Review | Be My Baby Driver

I could go on and on all about how Baby Driver is the must-see movie of the summer and if you miss it you’ll be missing a movement and yada yada yada……..so I will.

Baby Driver is the sort of movie that comes along when everything else seems bland, trite, and routine and reminds you that flavor, texture and originality are alive and well. The premise, around which the musical mayhem is staged, is about a boy who drowns out a constant ringing in his ears with an array of tunes he’s stored in his many iPods to reflect his range of emotions. He is forced into this world of high speed criminality and uses his music to keep him sane and detached from his felonious reality.  As Baby, a presumed name we come to adore throughout his journey, tries to distance himself from his criminal captors, he becomes infatuated with a girl he meets at a diner who seems just as mysterious and musically oriented as he is, which makes his escape that much more complicated.

We experience his reality as authentically as he does; the soundtrack to his life plays continuously over his chaotic circumstance. The music transitions almost seamlessly between each of his moods and adventures, sometimes as abruptly as he experiences those changes as well. Ansel Elgort perfectly melds youth and stoicism into the protagonist by fidgeting with a Hot Wheels while maintaining his mystique behind his Wayfarers. He breathes comedic life into the simplicity of Baby’s quirks, most notably when Baby appears to be lost in his music and uninterested in a meeting but is remarkably able to repeat the entire conversation word by word.

Director Edgar Wright masterfully selected each song to elicit tears, butterflies, or a rush of adrenaline as the story progressed. Baby Driver races to a soundtrack filled with a plethora of artists and genres from the “Easy” listening of The Commodores to rock legend Queen. And how can we forget the movie’s namesake by the venerated duo Simon and Garfunkel’s “Baby Driver”.

Whether you walk, skip, run, or drift into theaters, make seeing (hearing) Baby Driver your top priority. Listen below: