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Desperate to break free of the crime syndicate he has unwittingly become a part of, getaway driver Baby agrees to one last job. Favoured by his boss, Doc, as an integral part of the team, Baby's skills behind the wheel are linked to his ability to choose the right playlist for the right moment - but will his catalogue of tunes be able to save him this time?
OK, unpopular opinion coming up - Baby Driver isn't all it's cracked up to be. In fact, it's probably my movie disappointment of the year. Loud and brash, this is a film that's all about the surface and not a great deal else. Not that I mind a bit of frivolous, throw-away fun every now and again - I just want it done properly. The gimmick of the movie - that Baby (Ansel Elgort) plays music whilst he performs getaway driving - grows old after the opening montage of a bank robbery, and it never reinvents itself. Sure, the soundtrack is pretty good, but it stops relating to what we see on screen and feels more shoe-horned in than a cleverly incorporated artistic twist - this angle seems to have been used up entirely in one of the opening scenes where Baby walks down the street to collect coffee. It's not that funny either - whilst other films of Wright's are genuinely out-loud-laughable and highly quotable because of it, Baby Driver only produced a handful of chuckles throughout the entire runtime. Maybe this is because Wright isn't sure what tone to set - should it be funny or shocking? Violent or highly humorous? His indecision as to where to pitch it means that individual scenes are strong, but the film as a whole falls flat.
Most distressing of all, however, is the portrayal of the female characters. In Baby Driver, you have two woman to choose from: hot bad girl (Eiza Gonzalez) and hot good girl (Lily James), and that's all I could really tell you about them. Both are notable only because they act as plot devices for the male characters within the film, whilst the close ups on their heaving bosoms temporarily make the film appear to be a bodice-ripper as opposed to an action thriller. It's all terribly disappointing, but it's hardly the only foot Wright misplaces. He couldn't even get the ending right.
Inconsistently embellished with moments of humour and interest, Baby Driver was, for me, a desperately disappointing addition to Edgar Wright's catalogue. Lacking in jokes and aiming for a tone it struggles to achieve, this uneven venture manages to feel long, even with a runtime of under two hours. Unaided by the presence of poorly written female characters and with a soundtrack that isn't as clever as it thinks it is, this is hardly a director in top gear.
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