Review 554: Baby Driver

Baby Driver is a fast paced, exciting thrill ride and another win for Edgar Wright.

Miles/"Baby" is a talented, young getaway driver who relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. When he meets the girl of dreams, waitress Debora (Lily James), Baby sees a chance to ditch his criminal life and make a clean getaway. But after being coerced into working for crime boss "Doc" (Kevin Spacey), he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.

Baby Driver is, in its plotting, structure, genre and technique, a straightforward heist movie, opening with a dialogue-free car chase

According to Wright, Baby's moral shift is the thematic crux of the film: Baby's initial moral detachment manifests itself through his reliance on music which he uses to block out the chaos around him as well as his own tinnitus. Eventually it gets to the point where he can't simply ignore the monstrousness surrounding him
He often turns a blind eye when faced with violence and even goes as far as to directly prevent it when given a chance.
The rest of the gang don't mind the violence, some of them enjoy it but there isn's so much as a hint of remorse from any of them except for Baby.
Wright goes to great lengths to show that Baby has very little in common with his peers 

Edgar Wright's direction is sharp and  the cinematography is fantastic and captures the lively, vibrant fantastical look of the film, the score by Steven Price is , the costume design is immaculate and helps to give the characters their own distinct looks (the blacks and whites that Baby wears symbolises his duel lifestyle as well as his old fashioned and romanticised view of the world). By dressing him in colours that fit into a monochrome aesthetic for the majority of his scenes, the rest of the gang are dressed in strikingly vibrant colours which single him out visually. Buddy and Darling, on the other hand, are dressed in blues,   Lilacs, purples and pinks respectively whilst Bats is dressed in bright reds. The action scenes are kinetic, exciting and fast paced 

Ansel Elgort delivers a likeable, winning performance playing Baby/Miles. He's kind of caught in a loop with no real image of a future outside of that until he meets Debora. Baby has Tinnitus and uses his love of music to 

Lily James is lovely playing Debora, a waitress who catches Baby/Miles eye  She's the first real person that he meets in the movie. She's someone he allows himself to form a connection with. He realises that he can be normal with her 

Kevin Spacey

Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez  They share an immensely intimate, Bonnie and Clyde-esque dynamic Gonzalez brought an appropriately childlike quality and a vivacious energy