I'm not going to beat around the bush, this movie is stupid. I watched this movie a few weeks ago and I hated it. Furthermore, I have no idea how people even like this movie. So, in light of the situation, I'm here to criticize Baby Driver. More than a review of the film itself, I'm going to write about how the movie screwed up because, in all honesty, this movie had a lot of potential.
Before I rip this movie apart, let's talk about the good things. The soundtrack was good, not much to say here. In a movie where music is a huge plot point and so embed in the main character, it was natural that the director and producers focused on the sound design and musical aspects of the movie. On that note, the opening credits were amazing. When Baby (yes, that's he's name) goes to buy coffee, there is a tracking shot of him walking back to his base/office/meeting space. The editing here is ok, but the cinematography, set design, and choreography were superb. It is set to "the Harlem Shuffle" by Bob & Earl. A good selection. Why? It's a good song. I honestly don't think there was a reason tied to character, motivation, or story. The lyrics of the song are hidden in the background and foreground, coming up in sync with the song. This whole sequence was brilliant (and misleading).
Another good thing, the "Tequila" sequence. In this scene, the gang is in a gunfight against a group of undercover cops and here the editing is way better. All in sync and to the rhythm of "Tequila" by The Champs. It's a cool action sequence and pretty much the only one where I got what I was expecting from this movie.
Now, Baby Driver has A LOT of faults and mentioning all of them will make this review the size of the bible so I'll just focus on the big ones. Starting from the one I noticed before I even watched the movie: Making Baby a getaway driver.
This is not an obvious mistake, but it is a missed opportunity. Baby should've been a mercenary, a soldier, a fighter, something with a lot more influence in the plot and action, and freedom of movement. This hinges the film from a production perspective and from a character perspective (which I will discuss later).
When I saw the trailer, I commented to my friends that having Baby be a driver limits the choreography and the musically lead editing. Baby moves and acts according to the music he's listening to. In a car, there's just so much you can do (choreography wise) and if you edit too much, you'll end up looking like a Fast & Furious movie trailer. If Baby were a fighter, on the other hand, there is so much more possibilities for fun action scenes and choreography: Gun Play, CQC, Sword Play, Parkour, Karate, Juijitsu, Ninjitsu, Kung-Fu, etc. So many different fighting styles and disciplines within those fighting styles could've been implemented in ONE SCENE. This also allows the editors and writers to write an action/fight scene with virtually ALL musical genres: Rock, Metal, Punk, Cumbia, Merengue, Folk, Classical, EDM, Hip-Hop/Rap, J-Pop, Reggae. Not to mention the variations between locations and weapons. As a character, this gives Baby a very clear weakness that he has to overcome: without music, the pacing of the battle can be dictated by the enemy giving Baby a clear personal obstacle to overcome in the overarching story.
Second Strike: Baby's Character.
First, his name is stupid. They justify it in the story as just a code name so that if anyone in the group gets caught, no one knows the others' names. Baby, in this scenario, makes sense. He's always the youngest in the heist and he was recruited at a very young age so naturally to his boss and co-workers he would be a baby. What IS stupid is that he uses this unbelievably stupid name outside. If the point of these names are to hide your identities from others and each other, then using it to buy coffee, to meet people, and in your daily life defeats the purpose of this pseudonym. His real name is actually dumber. If you suspend your disbelieve to accept that Baby is an acceptable name in this reality, Baby's real name made me yell "OH COME ON!" in the theaters when I heard it. SPOILERS AHEAD: At the end of the movie, he gets caught and it's revealed his real name is Myles. Get it? Because he is a driver? Drivers move in MILES per Hour? Sega (circa 1992) called. They want their joke back.
Furthermore, Ansel Elgort was a bad casting choice. I get he is a pretty boy and he can be charming (as proven in The Fault in our Stars) but he cannot play a badass. When he is defiant or tries to stand his ground, I wondered why didn't ANY of these people shot a gun to startle him and put him in his place. He does not give an "action confident" persona at all, and in the "Tequila" action scene it kind of proves that he is indeed not someone who can stand his ground. Another problem Ansel has is energy. In the opening scene, he's supposed to be rocking and jamming to the "Bellbottoms" by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion while his partners are robbing a bank. God bless this kid because dear lord knows he is trying. In this entire sequence I did not believe for A SECOND he listens to this kind of music, let alone that he had the energy to pull it off. For a character like this, they needed either someone with more energy like Jim Carrey or someone more musically inclined like Johnny Depp (Younger actors, obviously).
Third Sin: Music as a gimmick.
Music plays a big role in this movie, both from a production point of view and a character point of view. From a character perspective, Baby has to be listening to music all the time to die out a ringing in his ears caused by a car accident from when he was a kid. This, supposedly, "keeps him moving". Going back to the point on why he should've been a fighter instead of a driver, I mentioned that making him a driver removed agency from his character. What I meant by that is simply that Baby rarely does anything in the entire movie. He IS the getaway driver, yes, but he is away from the action most of the time. Baby is reluctantly brought into these action scenes which doesn't further his character nor gets him closer to his goals. They advance the plot, but Baby is NOT a part of those advancements. He contributes nothing to the story, to HIS STORY. Baby's goal is to pay his debt to stop being a getaway driver, and by the middle of the film he does. Then he gets brought back for a "last heist" and... I'll get to this point later, but the point is that Baby has no agency in this movie. All actions are done by the characters around him.
