Baby Driver

Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars) stars as a young, introverted, gifted heist driver who relies on the beats and rhythms of his favorite music to maneuver various getaway cars through congested streets. His titular Baby works alongside a variety of cool criminals (played by an eclectic cast including Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, Eiza González, and Flea). A powerful crime boss (Kevin Spacey) holds sway over them, especially the rather naïve Baby.

Written and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, The World's End, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World), Baby Driver features many of the acclaimed British filmmaker's signature stylistic tropes, including a killer soundtrack, plenty of humor, multiple cinematic references, and an unquestionable command of the camera. The first thirty minutes of this picture are endlessly enjoyable, with the music and visuals working together in effortless harmony. But nothing about this movie feels grounded in anything besides a love of music and movies. Even the driving scenes lack the kind of visceral exhilaration we feel when watching any of the great car chase pictures to which this movie pays homage. While watching Baby drive, we think about music and filmmaking, not about bank robbing or eluding capture. Thus Baby Driver feels less directly inspired by the great heist/chase films of the '60s and '70s like The Italian Job, The Driver, or Bullet, and more by recent movies that pay homage to those earlier classics—like Heat, Ronin, and Drive, but without any real subtext or strong narrative dimension.

There’s a lot to enjoy in Baby Driver, but like all of Wright's films—with the exception of his terrific second picture, Hot Fuzz—this is a movie about how fantastic movies are without actually being a fantastic movie itself.