Jamie Foxx Gives the Performance of the Year in the Awesome "Baby Driver"

Get your rear to the theater and see Foxx and "Baby Driver" on the big screen

I'm coming to you all straight from Chicago, and I want to talk about my new favorite, "Baby Driver", once again. Instead of giving a spoiler free review or talking about a certain song, I want to single out who I thought had the best performance in the movie. First off, this movie is packed with stars. Names like Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, Lily Adams, Ansel Elgort fill out some of the big names. But, one of the biggest names also did the best job, in my opinion, and that person is Jamie Foxx as Bats.

Jamie Foxx was tremendous in this movie. I know I kind of singled him out last week, but I want to dig a little deeper today. I know that Foxx is an Oscar winner(Ryan Gosling should have won that year), but for the most part, he's a comedic actor. He is not funny, at least not on purpose, in "Baby Driver". He's a psychopath in fact. When he first showed up on screen, in a cocked red leather hat and a big red sweater with a King playing card on it, he was all business. He was a criminal that wanted to get his money by any means necessary. He did not like Baby right off the bat, and he made this known immediately. He belittled and mean mugged him the moment he met him. He didn't trust Baby either. When Doc is laying out a plan and Baby has his headphones in the whole time, Bats is eyeing him. Even when Baby tells him the plan back verbatim, Bats is still skeptical. It only got crazier from there, and Foxx displayed that craziness to perfection. When Bats' team job goes awry, Foxx pulls off the psychotic side so convincingly, I forgot he was acting. I no longer saw Jamie Foxx, I saw Bats. That is how I know he nailed it. When I only refer to you by your character's name to people I tell the movie about, that means, to me, that you nailed it.

Later on, and this isn't a spoiler, when Bats, Buddy and Darling get together to do a job, Bats is still super weary of Baby. Possibly more so than he was the first time. Foxx played this paranoia great. I bought his skepticism, his worry, his want for truth, his need for everyone to be all in on the job. Then the cop scene happens. Again, no spoilers, but Bats shows his true colors, and it's horrifying. Mind you, Foxx plays this completely serious. There are no laughs to be had, only fear. I squirmed in my seat, and I think that's what Foxx and Edgar Wright wanted. The following scene, in the diner, was just as creepy. His breakdown of Buddy was eerily correct. His face to face with Debora, real scary. His shake down and argument with Darling was incredible. And his nose to nose with Baby, again, I was squirming. When they eventually do their big job, Bats gets what's coming to him, but it is shocking. I will reiterate, no spoilers, go see the movie to see what happens. You'll thank me later.

What Foxx did was undeniably great. Even people who aren't as high on this movie as I am have singled out Foxx's performance. He was incredible. I'd much rather he get the Oscar for this performance than for playing Ray Charles, and he was great as Ray Charles. He was so much better as Bats though.

There's a million reasons to see "Baby Driver", but Foxx's performance would be reason number one I would tell people to see it. See it on the big screen as well, to get Bats' full effect. This is the third time I've talked about "Baby Driver" in the past 6 days, and I guarantee I will talk about it a bunch more. This movie is great and Foxx's performance is noteworthy and classic.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has been a huge Jamie Foxx fan since his big-time breakout role as Coach Armstrong on the classic television program "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper".

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