Review: Baby Driver 👍
I watch at least one movie every two weeks, so I’m exposed to a lot of trailers. (And I hate their spoilery nature, but I could write entire blog posts just about that…) Over the last months the trailer for Baby Driver [IMDb, Trailer (YouTube)] popped up regularly and I remember that at least the first two times I thought it looked pretty neat. So, this Monday — for the first time in quite a while — we got a movie in the Sneak Preview that we had actually considered watching beforehand.
Baby (Ansel Elgort) loves driving. But he is not a Fomula 1 pilot or anything like that. According to his “patron” Doc (Kevin Spacey) he has been stealing cars since his teen years- And now he is doing exactly that, but not to sell the cars or just to get a kick out of it. He is the preferred driver for the crews Doc puts together to execute heists for him. Baby is his secret weapon to ensure a clean getaway. Early on it is revealed that Baby doesn’t do this voluntarily. There is a huge debt he has to pay off and Doc is putting him to work to do so. Aside from his mad driving skills Baby also has a strange quirk: There is hardly anything that will get him to pop out even one of his earbuds. While there is a tragic reason for this, he also simply loves music.
The only real reason for him to endure time without music, or at least listening to it alone, is Debora (Lily James), whom he meets at a diner. He quickly falls for her and starts to loosen up a little in her presence. As his debt is finally payed off, he plans to leave the world of crime and violence to be with her. But Doc has other plans and finally shows his true face as a ruthless crime boss, not a fatherly gangster, who is giving a kid a “fair” chance.
After seeing the trailer, I immediately had an idea in mind of what this movie might be like. The combination of fast cars and crime is not exactly the freshest idea in the book, so my thoughts turned to The Italian Job, a movie that I really like for all kinds of reasons, and The Transporter, which was entertaining to a certain degree. The driving was more aggressive and insane, however, so The Fast and the Furious also quickly came to mind — and I don’t feel the need to watch that again.
So, what did that movie turn out to be? Fun. We undoubtedly had a good time. The driving scenes are totally bonkers, but really great to look at. There is a fair amount of violence, but at least they didn’t feel the need to show it in every gory detail. But the real strengths of this movie are the small things surrounding the main plot.
The soundtrack is basically a mixtape full of great songs from the last 50 years or so. Here are just a few of them (and I’ll add the full list at the end):
- Harlem Shuffle (Bob & Earl)
- Easy (The Commodores)
- Never, Never Gone Give Ya Up (Barry White)
- Brighton Rock (Queen)
- Debra (Beck)
Seeing crazy car chases to this music is a lot of fun.
I also liked the way they let Baby and Debora get to know each other and start a relationship. From these kinds of movies — yes, I’m looking at you again, The Fast and the Furious — you expect ridiculous exaggeration and shallowness that basically turn women into pieces of jewelry. There was none of that with these two characters. They are a little awkward and dance around each other. Don’t get me wrong — there are definitely quite a few very cheesy scenes, but they kind of fit into the movie’s overall tone.
It’s the kind of story you see in old American movies located in a small town out in the countryside. Where being appropriate is the most important thing, everything has to stay respectably and then a quick kiss can only happen in secret. Until they finally manage to run away together or something similar.
Especially in combination with the soundtrack I totally got this vibe from the love story in Baby Driver and definitely liked this approach of adding some depth to the characters.
And this brings me to my final point: I cannot really decide, if this movie is meant to be an homage to older times or wants to be somewhat of a parody towards modern cinema. Maybe both.
In any case, it definitely did its job and provided plenty of entertainment for us. It probably won’t replace The Italian Job on my list of movies worth watching again, but I will certainly fit in in there somewhere. If you are in the mood for a light story, a lot of good music and a good dose of action, give Baby Driver a whirl.
Song list from “Baby Driver according to NME:
1. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion — ‘Bellbottoms’
2. Bob & Earl — ‘Harlem Shuffle’
3. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers — ‘Egyptian Reggae’
4. Googie Rene — ‘Smokey Joe’s La La’
5. The Beach Boys — ‘Let’s Go Away For Awhile’
6. Carla Thomas — ‘B-A-B-Y’
7. Kashmere Stage Band — ‘Kashmere’
8. Dave Brubeck — ‘Unsquare Dance’
9. The Damned — ‘Neat Neat Neat’
10. The Commodores — ‘Easy (Single Version)’
11. T. Rex — ‘Debora’
12. Beck — ‘Debra’
13. Incredible Bongo Band — ‘Bongolia’
14. The Detroit Emeralds — ‘Baby Let Me Take You (in My Arms)’
15. Alexis Korner — ‘Early In The Morning’
16. David McCallum — ‘The Edge’
17. Martha and the Vandellas — ‘Nowhere To Run’
18. The Button Down Brass — ‘Tequila’
19. Sam & Dave — ‘When Something Is Wrong With My Baby’
20. Brenda Holloway — ‘Every Little Bit Hurts’
21. Blur — ‘Intermission’
22. Focus — ‘Hocus Pocus (Original Single Version)’
23. Golden Earring — ‘Radar Love (1973 Single Edit)’
24. Barry White — ‘Never, Never Gone Give Ya Up’
25. Young MC — ‘Know How’
26. Queen — ‘Brighton Rock’
27. Sky Ferreira — ‘Easy’
28. Simon & Garfunkel — ‘Baby Driver’
29. Kid Koala — ‘Was He Slow (Credit Roll Version)’
30. Danger Mouse (featuring Run The Jewels and Big Boi) — ‘Chase Me’
