Baby Driver

It takes more than just purely good luck to survive the dog-eat-dog environment of the criminal underworld. Thankfully, Baby has the skills as a getaway driver to pave his own way. As a kid, he suffered major hearing loss due to a car accident that also cost his parents their lives. Since then, Baby constantly listens to music to drown out the ringing in his ears from the accident; and to hold hostage the memories of his parents. Baby also uses his music as a way to help him concentrate while driving. Which is a good thing, because his boss is a crime lord named Doc who makes it clear just what will happen if Baby double-crosses him. Whether it was fate or chance, after finishing a job driving for a group of bank thieves, Baby heads to a local diner where he meets a lovely girl named Deborah. They instantly bond over their mutual love of music, and Baby sees the budding relationship as a potential opportunity to leave his criminal past behind and maybe have a shot at a normal life.

There are dozens of action movies where the protagonist is caught in the web of a criminal life trying to make their way out of it somehow, but what makes Baby Driver so refreshingly original that caught my attention is the main character's use of his disability to his advantage (it might be just me, but I found that to be similar in *some* ways to Ben Affleck's character Christian Wolff in The Accountant), as well as the eclectic soundtrack seamlessly infused within the narrative, similar to that of a musical/song & dance movie minus the characters themselves randomly breaking out into songs. Almost every scene is infused with a song, and the editing is creatively done to make it so every little thing from footsteps to major car chases hit the same beats as the song playing at the time, no matter what genre. Not to mention, Baby's got the driving skills that would make Dom Toretto and his Fast and the Furious crew green with envy. The car chases alone are some of the most creative and thrilling that I've seen in quite awhile. Another thing that got me was how funny it actually was. I know I've touched on this a few times before, but Baby Driver is one of those rare R-rated movies I actually kept constantly laughing at instead of finding the humor to be too unnecessarily vulgar and cringe-worthy. That was personally refreshing to see.

The only thing I really was hoping for and would consider a negative, is I wish Jon Bernthal's character named Griff had been given a slightly bigger part. He, along with the rest of the cast, did a fantastic job, but I felt like he was a bit underused. Same for Eiza González as Darling, though not quite as badly.

Baby Driver is easily on my top 10 of the year, possibly even top 5, and I have no doubt it'll stay there unless there's just a massive surprise out of left field. It's only July though, so we'll see. Until then, this is one I will be seeing multiple times while it's out in the theater, and more than likely getting on DVD once it's out.