job because Baby is the best in the biz.
This is okay, and I was on board with this. The only thing I didn't get was, what was the dynamic between Baby and Kevin Spacey?
The movie said that (SPOILERS) Baby was caught stealing one of Kevin Spacey's cars when he was younger, and that car was worth a lot of money because it had some valuables in the trunk. One thing led to another, and all of a sudden that car is missing. Next thing you know, Baby is working for Kevin Spacey, trying to repay the debt for the car he lost... I guess.
But the movie presents their relationship in two ways: Spacey's the cold and unforgiving boss, and yet Spacey is also Baby's best friend. And while this seems like it could be done in a way that is both terrifying and amazing, the movie does not execute this very well. These differences seem out of character, and the motivation for this turn of events just isn't there.
Something that really bugged me was the ending of the movie, where Baby comes back to the garage for his mom's tape after saving Debra. (Honestly this scene kinda reminded me of The Guardians of the Galaxy, not gonna lie.) In this scene, Kevin Spacey is packing up all of his shit and closing shop because Baby decided not to complete the job as planned. He tells Baby that he can't help him, and no, he won't give him his mom's tape. That seems completely in character.
But then it gets weird.
Now to me, the dynamic between the two of them would have been more compelling and fitting if Kevin Spacey only liked Baby when he was useful to him. After Baby screwed up the last job on the post office, it would have made sense if Kevin Spacey threatened to kill him if he didn't leave the warehouse, or shouted some expletives about Baby being a lost cause because of his youth or hearing impairment.
It even would have been more powerful, to me, if Baby had come not only for his mother's tape, but to criticize and verbally berate Spacey for being a criminal in the first place. If Baby had said something harsh or even remotely cold to Spacey, I would have understood his motivation a bit better because Baby was so against death and his life of crime in the first place.
However, instead of doing any of that, Baby tries to tell Spacey that they're friends, and quotes Monsters Inc. unsuccessfully, only to be yet again turned down when asking for his mother's tape.
Kevin Spacey stands his ground, and everything is fine. That is, until Debra appears from the shadows and tells Baby it's time to leave.
Then all of a sudden, his motivation changes.
Spacey allows Baby to retrieve his mother's tape and then offers to help Baby and Debra escape the police because they're on the run. But it's not because Spacey had a soft spot for Baby, or because he needed to have a getaway driver to help him get away now, but it was because, "I was in love once."
And I was literally sitting there like, "Where the fuck did that come from?"
Spacey being in love before was never addressed in the film, and it seemed like a random, movie generated motivation so that the movie could end within the next twenty minutes.
Luckily, this motivation is never explored further, because Spacey died in the middle of his attempt to help Debra and Baby escape. Which, again, doesn't make sense.
It was never established in the movie that Spacey liked Baby enough to die for him, or to even risk his life for him. There was never a heart to heart moment between the two like there was with Thomas. Spacey was basically always threatening Baby or asking him loaded questions- so there was really no time for them to develop a deeper bond other than, "That's my getaway driver," and "That's my boss."
The motivations of Kevin Spacey didn't make any sense, and the fact that Baby didn't at least cuss him out for making him drive for him for years was a little disappointing, considering all the shit he'd been through. It would have been more consistent with their characters if Spacey hadn't helped him, and Baby would have screamed at him, because the motivations of those two just seemed really off-putting towards the end.
Edgar Wright did seem to get Baby's motivation right at the end though, after Baby turned himself in instead of going on the run with Debra. This was consistent with his character, because Baby was a nice person who got involved with the wrong crowd. I thought him going to jail, and the trial afterwards was a nice touch, because Baby was really a good kid, but he unfortunately had to learn to face the music.
Pun intended.
Category 6: Originality- A
I'll give Baby Driver one thing: it's not a sequel, or a remake, or a spinoff, or even a book to movie adaptation. It's original, and in Hollywood these days, that means something. It was nice to see a movie that wasn't based off of a comic book or a TV show or even an old historical event. This movie is 100% new material, and for that, I have to give it it's props. I mean, for me, it didn't always work; in some ways the movie worked well without a mold to fit into, and in other places, I feel like a mold would have helped to stabilize its direction. However, Edgar Wright deserves praise for coming up with an original idea when Hollywood seems too terrified to produce new and original content for moviegoers to enjoy.
Instead we're on our third Cars movie and our fifth Transformers...
But I digress.
Overall, Baby Driver was... fine? I didn't love it, and honestly, I don't even really have to see it again, but I felt like I had to write a review about it just because everyone else is currently raving about it. If I'm being honest, I enjoyed it to a point, but there were a lot of parts that I frankly didn't enjoy, so for me, Baby Driver gets a C. I would really only watch it again to watch Ansel Elgort be cute and charming, and maybe for the few scenes he had with Lily James and CJ Jones. But aside from that, I think the movie was acceptable, but not as great as everyone says it is. After all, things usually aren't worth all the hype that they incite on the internet.
That being said, here's hoping that Baby Driver doesn't sell-out to the movie studio for a sequel and develop sequelitis.
