F1: The Movie

by Mike McGranaghan

I take back anything negative I ever said about racing – the comments that it’s boring, the jokes about it being a bunch of guys driving in a circle, etc. F1: The Movie made me realize how complex the sport is and how much strategy it can utilize. Racing fans are obviously going to be drawn to the picture; hopefully non-fans will give it a whirl, too. This fast-paced drama works because it’s detailed enough to please those who follow Formula One racing and accessible enough to intrigue those who don’t.

Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) is a retired race car driver approached by longtime friend Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem) with an offer. Ruben is in danger of losing his F1 team and therefore needs someone who can help them place in the season’s top ten to avoid that fate. He believes Sonny is the guy to do it. There are challenges. Sonny clashes with Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the team’s hotshot young driver. He also has a tendency to ignore instructions and to demand the head of mechanics, Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon), make changes to the vehicle.

From a storytelling perspective, F1 is fairly familiar. It’s got the wounded hero in search of personal redemption, the veteran/rookie rivalry, and the obligatory romance. Those elements avoid feeling stale because the performances are so strong. Pitt brings an appealing mixture of cockiness and desperation to Sonny, helping us understand why he’s so eager to do more than merely break the top ten. He has several terrific scenes with Idris, who gives a breakout performance as Joshua, a kid every bit as concerned with his media image as he is with his racing skills. Some of their interactions are funny, others intense.

Similarly great is that Kate is given her due, rather than being a mere love interest. The screenplay takes time to establish her as a valuable member of the crew. She studies wind direction, comes up with design refinements for the car, and provides sage advice to the men behind the wheel. Condon invests her with tons of personality.

The key to making people care about a subject they otherwise wouldn’t give a hoot about is to show what makes that subject special. F1 absolutely scores on this count. In great detail, we get to see the nitty gritty of Formula One racing, from the complex training methods to the importance of tires with different thicknesses. You even learn about how positioning works in a race. Plunging us into the specifics of this world proves exciting. We witness how the contributions of many people go into each race. One wrong move on somebody’s part could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Director Joseph Kosinski stages the racing scenes in much the same way that he staged the aerial sequences in Top Gun: Maverick. That is to say, there are moments where he puts you right inside a speeding vehicle alongside Sonny and Joshua. When the camera is outside the car, it’s often zipping along the track. I didn’t think racing could be filmed more dynamically than it was in Gran Turismo two summers ago, but Kosinski pulls it off. From a visual perspective, the movie is thrilling.

The 155-minute length may sound excessive. It’s really not. The time F1 takes to immerse you in the Formula One racing circuit pays off in the end. Pitt and the filmmaking team should take a victory lap for delivering such killer entertainment.

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