By George & Josh Bate
There are few actors in Hollywood who have enjoyed the career longevity and continual reinvention of Brad Pitt. From his heartthrob early days in Interview with a Vampire and Kalifornia, to serious David Fincher fare like Se7en and Fight Club and, more recently, his Oscar-winning turn in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Pitt has established himself as a rare, enduring bona fide movie star, effortlessly blending charisma with craftsmanship for over 30 years. In his latest project, F1® The Movie, Pitt finds himself behind the wheel of a exhilarating racing drama that drives beyond its thin characters and genre tropes with jaw-dropping race sequences and undeniable charm.
F1® The Movie follows Sonny Hayes (Pitt), a former racing wonder kid who steps out of retirement to save APXGP, a fictional underdog Formula 1 team. Hayes joins APXGP, reluctantly at first, and enters a world he hasn’t been immersed in for over twenty years; media scrutiny, personal rivalries, and regrets over the past. Alongside Hayes at APXGP is Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a hotshot rookie who clashes with Sonny. Together, the two racers are tasked with saving team owner Ruben (Javier Bardem) from losing control of APXGP by winning an elusive Formula 1 race.
As a movie about Formula 1, F1® The Movie overwhelmingly excels at its most fundamental task: being a thrilling and exhilarating racing film. Director Joseph Kosinski follows the death-defying stunts of Top Gun: Maverick with numerous expertly crafted race sequences here that are among the best racing sequences in cinema history. Kosinski approaches each race (of which there are quite a few across the 155 minute runtime) as a story unto itself, with a distinct narrative and style. In doing so, each race plays out like a short film of sorts, one that has you at the edge of your seat in a manner few films get close to. Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda employ artful and dynamic camera work to inject each race with a unique energy and rhythm. Their work is amplified by Oscar-worthy sound design that makes F1® The Movie an auditory marvel. The screeching of the tires and rustling roar of the engines seep through to your bones and aid in creating true immersion into the racing scenes.
Much like the rapid pacing of the races themselves, F1® The Moviepropels forward and seldom feels like a movie that clocks in at over two and a half hours. Kosinski doesn’t waste a second plummeting Pitt’s Sonny Hayes into the story and establishing the world of racing, while masterfully demonstrating how to pace a big budget blockbuster with a lengthy runtime.
A testament to the filmmaking prowess across the board, F1® The Movie will likely appeal to viewers both familiar and unfamiliar with Formula 1. For fans of the sport, Kosinski’s film is filled to the brim with technical detail, flashy cameos, and accurate depictions of the world of F1. But enjoyment doesn’t hinge on one’s prior investment in Formula 1. The screenplay from Ehren Kruger ensures that the film delicately balances accuracy and approachability, never alienating those who didn’t come into the film with a reverence for the sport. For this group of viewers, Kosinski’s film will represent a glowing advertisement for Formula One and will likely have many tuning into the next big race in real life.
Spearheading the film is Brad Pitt, who does exactly what he was brought in to do – portray a cool, calm, and collected underdog hero that’s easy to root for and underestimated by everyone around him. In many ways, it’s a performance akin to his turn as Cliff Booth, playing an individual who is simultaneously stoic, suave, and slightly smug. Pitt plays the roguish, all-knowing mentor well, but that unfortunately doesn’t negate how tired and routine his character is. There is nothing remotely unique about Sonny Hayes as a character as he operates more as a vehicle (pun intended) for the story than a fully formed character. Sprinkles of his past and history with his father are spread throughout but ultimately do little to elevate Hayes beyond his thin characterization. Kruger writes Hayes as someone who never lets his guard down and, as such, Pitt plays the character with surprisingly little emotion. One continually hopes for a greater peak inside his psyche and emotions that never comes.
While F1® The Movie is promoted as a film led by Brad Pitt, that doesn’t quite tell the whole story. The movie is much more of a duo act than expected as Damson Idris’ Joshua Pearce plays a sizable role. Idris follows his superb performance in the FX series Snowfall by crafting a young, arrogant, flashy driver on the brink of total career collapse. Even while acting opposite a heavyweight like Pitt, the English actor holds his own and shows his potential as a full-fledged movie star and leading man.
The strength of Idris’ performance aside, the relationship between Sonny and Pearce fails to evoke the intended emotion. The characters begin as bitter rivals before slowly understanding one another more, although the final destination of their journey feels unearned. This destination also puts undue emphasis on Pitt’s character and, after 150 or so minutes of investing in the duo, pushes Pearce to a more peripheral role. What results is a film that never quite hits the emotional heights it reaches for and is nowhere near the kind of resounding, heartwarming tale that Kosinski’s last effort Top Gun: Maverick was.
Pitt’s Sonny also shares a close connection with Kerry Condon’s character, who plays the role of a sweet and intelligent yet ultimately predictable romantic figure. Still, it feels refreshing to see Pitt have an age-appropriate love interest, which makes the romance more believable and heartwarming at the same time, even if their relationship never moves beyond the standard, regular beats.
Arguably the greatest misstep of the film is just how deeply it operates within the confines of a traditional sports movie. This is already one of, if not the most predictable genres in film (right up there with romance), and F1® The Movie carries each and every single expected archetype – the reluctant returning legend who’s eager to prove others wrong, the promising rookie whose behavior and story is reminiscent of the lead hero when he was younger, the standard love interest, the secret saboteur who’s eager to derail the success of the team from within, and even the journalist who asks all the hard-hitting questions, causing tension with the main characters, but ultimately proving to be both fair and impartial. While many of these tropes are executed well in the film, it’s nonetheless difficult to shake just how frustratingly familiar they are, which leaves F1: The F1® The Movie feeling painfully predictable and safe in ways it didn’t need to be.
VERDICT: 7/10
Director Joseph Kosinski follows the superb Top Gun: Maverick with another exhilarating epic filled with death-defying stunts. F1® The Movie nails its core feature in delivering masterfully crafted race sequences, each of which harbor a distinct narrative and style of their own. The race sequences, which are among the best in cinema history, are couched in a story with great reverence for Formula One that never becomes unapproachable for those unfamiliar with the sport. Brad Pitt spearheads the film with his characteristic charm, although his Sonny Hayes is ultimately a thin character lacking much substance or novelty. More success is found with Damson Idris’ Joshua Pearce, who goes toe-to-toe with Pitt and showcases his potential to be a full-fledged movie star. Although the resolution of Sonny and Pearce’s journey feels unearned and the film never quite hits the emotional heights it intends to, there is little doubt that Kosinski and company have put together a true crowd-pleaser here. Ultimately, F1® The Movie parallels the cars it features – both full of speed and adrenaline, and not necessarily built for depth or endurance – but it still manages to cross the finish line all the same.