Movie Review -- Baby Driver

   Here I am with a review of a movie that's been out for two months, possibly the most late review I've ever written for a current movie. My bad. But after seeing how much ass Baby Driver kicks, I just had to let everybody know about it.

   Baby Driver is about Baby, a young getaway driver and music lover who's having trouble leaving the heist business all while caring for his foster father and trying to go on dates with a waitress named Debora. It's a movie that delivers the goods when it comes to interesting characters, good acting – especially from the likes of Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, and Ansel Elgort – good humour, and many thrilling car chases that make extensive use of stunt driving rather than CG phoniness.

   Perhaps the most interesting thing about Baby Driver is its sound design and editing. There's lots of popular songs in this movie – good ones, too – but 99% of them are contextual to the plot; the songs the audience is hearing are the same songs that the characters are listening to. When a character stops listening to a song, so does the audience. (I say 99% because there's one scene where R.E.M.'s “New Orleans Instrumental No.1” plays seemingly from nowhere.) When a character listens to music through only one earbud, the song half-fades away. Not only that, but a lot of the movie's sound effects and actions – like gunshots and car horns – are often timed to the beat of the song that's playing at the moment. It's a very different way of making a movie sound, and it lends a lot to Baby Driver's overall identity.

   The film's visual editing is also very energetic and tight. With lots of revolving shots and long following shots, the camera moves quite a lot, making every scene feel lively. If it seems like I'm talking more about Baby Driver's production than its plot and story, that's only because it's these elements that make the movie feel so fresh.

   And that's about all I have to say about Baby Driver, a really good crime-action film with a killer soundtrack. Its story may be a case of style over substance, but I'm not complaining when the overall product is presented with this level of joy and creativity. If you're looking for something fun, then hop on board.

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