Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is an action, heist, car-chase film that is said to reinvent the action, heist, car-chase film. But as you can’t have an action, heist, car-chase film without action, heists and car chases, you may wish to ask yourself: how much do I like action, heist, car-chase films in the first instance? And that’s the bottom line, I suppose.
This action, heist, car-chase film is also about the soundtrack, as the story is told through the… ears? of Baby (Ansel Elgort), a getaway driver who doesn’t just enjoy music, but needs it. He rarely takes his earbuds out. He can’t perform unless he’s listening to Blur, Beck, the Beach Boys, T. Rex, the Commodores. He has a back story: orphaned in a car crash, he’s suffered from tinnitus ever since, and only music can drown out the constant ringing. He is a good boy, we are given to understand, somewhat repetitively and heavy-handedly — he sure does love his deaf old foster father (CJ Jones) — who has fallen in with a bad lot.
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