Baby Driver Review: Action Packed Masterpiece

Behind excellent characters, thrilling action, and a spectacular soundtrack, Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is a hallmark of 2010s cinema.

This sort of tale could only be constructed by Wright, with his ability to blend multiple genres and clear vision of how he wants his films to look.

Baby Driver is an action film with elements of drama and romance that centers on a getaway driver known as Baby (Ansel Elgort, West Side Story) who works for an Atlanta, Georgia based kingpin named Doc (Kevin Spacey, American Beauty) in order to pay off a debt. When Baby meets a young waitress named Debora (Lily James, The Iron Claw), he is ready to put this life of crime behind him, which proves to be more difficult than he anticipated. 

The story told in Baby Driver stands out for a number of reasons, starting with the characters. Baby is a criminal getaway driver with a passion for music who cares for his deaf and wheelchair bound foster father, Joseph (CJ Jones, Castle Rock). Just from that description alone, he is already a unique character to build a story around. Baby made a bad decision as a kid that led him to have to work for Doc, a kingpin that puts him behind the wheel for several heists. He has a good heart and is just doing this to survive, but the narrative places him alongside unpredictable crew members like Buddy (Jon Hamm, Top Gun: Maverick) and his wife, Darling (Eiza González, Ambulance). The central question that those two, along with Doc’s unhinged henchman Bats (Jamie Foxx, Collateral) raise to Baby is what happens to Baby’s morals when things get dicey? 

Building the narrative around Baby, his love story, and that central question creates multiple levels of intrigue. Viewers ponder the question while bonding with this protagonist, feeling for him, and watching as he develops a loving bond with Debora. That love appears to be his way out and a connection which Baby has been searching for most of his life. We are rooting for this couple to find their way to freedom, music, and the open road. Getting Baby and Debora to that point will be complicated, but it is a drive they have to take, no matter what happens. 

Edgar Wright has a terrific way of using music as a narrative tool in his films and Baby Driver is no different, but it is his most ambitious use of it considering how vital music is to the story and Baby as a character. Songs play over the action sequences and car chases that make The Fast and the Furious franchise look childish in comparison. These car scenes are simpler than what you would see from Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto but they manage to be more realistic, and electrifying. Several key character moments for Baby incorporate music including his first conversation with Debora during which she name drops Beck’s song “Debra” and he references T. Rex’s “Debora”. Touches like that give the characters and narrative overall such personality. 

In the director’s chair and as a writer, Wright comes up with some real cool stuff. He sets the story in Atlanta and uses the city as a storytelling device. One of his more creative uses comes during the opening credits of Baby Driver as Baby is walking around the city to get coffee and listening to Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl. The bustling environment moves in sync with our main character and lyrics from the song appear as graffiti while he walks. Another example comes when Baby visits Criminal Records (a record store that I also frequent on trips to Atlanta) in order to find a copy of Carla Thomas’s B-A-B-Y after Debora mentions it. Doc references Ted Turner Drive and local  rap legends Big Boi and Killer Mike even cameo as restaurant patrons. Little touches like this help ground this story in reality, even if Wright’s depiction of Atlanta is not an exact replica.

Circling back to the central question, Wright does a masterful job throughout Baby Driver of capturing where Baby’s morality is at through music and color symbolism. White and yellow are key colors that Wright uses for Baby when it comes to Debora. It is a symbol of not only his love for her but also his desire for freedom/the open road. Then you have red and blue largely representing obstacles that keep Baby from happiness. The most obvious use of red/blue comes from police sirens chasing Baby throughout the film. White on the other hand is most notably seen on Baby’s clothing and during sequences with Debora and a white car. Finally, yellow represents the lines of the road, which Baby and Debora hope to drive together. 

During Baby’s most morally questionable moments, Wright makes use of the color red on screen in some form. When he shoots Buddy in Bo’s Diner, the environment is littered with red and then he steals a red Dodge Challenger soon after to escape with Debora. During a moment of emotional conflict for Baby, Wright soundtracks the scene with Sam & Dave’s “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby”. So many of the decisions made by Edgar Wright behind the camera truly enhance this film’s story. 

Wright’s carefully curated soundtrack is the heartbeat of Baby Driver. It features a combination of artists from various decades and each song has importance to the story. Wright and James Gunn are masters at finding the perfect tunes for characters and scenarios. Neither director inserts a song for the sake of having a needle drop and that makes their soundtracks more powerful. Audiences can connect songs to moments from this film even after it is over and get a nice little musical education as a bonus on top of watching a wonderful story unfold. 

Baby Driver is a lovely, action packed film with an absolute gem of a story and it just might be Edgar Wright’s best. His direction has never been better and everything here feels incredibly fresh and original. 

Baby Driver is now available to watch on digital and on demand.