JUNE 28, 2017
No one’s wearing tap shoes and there’s only occasional vocalizing from the cast, but Edgar Wright’s blood-spattered crime drama “Baby Driver” has the moves of a genuine Hollywood musical. If that mash-up of genres feels a bit mind-blowing, well, that’s how original “Baby Driver” is.
Baby (Ansel Elgort) is working off a debt he owes to crime lord Doc (Kevin Spacey) by working as his getaway driver for heists which Doc masterminds. Since he was a child, Baby has suffered from tinnitus caused by an auto accident that killed both of his parents. Baby can only relieve himself from the constant ringing in his ears by drowning it out with his ear buds which play several iPods’ worth of Baby’s favorite tunes. Those wall-to-wall tunes provide the beat of the film, to which Baby’s body responds throughout “Baby Driver.”
For example, in the film’s opening scene, as three of Doc’s thieves rob a bank, Baby performs a dance routine to “Bellbottoms” by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion without ever leaving the drivers seat. Wright follows that up with a glorious single take shot of Angel gliding through the streets of downtown Atlanta, dodging pedestrians and avoiding traffic, all while carefully holding four containers of hot coffee. The film starts off on a high that amazingly it manages to maintain through most of its 113 minute run-time.
At the same time, writer/director Wright never forgets to remind us that “Baby Driver” is still a criminal heist drama, and this is where Wright’s characterizations kick in. Doc’s modus operandi is never to work with the exact same combination of his merry band of thieves, so we get to meet a gallery of well-developed lowlifes, including Batz (Jamie Foxx), one scary guy with a hair-trigger temper who takes an instant dislike to Baby, and Buddy (Jon Hamm), a Wall Street stockbroker turned drug addict who shares firepower duties with his girlfriend Monica “Darling” (Eiza González), whose hands are constantly all over Buddy, much to Batz’s revulsion.
When the newcomers to the theft ring first meet Baby, with his angelic face and ever-present ear buds, they question whether he’s the right man for the job, but once in a car with Baby behind the wheel, they are skeptics no longer. (The stunt work in “Baby Driver,” particularly the stunt drivers, display some of the most astonishing driving work since “Mad Max: Fury Road” several years ago.)
Baby lives with his deaf foster father Joseph (CJ Jones, a deaf entertainer himself), who encourages Baby to go out and find a girlfriend, and as luck would have it, he does in the person of diner waitress Debora (Lily James in an absolutely charming performance), who shares Baby’s love of music and is anxious to drive away with him to find a better life. But when things begin to go south for Baby at work, Joseph and Debora suddenly become very very vulnerable.
The performances can’t be beat. Elgort had a ballet background before becoming a teen heartthrob in the “Divergent” series and “The Fault in Our Stars,” and it shows. He has the kind of fluidity of movement that Gene Kelly possessed, which is that special combination of masculinity and grace. Spacey is terrific, displaying a heart toward Baby but is ice-cold and deadly when he needs to be. González is perfectly cast, and Jamie Foxx, an actor on whom I run hot and cold, scared the crap out me as Batz. Yes, I know he’s already an Oscar winner, but he really shows his chops here.
But the acting revelation here is Jon Hamm. And yes, he’s an Emmy winner as solid Don Draper on “Mad Men” as well as being a funny guy on “SNL” and “30 Rock,” but who knew he could sleaze himself up so well? With greased-back hair and his leathered gloves clutching an automatic weapon shooting the place up, Hamm is believably badass as Buddy. Ostensibly a kindred spirit to Baby in their mutual love of music — the action stops at one point so Baby and Buddy can have a discussion about the merits of the band Queen (it’s that kind of movie) — Buddy soon becomes the most frightening threat that Baby has yet faced.
The wall-to-wall music is superbly chosen, from alternative to hard rock, but “Baby Driver” really hits its stride when it goes old school, especially the “Baby” songs — when Carla Thomas’ “B-A-B-Y” or Barbara Lewis’ “Baby I’m Yours” hits the speaker, “Baby Driver” is absolute movie heaven.
The credit goes to British filmmaker Edgar Wright, whose previous films have been quirky English comedies, so nothing prepared me for the filmmaking skills he displays here, breaking genre conventions left and right, determined to give his audience a good time, and he does so. Brilliantly.
There are still plenty of sequels ahead this summer — are you looking forward to “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature”? — but it would a landmark summer indeed if any other movie approached the daring creativity of “Baby Driver.” Miss it at your own peril.
GRADE: A-
