Like every Edgar Wright movie since “Shaun of the Dead,” the director’s fifth feature, “Baby Driver,” takes a ludicrous concept and turns it into a brilliant exercise in high style and a rush of big ideas. The director’s most ambitious work to date is a wildly successful romantic heist comedy, propelled from scene to scene with a lively soundtrack that elevates its slick chase scenes into a realm that develops its own satisfying beat.

If Busby Berkeley made “Grand Theft Auto,” it might look something like this exuberant comic caper, in which young getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) speeds through highways and back alleys seemingly impervious to police advances so long as he has a smooth beat to guide his maneuvers. Operating under the employ of robbery maestro Doc (a stern Kevin Spacey), Baby quietly works off a debt to his boss by hauling two-bit criminals out of harm’s way,...