A short review of Baby Driver

A sideways slide into meh.

Brook Shelley
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

I’d avoided watching this because I hadn’t read great things about it, save for this review by Matt Haughey. While I agree with him that the opening action scene was stellar, so were the short films BMW made with greats like Wong Kar-Wai a few years ago to sell cars.

I liked watching this film, but it’s unfortunate that the men were two-dimensional, and the women collapsed in on themselves, with no characterization, or much motivation. I’d expected a bit more of Edgar Wright, but on the upside, the musical cues were also quite good.

I’m not fully sure if this is a tribute to old McQueen movies, or what, but it was alright, but I can’t co-sign the “fantastic” from Matt’s review. It was occasionally exciting, but the stakes weren’t ever high. I never cared much about the protagonist, because I was given no reason to care. We’ve seen chases before — parkour, car work. This movie could’ve elevated them further, but it chose not to. I never believed there really was jeopardy, because as the movie, and the news of the day makes clear, “he’s such a good boy,” is something that will always apply to the white male criminal.

A wild ride like Baby Driver aspired to be needs a protagonist too cool for pathos, or too stoked on revenge to be cooled — Baby is neither, and as such can’t carry the wait of this film. I’d watch this again for the fun, but with brutally fun car films like the Fast & Furious series, or cool like Ronin, there’s not much room for something so-so.

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