Baby Driver

Director: Edgar Wright

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jamie Foxx

Genre: Action

Year: 2017

Another film by Wright, 'Baby Driver' confirms how this director is one of the greatest of the present day. Wright makes another unique movie, this time being an action-heist film.


Baby (Ansel Elgort) is works in the mob industry as a driver who helps criminals get to their location and escape with ease. He is one of the best drivers going and highly depended on by the team. Baby suffers from tinnitus, something he gained from an incident as a child, and must listen to music to drown out the ringing in his ears.

This music plays a substantial part in the film. The way Wright has directed it is that the action correlates to the beat of the music. Whether this is simple cuts or gun fire, the whole film seems to depend on the music to help in the scenes. This technique works perfectly for the entirety of the film, with no scene feeling inadequately done. It helps bring excitement and thrills to the action sequences, and makes the more dialogue-heavy scenes more enjoyable to watch. The music makes the film feel so satisfying to watch and listen to- it becomes a key element of the film that it seems to be essential for it to work. It depicts how much of a genius Wright is with his filming, integrating music into a heist film in a way that it does for musicals.

The acting is excellent all round too. Ansel Elgort is great as the enigmatic Baby who remains rather quiet and somewhat intimidating, yet through Lily James' character of Deborah, opens up to reveal his more human, relatable side. Kevin Spacey, as always, is excellent as the stern Doc, the leader of all the heists and he organises all the missions. Jamie Foxx is the love-to-hate character of Bats, a ruthless, unpredictable criminal who doesn't trust Baby and can become enraged very easily. Eiza González and Jon Hamm (Darling and Buddy, respectively) are a fierce couple, madly in love, but still almost as ruthless as Bats. They seem the antithesis of Baby, yet they completely depend on his driving skills.

The plot is an interesting one. It can be rather predictable at times, yet it remains enthralling and exhilarating consistently, even if something happened which might have seemed obvious. The film retains the fast paced action whether through the editing, the music or simply what is happening in the scene. Wright's excellent use of editing is seen in this film again; however, it lacks the same fluent humour as the Cornetto Trilogy or Scott Pilgrim have. This film isn't as focused on comedy as it is on the action. The lack of comedic humour does not in any way take anything away from the film- admittedly, there are plenty of jokes made which are funny but aren't the basis of the film.

Ultimately, this is an excellent film by Wright again and a must watch, whether for fans of the director or not. It is exciting, exhilarating and a brilliant example of an action-heist film.

Verdict: 9/10