Baby Driver

I really like the idea of Edgar Wright. As a human being, he seems really interesting. And I've never utterly hated his film,even this one. But there is a risk with someone who's as much a film-fanboy as Wright obviously is, that their work can become more about other films rather than something that actually expresses anything about the real world. And unfortunately, "Baby Driver" has that problem.

It's not that it's incompetently done. There's a smoothness to the action sequences, the various characters are strongly expressed, and when it comes to editing to music, Wright is a master. But there's a certain feeling that this is an exercise, a "what a good carchase movie should be like" rather than something Wright is actually passionate about. It may come down to the protagonist and his girlfriend, the romantic relationship that is meant to justify and resolve a lot of the action, feels a little thin - it's obligatory while things like the action and the various criminal nemeses are gloried in. This is the first film that Wright has written solo and ... it does miss that little bit of heart and soul to the whole enterprise. It's professionally done, capable work... but it's not breakthrough fantastic stuff that really sticks to me afterwards and makes me eager to rewatch the whole thing. There are certainly sequences that will stick with me, but ... the whole is less than the sum of the parts.