Baby Driver

I love heist movies, and I love car movies, so it should come as no surprise that the sub-genre of car/heist movies is one that gets me particularly revved up. Before I was even old enough to drive, I was fantasising about driving Minis packed with gold across the rooftops of Turin, or outrunning a whole bunch of Smokeys in a V8 muscle car (I used to fantasise about the two girls in the Lambo from Cannonball Run as well, but that’s a different story). My point is that June sees the release of Baby Driver, and here’s why you should go see it, so on your marks…

Ansel Egort (The Fault in Our Stars) stars as Baby, a young getaway driver with remarkable skill behind the wheel. Due to a childhood accident which leaves Baby with severe tinnitus, the only way he can concentrate fully is to listen to awesome tunes at high volume (handy that) whilst he drifts, skids, and drives-it-like-he-stole-it. Which he does. Talent like that doesn’t go unnoticed, however, and he’s soon forced to work for nasty crime boss, Doc (Kevin Spacey). Like an Uber driver for Doc’s violent henchmen Bats (Jamie Foxx) and Buddy (Jon Hamm), Baby soon realises that he’s in over his head, and if he wants to keep it on his shoulders as well as protect his girl (Lily James), he’ll have to put his foot down.

Baby Driver is written and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim Vs the World) who once again manages to mix humour, action, and violence like he’s doing doughnuts in a car park. It is Wright’s homage-tastic style - like a teenager with a high school rucksack covered in marker-penned band names - which creates a surreal space for this otherwise ridiculous premise to work, and swerves it away from crashing. All to a wonderfully diverse soundtrack that includes Queen, Run the Jewels and Beck.

Slick, cool, and faster and more furious than all the Fast and Furious movies put together, this is one Baby that you can put in a corner.

Sideways.