When I was younger, before mp3s and iPods and all music was digital, my prized possession was a boombox I kept in my room. That was basically how I listened to all my music. And in 1999, at the ripe age of 14 I saw the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough and fell in love with the soundtrack enough to ask for it for Christmas. Once I got it, I played the soundtrack non-stop on my boombox, listening to a majority of the tracks – but especially this one.
In fact, I listened to Going Down/The Bunker more than any other track on the album, over and over, until I had basically memorized all the beats and cues and when instrumentation kicked in and where the rises and falls were. Why? Because I was crafting a scene in my head. Not a scene related to The World Is Not Enough, but a scene from a story I was writing in my head. The track fit perfectly with the climax of my story, and so I would listen to the track over and over again until every action in the scene fit perfectly with the music. I knew where the punches where, when X character would do Y action, how the main antagonist would interact with the main hero – all based on the music. It’s how I created the scene in my head.
(As a side effect, I also basically have the action sequence from The World Is Not Enough memorized as well.)
It didn’t stop there – ever since, 80% of music that I listen to will inspire a scene of some sort in my head, which will work its way into a story of mine. And I’ll listen to that song over and over again until the fragment of an idea crystallizes into a fully-realized scene. From Painkiller to Six Shooter, from Vietnam to The Devil Within, songs that get stuck in my head turn out scenes in a story. I match the guitar solos, the bass drops, the breakdowns to car chases, dance numbers, and fistfight sequences. A drift around a corner is at the end of the first verse, a punch is thrown as the chorus hits.
(I’m basically making this section from the Atomic Blonde trailer whenever I listen to certain songs on repeat.)
So now when I say Baby Driver was a movie made for me, I hope you understand where I’m coming from. Baby Driver is not a movie with a soundtrack – Baby Driver is a soundtrack with a movie attached. Car chases are essentially musical numbers; bullets during shootouts are fired in time with the beat. Kevin Spacey’s Doc doles out cash on beats 1, 2, and 3. While Baby is strolling down the sidewalk, he walks past trumpets in the window of a music store as trumpets play in the song. Edgar Wright’s direction is so tight that the music BECOMES the movie. It’s essentially a love letter to every person that always has a song playing in their head that they match up to their life or a story or anything in between.
The songs become part of the story. In a great scene, Jon Hamm’s Buddy asks Baby if he has a “killer track” that he listens to – to get pumped up or when he’s really ready to roll. Of course Baby has one, and the two sit there listening to it – except it’s drowned out and faded, as if you were hearing it through another person’s headphones as they’re listening to it. Which is exactly how Buddy and Baby are listening to the song. Baby’s favorite track is, of course, later played fully for the audience in the climax of the movie – but this is the kind of thought that Edgar Wright puts into the soundtrack. The songs aren’t just there for the audience’s pleasure, but are a part of the movie.
And of course the typical Edgar Wright staples are there. A master of Chekhov’s Armory, there is no detail that doesn’t matter in set-up or execution. Even Baby idly flipping through TV channels has a later payoff, if you pay attention. The dialogue is on point, although not as quick-fire and rapid as the Cornetto trilogy or Scott Pilgrim. And while I’ve been gushing over Wright’s writing, cinematography and selection of songs, let’s not forget the principal actors. Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, and Kevin Spacey are scene-stealers (as always) and Kevin Spacey delivers my favorite line of the movie in a way that sticks with you after the movie is over.
And while some people may find the romance plot between Ansel Elgort’s Baby and Lily James’ Debora as too cookie-cutter and may not get fully invested in it, the chemistry between the two was one of my favorite parts of the movie. Their scene in the laundromat where they’re both listening to T.Rex’s Debora, each with one headphone in their ear, is probably my favorite scene of the movie and made the song itself one of my favorites simply because of how the two play off each other so effortlessly. Two people bonding over a shared love of music and making googly eyes at each other – it’s everything my teenage self fantasized about as a relationship.
This isn’t the best action movie of the year so far (that’s John Wick 2) and it may not be the strongest thematic movie of the year either (that’s Get Out). But Baby Driver is a movie that’s more than the sum of its parts. It’s a perfectly pulpy fun summer movie that’s a musical, comedy, action, romance, thriller, and drama all in one. It’s a nearly perfect movie to me because it’s a movie that I would want to make. Music and movie soundtracks have always been important to me and this is the perfect blend of everything that I love about music and movies. This movie will be a comfort blanket to anyone who can’t leave their house without their headphones.
After this movie, I will follow Edgar Wright into battle any day. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go see Baby Driver again and again and again. Oh…and you bet your ass I bought the soundtrack.
(Bananas.)
Warning! Opinions Ahead 