Ansel Elgort (The Fault In Our Stars) delivers a star-making turn in Baby Driver. He plays the titular character - a young driver nicknamed Baby who's always on his iPod and earbuds (primarily due to his medical condition) as he drives bank robbers to their heist. He doesn't join them, he's just in the car and acts on the beat on whatever song is playing right now. The car chase scenes are so good that you will totally forget that there was a Fast and the Furious movie this year.
His main boss is Doc (vintage Kevin Spacey) whose henchmen ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea to Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm showing off his comic side, all provide great sinister work without ever resorting to cartoon theatrics. Elgort holds his own against two Oscar winners (Spacey and Foxx) and an Emmy winner (Hamm) and that's no easy feat. Lily James (Cinderella) plays Baby's love interest in a complete turnaround from her Disney Princess role.
In my book Director Edgar Wright has made all good movies ranging from the Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End) to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver though is his masterpiece. There are shades of Pulp Fiction, Heat, Drive as well as Wright's previous films. Baby Driver though is the most original, highly entertaining film of 2017. If there was an action-comedy-musical film, this is it!!
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