Review of Baby Driver, directed by Edgar Wright

I remember in 2017, when Baby Driver first came out, I watched the movie for Ansel Elgort. Back then he was kind of the eye of many teenage and preteen girls because he was in The Fault in Our Stars, which, ironically, I had never seen before.

Nowadays, he’s a lot less popular because of a sexual assault allegations against him from a former classmate, which gave me the major ick when I found out about it. I guess Kevin Space also fell from grace for many obvious reasons as well, making this film an all-star cast of leading cancelled people.

I also did not like his performance in West Side Story, and thought Rachel Zegler could have been paired with so much better. There’s this one scene in the movie with him that’s especially comically bad, and I cannot believe it made it into the final cut.

Regardless, I had watched Baby Driver when it first came out all of those years ago, and was recently thinking about it lately. So I rewatched it, despite the controversies involved with these cast members. I don’t agree with separating the art from the artist, as it feels like an excuse to still be a fan without acknowledging art is deeply personal, but we can still watch these movies critically.

Let’s get into the review.

Baby, a getaway driver, falls in love and tries to get his way out of a life of crime.

Our protagonist in this movie is Baby, who lives in Atlanta, works as a getaway driver, and is specifically hired by a guy named Doc. There’s a reason for this hiring, though: Baby stole a car full of Doc’s merchandise, which made him owe the guy once he got busted for it. Baby’s now the driver for Doc’s thieves.

But, as it turns out, he has some trauma: his parents died in a car accident when he was a young boy, and he was left with the memories and tinnitus constantly ringing in his ears. Whenever he’s in the car and out and about in his life, he has his headphones in and music blasting.

The other thieves and robbers don’t like him because they think he’s being arrogant with the headphones, but as he’s listening to music, he also makes remixes of conversations he records. This plays a part later. Whenever he goes home, he has to take care of his father, who is deaf, and meets up with a waitress he’s smitten with: Debora.

Debora has no idea what Baby’s been doing on the side, and if she finds out, it could absolutely ruin everything when it comes to their relationship. So he keeps quiet and they talk about many other things.

Baby’s very last assignment for Doc is on the horizon, and he’s paired up with the robber Bats, who is a little bit unhinged. They get into the car and prepare for the operation, but when a bystander happens to be an armed military member and can chase them down, Baby has to think quick.

He ends up getting away from the guy, but leaves him in a bad situation as the police close in on the group. Baby sees his debt as paid off, then finds a new job delivering pizzas for a living. But when he’s on a date with Debora, Doc appears, threatening Baby to come back to him lest Debora and his father want to be injured.

First, the firearms they want to purchase has a undercover cop Baby recognizes, so everyone gets into a shootout. They all survive and get out of there, and Bats tells Baby to stop at the diner Debora works at. They eat there, Debora is confused as to why Baby is being so weird and with these people, and he stops Bats from killing her.

When they get back to Doc, he’s pissed off, as he knew the people they killed were on his payroll. Baby is confronted by Buddy, one of the other robbers, and Bats for his audio recorded remixes, since they think he’s spying on them for the cops. He plays them the remixes, which don’t sound serious, but accidentally exposes his relationship with Debora in the process.

The next big heist happens. When Bats kills someone he didn’t need to, Baby refuses to drive, and Bats takes over the car, which gets him killed. The other three run on foot, and Darling, who’s married to Buddy, gets shot by the cops. Buddy gets mad at Baby, blaming him for her death.

Baby heads home, takes his cash, and puts his father in a nursing home to be safe. He then goes to find Debora, but Buddy is waiting for him at the diner. Baby shoots him, grabs Debora, and they flee as the cops come. He heads to Doc’s, where he wants his tapes of his mother singing.

Doc has sympathy for him and his love for Debora, and gives them money and an escape route, but Buddy then kills Doc after arriving on the scene. Buddy tracks Baby down in a chase, shoots at his ears, deafening him, and Debora knocks him down withs crowbar. Baby then shoots his leg, and Buddy falls down to his death.

Debora and Buddy flee in a car, but when they find a police roadblock, Buddy decides this is it. He surrenders, and at his trial, everyone attests to his kindness. He gets 25 years in prison, with potential for parole, and Debora continues to stay in contact with him. We learn his name is Miles, and, in the final scene that acts as a dream sequence, Baby leaves as Debora embraces him with a vintage car.

Overall Thoughts

I think as a movie, Baby Driver is just okay. The plot can be a tad cliche, and I feel like I”m being generous when it comes to saying that.

Despite this, the beauty in this movie specifically is how it manages to capture the sound mixing. There was a reason this film was acknowledged for its mixing, and when Baby has those headphones in, the movie really puts its foot on the gas pedal.

That said, you might not notice this at first, but there’s also a tinnitus sound underlying everything at certain moments of the movie, really putting you inside of Baby’s head through subtle ways. I appreciate the details in this movie a lot, and the editing works really well, too.

All in all, I think Edgar Wright knows what he’s doing when it comes to filmmaking, and I can acknowledge that. I’ve generally enjoyed the experience of his movies, making me want to watch more when they come out.

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