REVIEW: BABY DRIVER IS A GUARANTEED CROWD-PLEASER
By Ruby Becker
Introducing Baby Driver –
Multiple dramatic car-chase scenes.
A soundtrack which made up a 30-song album.
Young romance between two protagonists with troublesome pasts and the lust to “head West on 20” with no plan, just music and the road.
Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx, therefore, great drama and comedy.
Baby Driver is a classic crowd pleaser – easy to watch and full of entertainment which covers so many genres, it’s bound to take your interest.
Baby Driver follows main character, Baby, a young man who constantly has earphones in and music on. As you learn early in the film, it’s to drown out the humming noise he’s been stuck with since a car accident that damaged his hearing.
Baby is indebted as a driver to a criminal who orchestrates heists. But after being declared “the best in the business”, his indebtedness is inescapable, despite meeting his obligations. What follows from this realisation is a crime extravaganza as Baby attempts to run away with his girl in arm and iPod in hand.
This style of film is not dissimilar to other car and crime related film favourites such as The Fast and Furious series and Drive, except it has one defining difference.
Baby Driver is nothing without the soundtrack, so much so that it may as well be classed a musical. Every scene, action and sound was choreographed to match songs from the likes of Queen, The Beach Boys, and Simon & Garfunkel. Not kidding, even the sound of gun shots were timed to be in beat with the drums in the song Tequila by Button Down Brass.
The way it’s filmed also resembles a music video. Long panning shots mean the characters move smoothly with the camera and to the music. True to the director Edgar Wright’s style, Baby Driver is witty and meticulously crafted through very particular framing and sound.
Baby Driver may not have the most perfect, original storyline, nor did I find the ending that exciting, but that’s a sidenote to this positive review. All the hype is about the action, fun and thrill that is packed into the almost two-hour viewing.
Baby Driver is now playing at Dendy Canberra.
Featured image via Junaidrao