The Best Netflix Heist Crime Epic In Years Is Completely Ruined By One Actor
When Baby Driver was first released in 2017, it received massive critical praise and served as the culmination of two decades of work from writer-director Edgar Wright. Today, however, the film is rarely referenced or held up as the classic it should be due to a series of incredibly unfortunate factors outside of the film’s control. Kevin Spacey’s starring role in the film essentially ruins any possibility of guilt-free enjoyment, as many of his lines aged poorly once he was outed as an alleged sexual predator.
Baby Driver Should Be A Classic
Baby Driver is a sort of neo-noir crime thriller that centers on a young man named Baby, who works as a getaway driver for a syndicate of bank robbers headed by Kevin Spacey’s Doc. Baby has been employed by Doc since he was a young child, slowly but surely paying off a debt owed to the crime lord after stealing his car and losing an insurmountable sum of illicit goods.
After an armed robbery goes horribly awry, Baby must contend against members of his own crew, as well as the pursuing police and rival gang members, leaving the young driver in great danger.
A Great Cast Surronds Spacey
With an interesting plot like that, the film could have been a major hit on its own; however, Edgar Wright took the artistry of Baby Driver a step further with an impressive gimmick. Nearly every action in the film is perfectly set to music, with each shot, action, and sound meticulously crafted to fit into the narrative’s soundtrack. As mentioned, Kevin Spacey leads the cast as the infamous crime lord, while several other massive names such as Ansel Elgort, Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm, and Jamie Foxx round out the ensemble cast.
Released Months Before Spacey Was Exiled
Only seven months after Baby Driver premiered to the public, Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, tarnishing his Academy Award-winning legacy and placing an asterisk on nearly all of the beloved actor’s work. In the years since, over a dozen young men have levied incredibly serious accusations against Spacey, causing him to essentially be run out of Hollywood. His projects, which were ongoing at the time, such as Netflix’s House of Cards, continued without his input, while other studios immediately refused to work with him again.
Incredibly Creepy In Retrospect
While many of Spacey’s projects suffer in hindsight with this knowledge, Baby Driver is one of the worst, as the entire plot of the movie is about Spacey’s character illegally grooming a young boy to do his nefarious bidding. Certain moments in the film have aged horrendously due to these real-world developments, including one now-viral moment in which Kevin Spacey utters the line, “I was just blinded by the balls on that kid.”
Loved By The Critics
Today, Baby Driver maintains its excellent reviews, as the film still touts an impressive 92 percent certified fresh critic score on the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Still, the movie has become infamous for Kevin Spacey’s inclusion, which sort of ruins the viewing experience for anybody in the know. It should be noted at this time that Spacey has not been formally convicted of any of these sexual misconduct crimes, though his reputation is now permanently stained.
Everyone Else Is Fantastic
REVIEW SCORE
If you’d like to try separating the art from the artist yourself, Baby Driver is available to stream on Netflix today. At the time of its release, the film could easily have been considered a 4.5 out of 5-star masterpiece. Today, thanks to the uncomfortable real-world parallels, the film is more deserving of a 2.5-star rating.
