Baby Driver

Offering enjoyable summer fun, Baby Driver a sort of chipper, youthful version of Drive with action and serious scenes rendered less heavy by cool musical numbers. Especially at the beginning, we get to see a sensitive perception of violence through the eyes of the main character, Baby, and admire the purity of his romantic relationship with the girl. But the film lacks more pointed dialogue and more sophisticated and refined direction for the other characters. In short, it lacks Quentin Tarantino’s touch. OMG, now THAT would be a movie! (06/07/2017)

Musicals can still be a lively genre not only in the predictable revival of classic works a la La La Land et al., but thanks also to the grasp of a formal master with ambition. Even though Baby Driver primarily mixes the elements gangster stories and romance, Wright’s concept of building the film’s overall style around the music is far more essential. Though this results in the characters singing and dancing only occasionally, cars dance to the music during chase scenes, shots are fired and banks are robbed in the rhythm of the soundtrack, and even loving looks have their own sound. In terms of the choreography of the actors’ movements, the camera and the mise-en-scène, and the harmonisation of all of these elements, the opening credits with the coffee run represents one of the absolute musical highlights. On a more general level, it is no less fascinating that the most youthful Hollywood film of recent years is the work of a man in his forties, which applies not only to the film’s formal freshness and feeling, but also to the unavoidable feeling of a generational litmus test. The trailer could evoke in thirty-somethings feelings of inappropriateness, which the film further reinforces with its overarching principle as a presentation of the inner feeling of youths growing up in pop culture, where everyone sees themselves as the star of their own video. Wright’s age is indicated only by his taste in music and the particular choice of songs, though like Tarantino, he has a chance to turn dusty old hits and obscure novelties into a generational retro soundtrack. At the same time, however, he also shows what an essential contribution Simon Pegg made to his previous films, because Baby Driver, unlike those works, lacks insight and the ability to not take itself too seriously. (04/07/2017)

Baby Driver is a milder version of the phenomenal Drive with Ryan Gosling, but it still manages to engage the viewer and make the second half of the film tense thanks to a good dose of action. Baby is a really bizarrely written character and you can see that Ansel Elgort enjoyed it very much. Overall, as far as the cast is concerned, I was extremely happy with the ambiguous Kevin Spacey, the deranged Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx, and the endearing Lily James. The first half was weaker, but then it all picked up and didn’t stop until the end credits. A weak four stars! (18/03/2020)

Baby Driver it is sympathetic and entertaining summer fun, but it is not directed, or (mainly) written, quite perfectly. Compared to Wright's older British work, it is also more trimmed and lacks perspective. However, the entire film is based on the creative intention to edit it all into songs that always play in the protagonist headphones. One can only praise the director for being able to so excellently edit to the rhythm of the music not only the action scenes, shootouts and car chases, but also how a character walks down the street or plans a bank robbery. Content-wise, there is nothing particularly demanding, but as a silly action comedy, it's a fair bit more imaginative and entertaining than the last episodes of The Fast and the Furious. (11/07/2017)

Drive but for kids and teens who can't yet read between the lines of a movie and prefer, ideally, plenty of pop and an attempt at cool action scenes with characters you remember by their hairstyles and clothes, not by what they do or the attitude they represent. The cast is stellar, too bad about the untapped potential, though. Sloppy in every way. (30/09/2017)