By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
For film lovers, there’s nothing quite like the sublime joy of discovering that a movie you haven’t previously seen actually lives up to the hype. I recently experienced this while watching Baby Driver, the hyper-kinetic action heist film directed by Edgar Wright, on Netflix. It was the only one of Wright’s movies I hadn’t seen, and I was overjoyed to discover that it more than delivered on everything I expected from this visionary director.
What’s Great About Baby Driver
To decide whether you want to stream Baby Driver on Netflix, you need to know the premise. The title refers to a young man who goes by Baby and serves as an expert getaway driver for an Atlanta crime boss and his rotating coterie of colorful criminals. Baby’s gimmick is that he listens to iPods while pulling off insane automotive maneuvers, but when a job goes wrong after the young man falls in love, it may be time for this baby-faced criminal to face the music.
One reason why many might want to check out Baby Driver on Netflix is that the film is full of some very big names: for example, Baby is played by Ansel Elgort, best known for playing the lead male character in the young adult romantic film The Fault In Our Stars. Other major names include Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Bernthal, all of whom shine in this Edgar Wright film.
Speaking of Wright, I wasn’t quite sure how the Scott Pilgrim director’s kinetic and stylish mode of filmmaking would translate to a movie filled with car chases. Once I watched Baby Driver on Netflix, I was delighted to discover that everything translated perfectly, and seeing Baby pull off insane driving moves was just as rewarding as watching Scott Pilgrim triumph over Ramona Flowers’ evil exes. This revelation was that much more rewarding when I compared Baby Driver to Last Night In Soho, a Wright movie whose style and substance were often buried beneath a heavyhanded message.
A Well-Loved Action Crime Movie
I’m not the only one who felt that way, either: while Last Night In Soho has a respectable 75 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Baby Driver has a much healthier 92 percent. Critics generally praised Wright’s killer combination of action, style, and music, and this fast-paced film still ends up being much greater than the sum of those excellent parts. It was also a high-octane box office hit, earning $226.9 million against a budget of only $34 million.
Baby Driver has been a buzzworthy hit on Netflix, proving that it resonates just as much with audiences now as it did when first released in 2017. Ironically enough, the movie shines that much more brightly when compared to many of the exclusive action films produced by the streaming platform. Honestly, after you snooze through big-budget Netflix shlock fests like Red Notice or the Rebel Moon films, Wright’s gear-shifting action opus feels like a breath of fresh air (with just a hint of gasoline, of course).
Will you find Baby Driver just as exciting as I did when you stream it on Netflix, or will you just want to turn it off to watch Scott Pilgrim for the millionth time? You won’t know until you take this ambitious action epic for a test drive. Just be warned, though, that you’ll probably be tempted to shop eBay for vintage iPods long before the credits start rolling.