This long explanation about Baby's lack of action causes a problem in the editing department. As mentioned before, music plays a big role in this movie from a production stand point and the movie prides itself on "editing to the rhythm of the music" going as far as carefully choreographing action sequences keeping the music in the background in mind (including small things like door slamming). Because of Baby's lack of agency, this editing technique goes from "artistic decision" to "gimmick". The movie never loses an opportunity to hammer home the fact the Baby's character is interlinked to music. Baby is, to this movie its source of music, in a way. However, because Baby is so uninvolved with most of the action, the editing doesn't make sense. In some instances, like in the "Tequila" action scene, Baby is not even looking at the action so it can't even be justified as "they way he views things".
On the editing tangent, the editing of this movie is good but nothing to gush about. The editing was based on a gimmick and marketed itself on being unique. Not only did the promise of "music lead editing" did not deliver (either by a lot of sequences and cuts out of sync (Yes, I noticed them) or this editing being reserved to a couple of scenes), but also this type of editing has been done literally thousands of times (and a million times better) in music videos since the 80's. To those about to argue that music videos are different from movies, back in the 80's a lot of music videos were done as short films with plots and characters, like for example: Thriller, Billie Jean, and Take on Me. Furthermore, there is a whole genre of film that is forced to do this type of editing all the time: Musicals. So congratulations on Baby Driver for winning a "Best Editing" award for stuff you see on Glee. If you want to see the editing I was expecting from this film, check out the YouTube Channel
TheBestAMVsOfAllTime, or the following videos:
- "AMV - With Lightning Speed - Bestamvsofalltime Anime MV"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUtBo911p-Q
- "AMV - A Piece of Toast - Bestamvsofalltime Anime MV"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAninNKS2a8
The Final Nail in the Coffin: The ENTIRE Third Act.
This section, as you probably assumed, is riddled with spoilers (not that is any loss anyway). As mentioned before, Baby has a dept he needs to pay by being the getaway driver for this crime boss. Halfway through the movie, he manages to pay his dept. Baby starts he's new life and tries to start a relationship with his almost girlfriend Deborah (played by Lily James) when suddenly his boss Doc (played by Kevin Spacey) recruits him for another heist. After Deborah is threatened, Baby reluctantly accepts. He's teammates for this heist are Bats (played wonderfully by Jamie Foxx), Buddy (played by John Hamm), and Darling (played by latina Megan Fox wannabe, Eiza Gonzales). These are our characters for the climax. When they get to the heist, Baby stays outside (as per usual) while Darling, Buddy, and Bats rob a post office. While he is waiting, he sees a lady who works at the post office they're robbing walking in and then Baby has a change of heart. He warns her non-verbally to not go inside. When his teammates run in the car, Baby refuses to drive. Bats threatens Baby to move, so he does impaling Bats with a steal beam on a construction truck. Why did Baby have this sudden change of heart? I don't know. This is the problem with the whole third act. Character motivations are not well established so you don't care of whether the character succeeds or not. To add insult to injury, the climax goes on for way too long. Not only do you not care what happens, you are bored and stuck in an action sequence where you cannot get invested in, The only character with a clear motivation is Buddy. After Darling is killed by the police, he chases Baby fueled by revenge. Since he loses him and tries to lose the police as well, he goes after Deborah to lure him in. To exemplify the problem with the film from this moment on, please read the following sequence of events:
Baby shows up, they have a conversation, Baby shoots Buddy, but decides not to kill him, runs away with Deborah, stops by Doc to get his tapes back, Doc has a change of heart and lets him grab 1 tape (the one Baby's mother sings in), they leave the building, the police arrives, Doc has a second change of heart and helps Baby and Deborah escape, they don't escape, its not the police but Buddy in a police car, Doc is killed, there is a chase, Baby lures Buddy into a trap, Deborah helps, Buddy falls down on a car in flames 7 stories below, the car goes boom, they drive to a bridge, Baby offers himself and tells Deborah not to stop him.
Was this exciting? Doesn't it feel like it should be? This is exactly how the third act feels: we're moving from one thing to the next, with no stakes and no emotion. It's boring, all because the movie failed to make me care.
After this dragged out sad excuse for a climax, there is a trial montage were there are testimonies from people who are only there to spoon-feed to us that he was, after all, a good kid all along. We find out Baby's real name as he is reading a letter from Deborah and we get probably the STUPIDEST ENDING I've seen. Baby serves his time in Jail, walks out and finds Deborah wearing a dress in front of a car, all in tune with a 1950's style/vibe. This was a fantasy Baby had and honestly I burst out laughing when I saw it, but seeing it being used, SHOT FOR SHOT to the point of it even being black and white (like in his fantasy) and fading into color, was just ridiculous. This was such a stupid way to end a story. To make it even worse, they couldn't even do the "driving into the sunset" cliche well. They just.... drive off.
