Baby Driver (2017)

Right, I'll put my cards on the table straight away: I am a shameless petrolhead, and Baby Driver had me grinning like an idiot from about five minutes in. There's something about a film that genuinely understands cars, speed and the thrill of moving through traffic like it's a choreographed dance that just gets under my skin in the best possible way. Edgar Wright knows this world, and more importantly he knows how to make you feel it.

The lead, who I'll be honest I hadn't seen in anything before this, is doing something quite clever. The character is an absolute cliché on paper: quiet, gifted behind the wheel, heart of gold, tragic backstory. We've seen that template a hundred times. And yet it works, because the performance is restrained without being cold. There's something genuinely likeable there, a kind of stillness that draws you in rather than pushing you away. He carries the film without ever seeming to strain under the weight of it.

But here's the thing: he's not doing it alone. The cast around him is what really makes Baby Driver sing. Every single character feels like they belong in this story, like Wright sat down and built each one with a specific purpose and then actually followed through. Nobody is just scenery. Nobody turns up, delivers a line and disappears without leaving a mark. That's rarer than it sounds.

And then there's the soundtrack. Look, plenty of films slap together a playlist and call it a score, but this is something different. The music isn't decorating the action, it's driving it. Literally, in some cases. Chase sequences are cut to the beat, footsteps land on the rhythm, gunshots sync to the track. It's the kind of thing that sounds gimmicky when you describe it, but in practice it's joyous. It made me want to rewatch scenes immediately just to catch the details I'd missed the first time around.

The crime sequences themselves are tense and exciting in a way that feels genuinely earned. Wright directs action with clarity, which sounds like a low bar but apparently isn't, because so many films manage to make chaos look like chaos rather than something controlled and purposeful. Here you always know where you are, who's where, and why it matters. Being a petrolhead helps, obviously, but I think even if cars did nothing for you, the sheer craft of those sequences would be enough.

I've loved Wright's work for a long time. I've written about Hot Fuzz on here before, and that same obsessive attention to detail, the sense that every frame has been considered, is all over Baby Driver too. He's a filmmaker who doesn't waste your time, and this might be the purest expression of that instinct he's put on screen.

Now. Kevin Spacey. I'm not going to pretend the elephant isn't in the room, and I'm also not going to pretend it's just about anything off-screen. The man is simply so relentlessly, inescapably Kevin Spacey in this film that it pulls you out of the story on a fairly regular basis. Every line reading, every smirk, every moment of menace: it all feels like Kevin Spacey Performing Kevin Spacey rather than a character inhabiting the film. The rest of the cast disappear into Baby Driver's world. He never quite does. It's not a disaster, but it costs the film something, and it's honestly the only reason I'm not handing this a full five stars.

Four and a half stars.

Everything else, though? Purely fantastic. If you're a petrolhead, clear your evening. If you're not, watch it anyway. Baby Driver is the kind of film that reminds you why going to the pictures feels special, the kind where you leave the room still buzzing and find yourself humming something you can't quite place. I loved almost every minute of it.

Rating: ★★★★½  | Year: 2017  | Watched: 2025-05-11

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: fuboTV · Paramount Plus Premium · Paramount+ Amazon Channel · Paramount+ Roku Premium Channel
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Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Edgar Wright: Hot Fuzz (2007) · Shaun of the Dead (2004)
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)