Baby Driver

2017 action musical

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A kid gets away with listening to music with headphones while driving, something my wife doesn't let me do.

I made a rare trip to the theater for this one because everything I was reading told me that I should see it on the big screen. I'm not sure I needed to do that exactly, but it was an enjoyable experience.

This movie's got weak characters and there's nothing new going on with any parts of the plot. Still, Edgar Wright keeps you on your toes, continually surprising by stretching the limits with the generic crime action-drama. When you think he's going to turn right, he turns left. When you think he'll move forward, he jerks you backward. Everything you see and hear on the screen is likely something you've seen or heard in countless movies from the 70s through contemporary action movies. However, he doesn't drive in a straight line from Point A to Point B at all, and that makes this the kind of entertainment that can put a smile on your face from beginning to end.

It's really a musical with cars and violence. The car chases sequences are choreographed to whatever music our youthful hero happens to be listening to on his iPod, and often, those scenes range from a perfect blend of sound and vision to something that is almost like an orgasmic drunken sensory miracle. It hooks you from the start, and although I would have liked maybe one more big action sequence instead of scenes with characters talking or falling in love, there's just a ton of great action stuffed into this thing. The movie's just so rhythmic. There's even a scene where characters are shooting at each other, and the gunshots match the beat of the song perfectly. It's so lovingly assembled and choreographed, but it almost effortlessly unfolds on the screen. I can't imagine that amount of storyboarding and meticulous work during filming and post-production to make something like this happen.

It's not just the big action scenes that are choreographed to the soundtrack. There's a scene near the beginning where the driver is walking to get coffee. It's an extended shot as he walks a block and a half or so to the coffee joint, and his movements and sounds from the street match the rhythm and sounds from the song. It's lively and wonderful.

Things get a little too predictable with the storytelling, and I just didn't like all the characters or performances. But seeing all these pieces that are completely familiar used in such fresh ways was invigorating, and this is something I'll look forward to seeing again.