Movie Review: F1 – The Movie
One-liner: Pitt ignites this exciting, slick, spectacular albeit repetitive and somewhat numb action sports thriller.
Joseph Kosinski, the director behind the smash hit Top Gun: Maverick, delivers F1: The Movie, a film centered on the F1 Grand Prix circuit from the perspective of a racing team. This action-sports thriller, starring Brad Pitt, is a smart branding exercise and an excellent riff on the Top Gun formula, focusing on two F1 racers: a hotshot rookie currently on the team, and the other a rogue veteran on the comeback trail.
Sonny Hayes is a maverick himself, a tattooed punk-rock energy racer whose “driver for hire” status makes him available to an ex-racing partner when he comes out of retirement. The team finds itself in a bind and recognizes the merits of Hayes’s specialized skills and rock star persona. His street smarts and wiles enable him to navigate the racing circuit and outmaneuver opponents, making him a valuable ally and mentor to Joshua Pearce in APXGP Racing’s attempt to claim elusive F1 points and redefine themselves as a racing team.
While this film’s brand power draws similarities with The Lego Movie, it possesses enough heart and spirit to entertain F1 fans and those who enjoy shows like Drive to Survive. Much like Neill Blomkamp’s successful video game adaptation Gran Turismo, F1: The Movie does something similar for the world of motorsports. You could compare the two, with Gran Turismo focusing on a video game champion upskilling in real motorsports, and F1: The Movie on a veteran racer making a long-awaited reappearance to complete unfinished business. The biggest difference is F1’s ability to use real names and some faces to legitimize it, whereas Gran Turismo was a fictionalized account based on a remarkable true story.
The production also boasts more money and finesse, creating a realistic racing exhibition where it truly feels like they’re at each of the tracks represented. Brad Pitt and F1 are the two big brands selling this film, further cemented by Joseph Kosinski, who did such a great job with Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. Instead of playing into that film’s formula, F1: The Movie centers on Pitt’s crew and the racing team, driving the team narrative.
While other teams are referenced and appear as their respective racing cars on the track, there isn’t a strong antagonistic force in the way you’d typically expect in the form of a rival sports team or an arrogant champion driver. Instead, the filmmakers and screenwriters opt to tell the story of a man who is his own worst enemy, trying to overcome his shortfalls and distinguish his legacy after not quite measuring up in his formative years.
Hayes is a maverick who doesn’t always play by his Formula One team’s rules. This creates a stark contrast with his much younger teammate, with whom he spars as he makes decisions that revolutionize the sport in terms of strategy. This is one of the film’s strengths, as Pitt generates significant drama around the race circuit; his antics defy traditional racing approaches and allow him to outsmart opponents by bending the sport’s rules to his advantage. Hayes seemingly does things for himself, which doesn’t make it easier for his teammates. He’s driven to win, pushing himself to be the best he can be and taking every competitive advantage to the nth degree. This film lives on the edge as Pitt tries to climb the podium, despite driving cars often regarded as less than.
“We look good, right. Damn good.”
It’s the perfect situational dynamic for an underdog story. The action sequences are slick, and the choreography and editing are among the film’s strengths. There’s a real feel for the tracks, having shot over Grand Prix weekends with their own fictional garage. Unfortunately, as accurate as it seems the tracks don’t have much personality and tend to blend into one another, leading to a fairly repetitive feel to each race and outcome.
There are plenty of close calls to pump up the dopamine effect, but without a strong antagonistic force, the excitement level and drama aren’t quite as powerful. What also diminishes the film’s impact is that while the visuals are exciting and the edit is strong, it doesn’t quite give you the full experience of being at a racetrack. The sound effects put you in the driver’s seat and offer a behind-the-scenes look at the political dynamics of the race team, crew and pit stops. However, not having many shots of the crowd makes the scene feel a bit insulated, relying on the audience in the cinema to become the crowd, an effect not fully realized. This is further amplified by the commentators, whose vocal performances feel more staged than genuinely live.
While they couldn’t have Murray Walker, the legendary F1 commentator, doing his thing, the film doesn’t quite have the same live-wire feel of commentators truly analyzing real events as they unfold. This repetitive echo of commentators throughout the races gives a sense of being there, but it’s not as real as one would hope, sticking mostly with the vehicles. The pit crew watches from the sidelines, and the film relies heavily on the emotions of the main players rather than truly bringing the spectators into the film.
Brad Pitt is always a contender and does a good job portraying a character possibly modeled on his earlier career roles, taking on a bad-boy rebel role with a reference to Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. While he is good, the script lacks emotional depth, tending toward more action than defining its characters. Though it aims for a character portrait, there aren’t enough emotional hooks or points of identification to truly care for the lead character or fully get behind his aspiration to troll the circuit in a bid to proving his worth as a champion driver.
Being at a bit of a distance makes it more about the spectacle, which luckily is full-tilt and compelling, even if a little repetitive. Damson Idris is a little weak, not quite able to match Pitt’s prowess as an actor and seeming to be in his shadows when they spar. Javier Bardem is a great mentor figure, speaking to Pitt’s experience and history as a race car driver, which adds some depth. Even though their latent bromance is a little iffy, one would have hoped this would translate into a better dynamic between Pitt and his teammate, which is a somewhat lacking.
In terms of Sonny’s romantic lead, Kate McKenna, the romance is a bit so-so and perfunctory, not quite living up to expectations or delivering the raw chemistry one hopes for in spite of a noble turn by Kerry Condon. Another shortfall for F1: The Movie is that while many current-day race names are used in the commentary, you never get a full impression of their opposition, focusing solely on the two APXGP teammates throughout. While this dynamic is understandable, it makes the perspective in-house much like a NASA lunar expedition or Top Gun. A fuller picture from a variety of drivers, much like Drive to Survive provides, would have given it more texture and human interest.
At the end of the day, this spectacular and effective racing film tends to be one of the better ones, not quite matching the stirring drama of Ron Howard’s tale of two competitive racers in Rush but landing just ahead of films like Gran Turismo and Driven, and doing so with style. The barrage of brands suits the film, as it would a normal Grand Prix, but ultimately it feels a lot like “sound and fury”, lending itself to the visceral IMAX experience. While this underdog tale should have been much more stirring, it doesn’t earn the chequered flag as well as one would hope – a hollow victory.
The bottom line: Exciting