Let me fix this ending right here: STEAL THE ENDING FROM THE ACCOUNTANT. That would've been a WAY more powerful and emotional ending than this pathetic conclusion. He Leaves Deborah at a motel or something and leaves her his mother's tape or one of his iPods, as he escapes captivity listening to one of the songs about Deborah. Leave it open ended on whether he got caught in the end or not. This would have not fixed the climax but it would've at least showed some attempt at trying to end on a high note. Instead we got a by the numbers "guy gets the girl" ending that they couldn't even do right.
Conclusion: This movie Blows.
Baby Driver SUCKS. I will admit that I was actually enjoying this movie all the way until the third act. Not on how good it was, but on how bad it was. The Mike Meyers Mask scene was comedy gold. If this were a Action Comedy, I wouldn't have minded and would've kind of excused the lame ending. But according to most sites, this was a Crime Film/Thriller. This is a THRILLER? You are telling me we ARE supposed to take this movie seriously!? Clearly this movie wanted to be a Kingsman: The Secret Service type movie, but Kingsman never took itself too seriously. The climax and the ending was WAY over the top and this is why Kingsman works but Baby Driver doesn't. This movie had a LOT of potential and was given to a group of people who did not have the imagination make this concept justice. I have discussed this with many people and they all come back defending this movie with the same argument: "Oh, but it's Edgar Wright". Newsflash: It doesn't matter. No director, not even Steven Spielberg or Stanley Kubrick, could've made this movie good. Why? Because this movie was deficient from its conception stages. If the base is flawed, the whole structure will be flawed and eventually collapse. IN SHORT: This movie is NOT good, do NOT buy into the hype, and do NOT waste your time watching this garbage.
But by far THE STUPIDEST song in 2017 HAS to be "Body Like a Back Road" by Sam Hunt. While musically, it isn't that bad and it is catchy as hell, "Body Like a Back Road" is everything I hate about country music: cheesy, stupid, and way too proud over minor insignificant stuff. While it isn't Bro-Country (which is probably the worst out of all possible outcomes) it is pretty infuriating how badly written this song is. First off: a "Body Like a Back Road" isn't a compliment. It's an insult. It may have curves, sure, but never in my life have a seen a back road that is pretty in ANY sense of the word. A "Body Like a Back Road" is a body with no care, unpaved, used up, old, full of pot holes, and depending on where this back road is, probably full of feces of various animals ranging from dogs to horses. Dear Sam Hunt, are you sure this is the metaphor you want to use to describe your wife? Dear Sam Hunt, are you absolutely sure you want to sing this song about YOUR WIFE to THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE? Wasn't there ANY other country cliche you could've compared your wife to? Like the American Flag? Maybe written something like "the stars in your eyes" or "you are my freedom"? Dear Sam Hunt, really...?
"Something Just Like This" by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay. Lord, even the title I think was just a comment the producers said to them and either the Chainsmokers or Coldplay said "Perfect! Let's use that as the name of the song". The Chainsmokers are infamously known for using the same chords in 99.9% of their songs, but using the exact same drop as "Roses" might be a little too lazy even for them. Actually, it kind of sounds like a recycling of "Roses" and "Hymn for the Weekend". Was there ANY work done on this song!? Like, AT ALL!? It is bad enough for the music to be this blatantly lazy, but did the lyrics have to be phoned in as well? "Spiderman's control and Batman with his fists"? What the hell are you talking about!? That means literally nothing. The song is about feeling like you're worthless when compared to the legends of the days of old and then finding comfort in settling for what you have and what you are. This is not a bad message, but in the context of this song it almost feels like they're brainwashing you to be less critical about the music you like for them to keep feeding you recycled garbage. You know, Something JUST LIKE THIS.
Not all is doom and gloom, however. There were some great songs in the radio this year (even if apparently we had to borrow most of them from previous years). "Shape of You" is still one of my favorite songs of the year and the overplaying of it is just proof of how good it really is. Furthermore, it is testament to Ed Sheeran's talents as a songwriter. Even though it is one riff, Ed masterfully escalates the song to an amazing climax through very subtle additions to the song with every passing stanza. One downside of it is, of course, that it is pretty much the same song as Sia's "Cheap Thrills" but it is so good I'm willing to let it slide. "Believer" by Imagine Dragons was another great song full with energy and a heartbeat. It was alive! Even if the songwriting choices were if-y at best, musically it was just a perfect combination of accidental genius. Imagine Dragons are by far not good songwriters or composers, but "Believer" is their best work to date and it is a seed for greatness to come (either by them or by someone breaking down and re-working this song).
Finally, the song everyone has been loving and then immediately hating, "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee. This song has been overplayed to death and its song is based on the 4 chords of pop, but the word play is pretty good (kind of vulgar, but it is Reggaeton), the performance and delivery are great, and most importantly: there is passion, energy, and fun. Like with "Shape of You", the fact that it is overplayed just demonstrates how good the song is, and furthermore, how much we need songs like this.
